About SHO

SHO is a free website for playing and learning Sho (also called yam), the dice game of shells and coins that families in Bhutan have played for generations.

We built SHO so that the game can be enjoyed anywhere: on a phone at a bus stop, on a laptop at home, or with relatives who live in another town or country. The board, the calls and the slam of the cup are all here, together with the rules that families actually use.

What you can do on SHO

• Play with the computer at Easy, Normal or Hard level, with up to four players or two teams.
• Play online with random players who are waiting right now, or invite friends with a six-letter code.
• Choose your rules: Bhutanese, Lhasa or Beginner, and switch single rules on or off.
• Learn the history, the number calls and good strategy in our articles.

Coins and the wallet

Players collect coins: a welcome gift, a daily bonus and prizes from online games. Coins make games more exciting and decide the leaderboard. Players aged 18 and over can also recharge coins and exchange them for cash in My wallet at Nu 1 = 1 coins; every payment is checked by hand. See the wallet terms.

How SHO is paid for

SHO is free to play. You can support the developer with a donation. To cover hosting, the site may show advertising from Google on information pages. Ads never appear on the game board. Read more in our privacy policy.

Get in touch

Found a bug, know a family rule we should add, or want to run a Sho tournament? Send us a message.