Lesson 2 of 12
The tiles
An American mahjong set has 152 tiles: three suits (Bams, Craks and Dots, numbered 1 to 9, four of each), 16 Winds, 12 Dragons, 8 Flowers and 8 Jokers. Each Dragon belongs to a suit: Red goes with Craks, Green with Bams, and White (called Soap) with Dots.
Step by step
- Three suits, numbered 1 to 9. Bams (bamboo sticks; the 1 Bam is usually a bird), Craks (Chinese characters with a number) and Dots (circles). There are four copies of every tile: 108 suit tiles in all.
- Four Winds. North, East, West and South, four of each: 16 tiles. The card often spells them as NEWS.
- Three Dragons, each married to a suit. Red Dragon goes with Craks, Green Dragon with Bams, and White Dragon (Soap) with Dots. Soap also stands for zero in hands that spell out a year, like 2026.
- Flowers and Jokers. There are 8 Flowers, and they are all interchangeable even though the pictures differ. There are 8 Jokers, the wild tiles.
- Count them before your first game. 3 suits × 9 numbers × 4 copies = 108, plus 16 Winds, 12 Dragons, 8 Flowers and 8 Jokers = 152.
Common mistakes
- Treating different flower pictures as different tiles: any Flower matches any Flower.
- Forgetting which Dragon goes with which suit, which matters when the card shows a Dragon in a suit's colour.
Words from this lesson
Bam · Crak · Dot · Suit · Wind · Dragon · Soap · Flower
Questions people ask
Why is the white dragon called Soap?
On many sets the White Dragon is a blank tile or a plain frame, which players said looked like a bar of soap.
How many jokers are in an American mahjong set?
Eight. Some older sets came with fewer; the current standard is eight.
How many tiles are in a mahjong set?
An American set has 152 tiles. Chinese and Hong Kong sets usually have 136 or 144, with no jokers.