Types of Kites in Pakistan

21 September 2026 · 5 min read · Written in Lahore

Kite names in Pakistan describe three different things at once — shape, size and what a kite is for — and nobody separates them when they are talking fast in a shop. This page separates them. If you know which word is a shape and which is a size, a price list stops being a guessing game.

One thing to hold onto throughout: the law recognises only two of these names. Punjab's rules set size limits for a patang and a gudda, and everything else you hear is trade or mohalla vocabulary sitting on top of those two categories.

Gudda versus patang: the only distinction the law makes

A patang is the standard kite — the small diamond shape most people picture, flown in numbers. A gudda is the big one: more paper, more pull, and the kite that gets flown when there is a pech worth winning.

The rules put a ceiling on each. A patang may not exceed 35 inches wide by 30 inches long (four and a half githi), and a gudda may not exceed 40 inches by 34 inches (one and a half tawa), as notified in the Punjab kite flying rules. How to measure a kite against those limits is worth two minutes before you buy anything oversized by accident.

Tawa and githi are sizes, not kites

This is where most confusion starts. Tawa and githi are units of size, the way a shirt is a 15 or a 16. They do not describe a shape at all.

• Adha tawa — half a tawa, a smaller gudda.
• 1 tawa — the everyday gudda, about 35 inches wide, and the size that flies in ordinary Lahore wind. It is what most roofs should be buying.
• 1.5 tawa — 40 × 34 inches, the largest the law allows. It wants steady wind and a firmer line.
• Githi — the unit used for patang, capped at four and a half.

So "1 tawa kite" is a gudda of a particular size, not a separate species. We sell both grades singly — 1 tawa and 1.5 tawa — precisely because the difference is size and wind, not prestige.

Guddi, pari, tukkal and the rest

These are the words that vary most between mohallas, so treat the following as the common Lahore usage rather than a dictionary.

Guddi — the smaller counterpart to a gudda. In everyday speech a guddi is a little kite, the one a child learns on.

Pari — a kite cut with wing-like extensions rather than a plain diamond. Bought as much for how it looks in a sky full of plain paper as for how it flies.

Tukkal — the tailed kite, traditionally larger and slower, built to sit in the sky rather than dart around it. The name attaches to the tail more than to any fixed dimension.

Kup — used in the trade for a heavier fighting kite, though usage shifts from one quarter to another.

Whatever the name on the shelf, ask the two questions that actually matter: what does it measure, and is it inside the legal limit. A seller who can answer both is a seller worth buying from.

Which type should you actually fly?

Learning, or flying with children: a patang or a guddi. Cheap, forgiving, and losing one to a wire costs nothing but the walk downstairs.

An ordinary Lahore afternoon: a 1 tawa gudda. Enough kite to hold a line in moderate wind without needing a firm hand all day.

Strong steady wind, or a serious pech: a 1.5 tawa gudda with a heavier line. It pulls, so gloves stop being optional — and they are the most common injury we could prevent and don't.

Looks over performance: a pari or a tukkal, flown when the wind is steady and you are not competing with anyone.

Wind matters more than any of this. How to launch, hold a line and fly a pech covers reading a Lahore roof, which decides more outcomes than the kite you picked.