I was always curious about some of the ornaments that belong to my villa owner. I know that my villa owner is an art lover, some of which are kinda weird in my taste. But he has been all over the world I am sure he knows more than I do.
One of them is these lovely colored ornaments sitting in the kitchen area. It has been there for so many years. I personally only clean it and hardly really try to find out what is it.
Upon cleaning I decided to take them down and look really into its details once again. I put them on the table and take another shot.
To my surprise, the ornament which I initially thought was made mostly from woods turns out made from steel or iron.
And it is called Begasingan a traditional Spinning Top made from Iron or Steel from the neighboring island of Lombok.
It has a wood part in the middle, but the taper and outer part of it is made from iron.
According to this article this traditional games is still being played regularly in so part of the island. You can also find it on the weekend, in one corner of the Mataram the capital city of Lombok.
This traditional spinning top is said to be really stable, thanks to its weight from the iron part. And because of the iron, it makes it really sturdy and can withstand many impacts when it collided with another spinning top.
It also looks really nice when it spins because of the bright paint color at the top of the spinning top.
But surely it needs so many practices to be able to play it, because it is really heavy compared to the modern small spinning top.