Mahjong is a Chinese game that is played mainly with tiles. Cards are also used in mahjong. Cards contain the same content as that of tiles. However, tiles are more commonly used in the game.

Mahjong Tiles

There are many variations of mahjong game. The number of tiles used in a game varies, according to the type of game you are playing. Usually, 144 tiles are used in mahjong game. The tiles are segregated into four parts of three suits- balls, bamboo and numbers. There are flower tiles, dragon tiles, wind tiles and season tiles also.

Mahjong Tiles’ Groups

In Mahjong game, the tiles are grouped together into three types, which include bonus tiles, honor tiles and suit tiles. The bonus tiles comprise of season and flower tiles. There are eight bonus tiles used in the game. The honor tiles consist of 28 tiles, which include wind and dragon tiles. The suit tiles include ball, number and bamboo tiles. There are 108 suit tiles.

Ball Tiles

Ball tiles were represented by shields or coins in the past. Now balls are used. The balls are numbered from 1 to 9.

Bamboo Tiles

Bamboo tiles were represented as spears. They are bamboo sticks now and they bear the numbers 1 to 9. The No.1 tile is shown as a bird, usually a sparrow or peacock. Sometimes, it may be a distinct bamboo shoot.

Number Tiles

Number tiles are also referred to as character tiles. They come with Chinese characters on behalf of numbers 1 to 9. The Chinese numeral character is shown at the top of the tile. The symbol for 10,000 in Chinese is shown below. The number suit is known as the Wan suit, because the symbol for Wan in Chinese is Wan.

Wind Tiles

In Mahjong game, there are four wind tiles sets. Each set represents the direction of wind, such as north, east, west and south. The players in the game are named as south player, east player, north player and west player.

Dragon Tiles

There are four sets of three dragons in mahjong tile sets, which include white dragons, green dragons and red dragons. The white dragons are represented by a clear white tile and they constitute the dragons in the west direction. The green dragon depicts the lower order or plant order. The middle or animal order is represented by red dragon. The higher or spiritual order is depicted by white dragon.

Flower Tiles

In mahjong game, there are eight flower and season tiles in a set, which are divided between flower and season tiles. The four flower tiles are represented by flowers, such as the bamboo, the plum, the chrysanthemum and the orchard. These flowers depict directions like north, east, west and south.

Season Tiles

There are four season tiles, which represent the four seasons like spring, winter, summer and autumn. Each season represent a direction. Summer represents south direction, spring is related to east, autumn is associated with west and winter is related to north.