Heritage · 6 min read
A short history of the bamboo tile.
From the parlours of 1920s Shanghai to a Marine Drive veranda — how a single suit kept its quiet authority over a century of play.
The bamboo suit was, for the longest time, the suit one underestimated. In a set of one hundred and forty‑four tiles it sits between the circles and the characters with no ornament beyond a single, drawn stalk.
"A good player keeps her bamboos until the room has settled — and only then begins to speak."
Imported to Bombay by the Sassoons and to Calcutta by Marwari trading families, the bamboo tile travelled with the early twentieth century's most curious households. It was, for a long while, the tile one used to begin teaching.
The one‑bamboo
Look closely at the one of bamboos in any old set and you will see a bird — traditionally a sparrow, sometimes a peacock — the only tile in the suit that breaks its own pattern. Collectors prize it almost above the dragons.
The Mahjong Collection
Gaurav Gupta's tile motif — the capsule for the Circle.
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