The ICTSG Online Encyclopedia of Traditional Sports and Games stands as the world's most comprehensive digital resource for traditional sports knowledge — a living repository documenting over 160 traditional sporting disciplines from more than 100 countries, maintained and expanded by ICTSG's global network of researchers, coordinators, and community partners.

What the Encyclopedia Contains

Each entry in the ICTSG Encyclopedia provides a comprehensive profile of a traditional sport: its geographical origins and historical development; its rules, gameplay mechanics, and equipment; its cultural significance and community functions; its transmission methods across generations; and its current status — thriving, endangered, or reviving.

The Encyclopedia draws on multiple source traditions: academic ethnographic research, community oral histories, governmental cultural heritage records, and the first-hand expertise of practitioners and traditional knowledge-holders. Entries are peer-reviewed by ICTSG's Academic and Research Commission, ensuring that documentation meets the standards required for use in governmental policy submissions, UNESCO inscription nominations, and academic publications.

The Scale of Traditional Sports Heritage

The 160+ disciplines currently documented in the ICTSG Encyclopedia represent only a fraction of the world's traditional sporting heritage. Ethnographic research suggests that hundreds — possibly thousands — of distinct traditional sports and games exist globally, many known only within the communities that practise them and at risk of disappearing within a generation as practitioners age and youth turn toward modern commercial sports.

The Encyclopedia's ongoing expansion reflects ICTSG's conviction that documentation is the foundation of preservation: you cannot protect what you cannot name.

Sports documented include: Laamb wrestling (Senegal), Glima (Iceland), Chidaoba (Georgia), Kabaddi (South Asia), Sepak Takraw (Southeast Asia), Buzkashi (Central Asia), Naadam (Mongolia), Capoeira (Brazil), Pato (Argentina), Falconry (Arab World and Central Asia), Kilikiti (Samoa), Waka Ama (Maori), Mallakhamb (India), Gilli-Danda (South Asia), Zurkhaneh (Iran), Silambam (Tamil Nadu), Pacu Jalur (Indonesia), Jiu-Jitsu (Japan/Brazil), and more than 140 additional disciplines.

How the Encyclopedia Serves Communities

For communities with endangered traditional sports, the ICTSG Encyclopedia provides international visibility that can catalyse revival efforts. Documented sports are eligible for inclusion in ICTSG's formal recognition processes, including the SRETS Elevation Framework and UNESCO intangible heritage nomination support.

For researchers and policymakers, the Encyclopedia is a unique cross-cultural resource demonstrating the diversity of human physical culture and the sophistication of traditional sports as systems of community governance, values transmission, and physical education.

To contribute to the ICTSG Encyclopedia or submit a traditional sport for documentation, communities and organisations are invited to contact ICTSG through its official website at traditionalsportsgames.org.