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Can someone please tell me what these pieces are?[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Kathy Mann wrote on Sat, Dec 2, 2017 08:41 PM UTC:

The only information I have is that on the box, my husband wrote "chess pieces". I do not see a way to attach a photo to this message so I will attempt to describe them.

They are discs, black and white. There are 8 large discs, 5cm across, and 8 small discs, 3.5 cm across. 

Each disc has an engraved symbol and a word or phrase. On the 8 large white discs are the words "Preserver" accompanied by the yin/yang symbol, and also by the Queen's crown; "Creator" accompanied by a small circle and the King's crown; "Eternal Life" with a large "pie" shape and the Bishop's miter; "Wisdom" accompanied by a large circle and a Bishop's miter; "Work" with an 8-point star and the Knight; "Love" with a triangle and the Knight; "Peace" with a quarter moon and the Rook; "Power" with a square and a Rook. On the smaller discs are the words "Air" (bird), "Health" (tree), "Water" (fish), "Man" (circle,square,triangle), "Sun" (sun), "Joy" (lotus), "Food" (leaf) and "Earth" (worm).

On the large black discs we have: "Spoiler" (yin/yang, Queen); "Destroyer" (small circle, King); "Ignorance"(pie, Bishop); "Death" (large circle, Bishop); "Hatred" (triangle, Knight); "Idleness" (star, Knight); "Weakness" (square, Rook); "Violence" (quarter moon, Rook). On the smaller discs are "Impure Air", "Impure Water", "Impure Food", "Darkness", "Inferior Man", "Disease", "Sadness", "Darkness" and "Barrenness".

I cannot tell what material the discs are made from. They have felt pads on the bottom. 

Can someone please tell me what these are? (and also if there is a way to post photos...!)

Many thanks.

--K


Ben Reiniger wrote on Sun, Dec 3, 2017 02:15 PM UTC:

Kathy, you can add an image in a comment; there's a button in the editor roughly in the middle of the first row of buttons.  It uses a URL, so the image has to be online somewhere already (we don't have a[n easy] way to upload photos for storage at this site for comments).  You can use any free image hosting site, or send me an email (click my user name) and I'll upload it somewhere.


Kathy Mann wrote on Sun, Dec 3, 2017 05:49 PM UTC:

emailed photos to you; many thanks. --K


Ben Reiniger wrote on Sun, Dec 3, 2017 08:52 PM UTC:

img1

 

img2


Ben Reiniger wrote on Sun, Dec 3, 2017 09:07 PM UTC:

I seem to have found an answer:
The game is chess, with new names, and technically a different goal:

While the object of chess, the distant descendant of the Art of Asha, is to overcome and capture the opposing king, so that he has no hope of escape (called "check-mate '), the object of ASHA is quite different. While one side or the other may well arrive at "checkmate," it is the drama of Life itself the endlessly fascinating and eternally evolving battle of opposing forces that is the real "object." The microcosmos of ASHA teaches the players how to cooperate with the positive forces of Light in order to overcome the negative forces of darkness, and it is in the learning of these important lessons that the real object of ASHA is realized, regardless of which "side" a player may be on at the time.

https://communiu.home.xs4all.nl/Studymat/Briasha/B0700Asha.htm

It is listed in the Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants, section 12.11,

Asha (the ‘universal law of the Zoroastrians’) is chess in philosophical garb.

https://www.jsbeasley.co.uk/


Kathy Mann wrote on Sun, Dec 3, 2017 09:35 PM UTC:

At the risk of sounding like Spock, "fascinating"! Thank you so much for researching this for me. --K


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