“Once you get into playing the game you forget everything,” says 74-year-old Win Tint.
“You concentrate only on your touch and you concentrate only on your style.”
Chinlone is Myanmar’s national game and dates back centuries. Branded a blend of sport and art, it is often played to music and is typically practised differently by men and women.
Male teams in skimpy shorts stand in a circle using stylised strokes of their feet, knees and heads to pass the ball in a game of “keepy-uppy”, with a scoring system impenetrable to outsiders.
Women play solo like circus performers — kicking the ball tens of thousands of times per session while walking tightropes, twirling umbrellas and perching on chairs balanced atop beer bottles.
Teen prodigy Phyu Sin Phyo hones her skills at the court in Yangon, toe-bouncing a burning ball while spinning a hula-hoop — also on fire.
“I play even when I am sick,” says the 16-year-old. “It is important to be patient to become a good chinlone player.”
But play has plunged in recent years, with the Covid-19 pandemic followed by the 2021 military coup and subsequent civil war.