How many Mazu temples are there in China? Where are they located?

"Ascension monument" cliff inscription in the Mazu Temple behind the bedchamber of a huge stone wall, next to a line of small letters: abbot monk Zhao multiply monks knocking Risai Yuan Yang. On the stone wall can be seen only a thousand years ago, "a few rafters" of the "Goddess Shrine", "human" shape. When you stand here and look west, you can see Xianliang Harbor on the other side of the river. Legend has it that Murniang ascended to heaven on a "stone drum" near here.

Kaitai A-Ma Temple

Located in Tainan City's Anping Harbor, this is one of the older A-Ma temples on Taiwan. It was built in 1668 to welcome the statue of A-Ma from Meizhou Island in Fujian Province, and was called Anping A-Ma Temple at the time of its construction. 1683, when A-Ma was appointed as the Queen of Heaven, the Anping A-Ma Temple was changed to Kaitai A-Ma Temple. There are many A-Ma temples in Taiwan where the A-Ma statue was separated from this temple.

Other A-Ma temples

According to the latest figures provided by the World Book of A-Ma Temples, there are now nearly 5,000 A-Ma temples around the world, with nearly 200 million worshippers.

A lot of these A-Ma temples are very unique, and the ones introduced here are just a few of them.

1. Quanzhou Tianhou Temple: It is the first A-Ma Temple in China to be listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit, and was built in the second year of the Song Qingyuan era (1196 AD). It is located in Tianhou Road, Quanzhou City, covers an area of about 13 acres, building area of more than 5,000 square meters, the temple in addition to the preservation of the more intact hall, the back of the temple and other ancient buildings, in recent years, and successive restoration of the gate, stage, bell and drum tower, the east and west corridors, combing building, and many other buildings, is the existing Mazu Temple in the larger scale, the age of the more ancient one, built in the Palace of the Fujian-Taiwan relations in the history of the Museum has a large number of collections of precious

Quanquan Mazu Temple is one of the largest existing Mazu Temples in terms of scale and age.

Quanzhou Tianhou Palace is of great significance to the development and spread of Mazu faith overseas. Historically, the A-Ma faith has spread far and wide across the motherland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao as a result of the continuous emigration and trade activities of the people of Quanzhou. Therefore, Quanzhou Tianhougong still enjoys a high reputation overseas, and many overseas compatriots call it the "Holy Temple of Wenling", with more than 3,000 overseas groups visiting the shrine every year.

2, Tianjin Tianhou Palace: commonly known as "Niangniang Palace", was built in the third year of the Yuan Taiding (1326 AD), and later after dozens of reconstruction and renovation, is one of the world's three major Tianhou Palace (Ancestral Temple of Maeju in Fujian Province, Tianhou Palace in Tianjin, Beigang Chaotian Palace in Taiwan). It is located in the old city of Tianjin, outside the east gate of the Haihe River on the west bank of the three forks of the estuary, the ancient culture street in the middle of the west to east, covers an area of 5352 square meters, construction area of 1734 square meters, from east to west by the theater, streamer pole, the gate, the arch, the front hall, the main hall, the phoenix-tailed Hall, the Pavilion of the Scriptures, the Kai Sheng Shrine, as well as the Bell and Drum Tower, Zhang Xian Pavilion and the four ancillary halls, the earliest one of the existing ancient architectural groups in Tianjin, Tianjin, the cradle of the urban formation and development, so there has been the name of the temple. It is also the cradle of Tianjin's urban formation and development, so there was a "Niangniang Palace first, after Tianjin Wei".

Tianjin Tianhougong was listed as a key cultural relics protection unit in 1954 and 1982, and became the location of Tianjin Folk Museum in 1985 with its position as the birthplace of Tianjin folk culture. In addition to retaining the restored Tianhougong display, it also successively opened displays and exhibitions to show the Tianjin folklore as the basis for the content of the exhibition, which systematically introduces the waterway, marriage and childbearing, Commerce, folk life, folk art and folk beliefs and other customary content, and built a 69-meter-long Tianhou Gallery, depicting a very personalized, regional culture of the history of the customs of the scroll, and become a tourist attraction for Chinese and foreigners.

3, Zhijiang Tin Hau Temple: the largest Mazu Temple in inland China, located in Hunan Zhijiang Dong Autonomous County, built in the thirteenth year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty (1748 AD), belongs to the provincial cultural relics protection units in Hunan. The whole A-Ma Temple is a combination of ancient architecture and relief art, with high artistic ornamental value and cultural relics protection value. 50 reliefs are engraved on the stone square of the front square and the back square of the palace, which are lifelike, with exquisite carving skills, and it is known as "the first square in Jiangnan".

As more than 130 years have not been overhauled, the historical wind and rain erosion and human factors, so that the wooden structure of the wooden pillars of the Palace of Tianhou, the horizontal Square, the board walls, such as serious damage, so from 1999, Zhijiang Dong Autonomous County began to carry out the overall maintenance of its after three years of hard work, and after spending millions of dollars in funds in 2002, the Palace of the Heavenly Empress has been re-opened to the public.

