Do You Know the Indonesian Choosing Game Called Pipo Pipo?
October 27th, 2016

We came across the Indonesian choosing game called “Pipo, Pipo”.

We asked Innosanto Nagara who has helped us with Indonesian songs in the past about the rhyme. Here’s what he wrote,

I’m not familiar with that one. There are words I understand but some I don’t. A friend says it’s Manado language (known as Manado Malay) from northern Sulawesi. A quick Google search says it says:

Pipo pipo
laba laba sesedo
samalado ham tere
ham tere pipo

“Laba laba” probably means “spider” as it does in Indonesian Malay, but not sure about the rest.

There is mention of “do you remember this game for those of you born in the 90s” so it may be relatively new. But I’m not sure.

This blog I quote below talks about it. Says they played it but had never heard of it before and were wondering what language it was in – speculating it may be from Papua. It has the lyrics as below. They say the rules are:

1. Everyone put 2 hands on the floor/table
2. Sing the song
3. When the song is over the selected hand makes a fist with the thumb up, and then the next round the selected hand grabs the thumb and puts their thumb up until all hands are stacked.
4. The hands swing around clockwise without breaking
5. The hands collapse one at a time
6. Each hand slaps the hand below it and until the last hand is slapped
7. “the harder you slap the more difficult the game”
On the version in your video, they also have a chant when they’re going down the stack of hands. This is in Indonesian and says:
Ibu beli telor telornnya pecah (number one through all … satu, dua, tiga, empat, lima, enam) etc.
Mother buys eggs and the eggs break (number “one”, “two”, “three” etc.)
Inno

If anyone could provide any info about “Pipo, Pipo” and/or provide a translation, please let us know in the comments below or email me. cd-cover

Many thanks to Innosanto Nagara for helping with the rhyme! Check out Innosanto’s Book and cd of Indonesia Children’s Music. It’s really great!

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa

This article was posted on Thursday, October 27th, 2016 at 8:05 pm and is filed under Children's Songs, Counting-out Rhymes, Counting-out Rhymes, Countries & Cultures, Indonesia, Indonesian, Indonesian Children's Songs, Javanese, Languages, Manado Malay, Nursery Rhymes, Papua New Guinea, Questions, Readers Questions, Rhymes by Theme. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

One Response to “Do You Know the Indonesian Choosing Game Called Pipo Pipo?”

  1. Ana Says:
    November 4th, 2017 at 1:27 pm

    Yes, I know the song and the game. There are many versions of this song, but the game is the same in every cities. I’ve read somewhere that this song is from Cirebon. Many of us that still play this game, however the lyrics that my friends and I use is:

    Pipo pipo laba-laba sisindo
    Amanando
    Ram pereram pereram pipo

    I don’t know the meaning, and maybe this song is using Sunda language. But ‘laba-laba’ does mean spider.

    Oh, and the similiar version:

    Pipo pipo laba-laba simsimdo
    Mamando
    Hamtere hamtere ham pipo

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