What are Wind and Dragon tiles?
Beyond the three numbered suits, a mahjong set has the honor tiles: the four Winds and the three Dragons. They carry no numbers, just symbols.
The four Winds
The Winds stand for the four directions: East, South, West, and North. Each is marked with its Chinese character, and there are four copies of each Wind, giving 16 Wind tiles. In the four-player game they line up with the seats at the table, but in Solitaire they are just four more designs to match.
The three Dragons
The Dragons are Red, Green, and White. The Red Dragon usually shows a red character, the Green a green one, and the White Dragon is often a blank tile or one with a plain frame. With four copies each, there are 12 Dragon tiles in the set.
How they match
Like the suits, honor tiles match only their exact twin. An East Wind pairs only with another East Wind, and a White Dragon only with another White Dragon. Only the Flowers and Seasons break that rule. See the whole lineup in how many tile types are there.
Related questions
What are the three suits in mahjong?
The three suits are Circles (also called Dots), Bamboo, and Characters. Each suit runs from 1 to 9, with four copies of every number. That makes 36 tiles per suit and 108 suit tiles in total, the bulk of a 144-tile set.
How many mahjong tile types are there?
There are 42 different tile designs in a standard mahjong set. That is 27 suit designs (three suits numbered 1 to 9), four Winds, three Dragons, and eight unique bonus tiles (four Flowers and four Seasons). With four copies of most tiles, the designs add up to 144 tiles.
What are Flower and Season tiles?
Flowers and Seasons are the 8 bonus tiles in a mahjong set: 4 Flower tiles and 4 Season tiles. Unlike every other tile, they do not need an exact twin. Any Flower matches any other Flower, and any Season matches any other Season.
How do matching tiles work?
Most tiles match only another tile that looks exactly the same, such as two Bamboo 3s or two West Winds. The special case is bonus tiles: any Flower matches any other Flower, and any Season matches any other Season, even if the pictures differ.