These tiles may be used to play many different games. Domino' is also a style of mask featuring a black and white motif. They were apparently derived from cubic dice, which had been introduced into China from India some time in the dim and distant past. Each domino originally represented one of the twenty-one results of throwing two dice. One half of the tile is set with the pips from one die and the other half contains the pips from the second die.
Chinese dominoes are also longer than typical European dominoes.
We will explore some of the games played with basic Chinese dominoes later. Over time Chinese dominoes also evolved into the tile set used to play Mah Jong, a game which swept across the United States in the 1920s. Some time in the early 18th century dominoes made their way to Europe, making their first appearance in Italy. Its surprising that it took this long for the game to make the trip since the silk road would have been open for quite some time before this date. The game changed somewhat in the translation from Chinese to European culture.