Shagai

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Shagai (Mongolian: Шагай) is the Mongolian word for the cuboid bone of the ankle of a sheep. The shagai are collected and used for traditional Mongolian games and fortunetelling. They are often painted bright colours. Such bones were used by many ancient cultures, and were the first forms of dice.

Shagai games are especially popular during the Mongolian summer holiday of Naadam. In shagai dice, the rolled shagai generally land on one of four sides: horse, camel, sheep or goat. A fifth side, cow, is possible on uneven ground.

Mongolians still exchange shagai today as tokens of friendship. The shagai are kept in a little pouch.

In fortunetelling, four shagai are rolled on the ground; the two convex sides, horse and sheep, are considered lucky, with horse being the luckiest. The sides with concave indents, goat and camel, are deemed unlucky; rolling all four sides on one throw is considered indicative of very good fortune.

The shagai are also used to play other games, especially a Mongolian variation of marbles, in which the goal is to capture more shagai than your opponents do.