Tiu (Thai Siam Si Fortune Sticks) — 1 × 15-20 cm Bamboo Slips, Painted and Numbered, Kept in a Siam Si Cylinder

"Tiu are made of bamboo shaved into small thin slips, 1 centimetre wide and 15-20 centimetres long, with one end trimmed round or tapered to a point." (Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, author จุฑามาศ ลิ้มรัตนพันธ์ (Chuthamat Limrattanaphan), photo อรทัย สัตยสัณห์สกุล (Orathai Sattayasansakul), CC BY 4.0)

Cut bamboo and shave it into small thin slips, 1 cm wide and 15-20 cm long. Trim one end round or taper it to a point.

Paint the slips, for example white, red or green, then write characters and a number in black at the tip, a different number on each slip.

Put the tiu in a bamboo or brass cylinder, called a krabok siam si.

Photos of real tiu and siam si cylinders, Songkhla City Pillar Shrine (Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, author จุฑามาศ ลิ้มรัตนพันธ์ (Chuthamat Limrattanaphan), photo อรทัย สัตยสัณห์สกุล (Orathai Sattayasansakul), CC BY 4.0).

Pick up the cylinder, make a wish and ask the question you want answered, then shake the cylinder until a single tiu falls to the ground. The number on it gives the fortune, or the remedy, for the person asking.

Siam si fortune sticks probably date from the Sukhothai or Ayutthaya period, brought by Chinese settlers along with their shrines; at first written in Chinese, later in Thai. The Songkhla City Pillar Shrine, built in 1842, used tiu for fortunes, for remedies from the healer deity Phra Khru Mo, and in the Thing Krachat festival, where they are no longer used. Take care with the knife when shaving bamboo. Source: Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, Traditional Objects of Everyday Use database, "ติ้ว", author จุฑามาศ ลิ้มรัตนพันธ์ (Chuthamat Limrattanaphan), photo อรทัย สัตยสัณห์สกุล (Orathai Sattayasansakul), Songkhla City Pillar Shrine (CC BY 4.0 licence). **Limits** The source gives no number of tiu, paint type or cylinder size, so none is stated.