Today, you’ll learn about Dominoes from Ancient China. It is easy to explain Dominoes. They are tiles that have two sides and numbers on each side. They can be used to create complex games, even though they look simple. It is hard to know when dominoes originated, but historians agree that it was in China. Many believe they were invented in the first 100 years of human history. Chinese immigrants to America claimed that Hung Ming, a romantic hero and inventor of the tiles, invented them.
Fan Lai and Keung Tai Kung, two Chinese leaders, are also believed to have invent dominoes. According to historical documents and printed sources, the tiles were made by a statesman. He presented them in 1120, but they weren’t widely used until many more years later. Tiles were finally introduced to Europe in the early 18th-century. This was after two dice games. Traditional Chinese dominoes were made up of at least 21 pieces. This is because there are 21 combinations possible when you throw two dice. Although some tiles were duplicated, each set had a different number of tiles. Modern sets have 28 pieces. One tile has no dots while six have only one side of dots. Some sets include embossing art and intricate design. These domino tiles were not first made in China.
According to University of Waterloo, the “Western Dominoes” are only around for 250 years. China’s dominoes, however, are not much different. They are flat, two-sided, and look almost the same. The tiny indentations called “pips”, however, are of different colors. These tiles are smaller than Western sets. Although the original dominoes were made of bone, many can now be made of plastic, cardboard, or silver. Many of them are made from composite materials.
The tiles were first called “dominoes” by the Venetians. This was based on a type of mask known as a “domini,” which many Venetian Carnival-goers wore. The masks were made of white with black dots. They were named after the Dominus, Dominican monks who wore black and/or white hoods.
