Mahjong Tiles

Mahjong is a traditional Chinese game. There are various versions of mahjong today: the Chinese, the Japanese and the American with different rules. There are also various kinds of games like the Mahjong solitaire. Mahjong is a game that involves skill, intelligence, estimation as well as luck. Mahjong, which literally means “the game of a hundred intelligences” in Chinese, has been traditionally used as a gambling game. Ma Chiao, Mo Tsiah, Ma Cheuk, Ma Jong, Ma Chiang, Ma Chong, Man Chu, Mah Diao, Pung Chow, Mah Chong, Ching Chong, Mah Cheuk, Ma Chiang, Kong Chow, Mah Deuck, Lung Chan, Mah Lowe, Pe Ling, Baak Ling are other names for Mahjong.

Tiles are the most important part of the game. A mahjong game may contain 136, 144, 148 or 152 tiles, the most common being 136 and 144. These tiles have beautiful designs on them representing honor tiles (the winds and the dragons), suit (bamboo, circles and characters) and flower tiles. The most common designs are: the circle/wheel suit (contains circles), the bamboo/stick suit (contains bamboos), character/number suit (Chinese characters representing ten thousand coins each), wind tiles (representing north, south, east and west), dragon tiles (red, green and white), flower tiles (containing art work) and joker tiles (used like a wild card, as a substitute for any tile). A Mahjong set contains 144 tiles, 2 season tiles, 4 “red 5″ bonus tiles, 1 table wind Tessera, 4 dice, scoring tallies, storage trays and a carrying case. These tiles are of 34 kinds, in five different suits or designs-wan, circle, bamboo, wind and prime (4X34=136) and 8 flower tiles.

The flower and season tiles are like the wild or joker card in card games. They are used as a substitute for other tiles and may not contain any scoring points. Plum, Lily or Orchid Chrysanthemum and Bamboo are the flower tiles while spring (fisherman), summer (woodcutter), autumn (farmer) and winter (scholar) are the season tiles. Seasons are represented by people or animals. There are three kinds of dragons: the red dragon, the green dragon and the white dragon. There are four dragons of each of these three kinds in a set. Each of these tiles has different scoring points. The stick suit, the wheel suit and the number suit contain 9 kinds of tiles, numbered 1 to 9. The wind tiles contain 4 kinds of tiles, 4 kinds of flower tiles, 4 kinds of season tiles and three kinds of dragon tiles. These tiles are made of ivory, plastics or other compounds though semi-wooden or wooden tiles are also available. Some sets contain wooden tiles with beautiful hand-engraved designs.

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