Mahjong tiles explained
A full Hong Kong or MCR set has 144 tiles, 42 different faces. Once you can read them at a glance, the rest of the game is much easier. Here is every tile, with its name and a tip for recognising it.
The set at a glance
The tiles fall into three families: three numbered suits, the honour tiles (winds and dragons) and the bonus tiles (flowers and seasons).
| Family | Faces | Copies of each | Tiles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bamboo, Dots and Characters | 3 suits x 9 numbers = 27 | 4 | 108 |
| Winds (East, South, West, North) | 4 | 4 | 16 |
| Dragons (Red, Green, White) | 3 | 4 | 12 |
| Flowers | 4 | 1 | 4 |
| Seasons | 4 | 1 | 4 |
| Total | 42 | 144 |
Without the eight bonus tiles the set has 136 tiles. Hong Kong and MCR normally use 144, some Hong Kong tables (HKMA) play with 136, and American Mahjong uses 152 tiles with jokers.
Bamboo
Also called sticks (Chinese 条, tiáo). The tiles show green bamboo sticks, and the number is simply how many sticks you count.
Tip: Bamboo 1 is the odd one out. It shows a bird (a sparrow), not a single stick, so it is easy to miss when you sort your hand.
Dots (Circles)
Also called coins or circles (Chinese 筒, tǒng). Count the circles to get the number. Dots 1 is one big circle.
Characters
Also called wan or myriads (Chinese 万, wàn). Each tile has a Chinese number on top and the character 萬 below it. The numbers are 一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九 (1 to 9). Some sets write 5 as 伍, a formal form of the same number.
Winds
Four wind tiles, in the order East, South, West, North (the order turns come round the table). They matter twice: your seat has a wind, and each round has a wind.
Dragons
Three dragon tiles. They are valuable in most scoring systems, and any set of three dragons earns points.
Tip: the White Dragon is the blank-looking tile, with only a thin frame.
Flowers and seasons
Eight bonus tiles, one of each. They are numbered 1 to 4 to match the four seat winds (East to North). You never use them to make sets: when you draw one, you show it and take a replacement tile from the back of the wall.
Words you will hear
- Simples: the numbers 2 to 8 in any suit.
- Terminals: the 1s and 9s of the three suits.
- Honours: winds and dragons.
- Suit tiles: bamboo, dots and characters (the numbered tiles).
- Chow, pung and kong: a run of three, three of a kind and four of a kind. See the basics guide.
Tips for reading your hand
- Sort your tiles by suit, then by number. Keep honours at the end.
- Learn the Chinese characters on winds and dragons first: only seven symbols.
- For Bamboo, count the sticks; for Dots, count the circles; Bamboo 1 is the bird.
- The Coach in MyMahjong names every tile in your own language, which is a good way to practise.