Mazu worship
媽祖信仰
A sea-goddess faith that began on the Fujian coast in the Song, honored by successive courts with new titles and carried by seafarers and migrants to places such as Taiwan.
01About
Mazu is a sea goddess of Chinese folk religion. Her worship centers on Meizhou Island at Putian, Fujian, and her deification began in the Northern Song. Sailors and fishermen took her as protector of their voyages, and when people from southern Fujian crossed the rough Taiwan Strait, they invited Mazu to come along. Courts raised her titles over the dynasties: in 1123 the Song court granted the temple the name Shunji, Emperor Gaozong of the Song titled her Lady of Linghui, in 1281 the Yuan titled her Tianfei, and in the Qing the title became Tianhou. She is also called Tianshang Shengmu, Tianfei, or Mazupo. In Taiwan, the incense-offering pilgrimage processions (jinxiang raojing) of temples such as Dajia Zhenlan, Beigang Chaotian and Baishatun Gongtian are the best known; in 2009 Mazu belief was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
02In the gallery
Check whether a document or label calls her Tianfei, Tianhou or Mazu, and set the name beside the date to see how her titles change with the dynasty.
Wall label terms in Chinese
- 天妃
- Tianfei (Celestial Consort)
- 天后
- Tianhou (Celestial Empress)
- 進香遶境
- Jinxiang raojing (incense pilgrimage procession)
03Notes
Mazu worship is about how people and the goddess meet: seafarers ask for safe passage, and courts answer with titles.
What do the people in the documents ask of her, and what do they call her?