The statue of Mazu from the original Mazu temple in the Meizhou Island of Putian, in east China's Fujian Province, was shipped to Taiwan's Jinmen Island yesterday to allow local residents to worship this "Goddess of Sea."
Mazu is a goddess said to have been a Meizhou woman who lived in the 10th century. The woman died at 27 when she tried to save endangered fishermen and since that time she has been revered as the goddess who looks after fishermen and sailors at sea.
There are tens of thousands of followers of Mazu in Fujian and Taiwan, who regard the original Mazu temple in Meizhou as their holy land.
At around 9:45 am yesterday morning, the vessel Taiwulun from Jinmen, with the Mazu statue on board, started its eight-hour trip.
Seeing the statue of Mazu was like meeting his ancestors, said Wu Chengdian, head of the group of 50 people in Jinmen who were at the dock to welcome the statue. Wu has been worshipping Mazu since he was a child.
Several thousand Mazu followers from 14 Mazu temples in Meizhou went by foot to see the statue off.
A delegation of 100 people from Meizhou, including a performance team for memorial activities, went to Jinmen together with the statue.
The statue is scheduled to move from place to place in Jinmen for five days and will be received by 11 Mazu temples. Most of the 50,000 residents on the island are Mazu followers.
This is the first time that the statue of Mazu has gone to other places from its original temple by sea and the first time it has gone to Jinmen.
(China Daily May 9, 2002)