4, Penghu Tin Hau Temple: Taiwan's earliest A-Ma Temple, which is said to have been built in the twentieth year of the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1592), with carved beams and fine carvings in the temple, the temple is ancient and beautiful. Every year on March 23rd of the lunar calendar, A-Ma's birthday, Penghu Tin Hau Temple organizes a large-scale A-Ma's sea circumambulation to pray for good weather and peace of mind for the whole family.

Penghu Tin Hau Palace has one of the earliest tablets in Taiwan, engraved with the words "Shen You Rong Oracle Retreat Red Hair Fans Wei Mallang," which is said to be the earliest in the 17th century. It is said that in the early 17th century, the Dutch used their economic and military power to occupy Java, set up the East India Company, and attempted to trade with our country. But at that time, the Ming Dynasty imposed a sea ban, non-Communist countries are not allowed to trade. Ming Wanli thirty-two years (1604), the Dutch Governor Weimarang with Daini (now Thailand) Chinese Pan Xiu method, wrote to the Ming dynasty frontier officials, hoping to allow the Dutch trade, due to the lack of response, the rotary rate of the ship landed on July 12 Penghu, in order to explore. Minzhong big official heard of this situation, sent Shen Youyong to meet Weimarang in Mazu Palace (i.e., Tin Hau Palace), clanging speech, explaining the advantages and disadvantages. Weimarang knew that there is no hope for trade, no chance of victory in the war, was on October 25th slipped away from the Penghu, writing a glorious page of the Chinese people to give up without a fight.　　

5, Temple Island, Hsien Ying Palace: northern China built the earliest and most influential Mazu Temple, built in the Northern Song Dynasty Emperor Huizong Xuanhe four years (1122 AD), by the Yuan, Ming and Qing emperors, once known as "the world's first temple of the Niang Niang" and famous in the world, the Temple Island is also in the Changshan Islands in the unique, become the center of cultural exchanges between the north and south of the island, the Temple Island is also known as a place of cultural exchange between the north and south of the island. Miaodao has been the center of cultural exchanges between the north and south of the island for more than 800 years, so the Changshan Islands are also known as Miaodao Archipelago.

Hian Ying Palace was destroyed in the Cultural Revolution, and was restored in 1983 under the attention of the central leadership. It is located in Shandong Changshan Island in the northern part of the Temple Island, north and south of the mountains, east and west of the sea, surrounded by the island guards, the whole group of buildings, including the front, in the back of the Hall and the playhouse, etc., north and south of the length of 166 meters, east and west of the width of 66 meters, with a total area of more than 10,000 square meters. The east side of the hall is also built in China's first county-level nautical museum, opened in China's shipbuilding history, maritime history, history of maritime technology, maritime military history and Zheng He Memorial Hall.

In August 2003, Hinying Palace held the ceremony of transferring and enshrining Mazu from Meizhou Mazu in Fujian Province and Mazu from Chaotian Palace in Beigang, Taiwan, and at the same time, it also restored the plaque of "Shengong Jiushi" written by Emperor Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty, which added new connotations for the further integration of the folk culture of the north and the south and for the further development of the culture of Mazu. The new plaque was restored, adding a new connotation to the further integration of folk culture between the north and south and the further development of Mazu culture.

7. Tianhou Temple on Weizhou Island, Beihai An ancient temple built by fishermen on Weizhou Island to ward off evil spirits and seek peace of mind, also known as the Temple of the Three Mothers, the original temple was built in 1732 (the third year of the Qianlong reign), but was crushed by the collapse of a mountain, and the existing Temple of the Three Mothers was newly built in recent years. Residents often come here to pray to the Buddha, and the incense burns continuously all the time.

8, Macau Tin Hau Temple: October 4, 2003 has just been completed, lasted 2 years and a half, costing 200 million patacas. It is located in the Macau Coloane island of stacked stone pond hill, covers an area of nearly 7000 square meters, is the largest temple in Macau so far. The whole building is designed and constructed in accordance with the ancient architectural style of Southern Fujian, with reference to the traditional layout of A-Ma Temple in Fujian and Taiwan, with a staircase of more than 60 meters long, a thick and gorgeous pagoda-style gate, an altar surrounded by alabaster, and a main hall, a dressing tower, a bell tower and a drum tower, etc., which are linked together by a corridor. The main hall sits in the west towards the east, magnificent, the roof of the building carved dragons flying eaves, golden glaze glittering. Inside the palace, the carved beams and painted buildings are splendid. Up to 3 meters high statue of Mazu Feng Guan Xiapi, kind eyebrows, dignified manner.

As the only city in the world named after A-Ma, Macau built the first A-Ma Temple (also known as A-Ma Temple) in the Inner Harbor as early as 1488, and since then the incense has flourished for years. At the end of the last century, Macau had already constructed a 19.99-meter-high alabaster statue of A-Ma, weighing more than 500 tons, on the hill of Stacked Stone Pond. It is said to be the tallest statue of A-Ma in the world.

8, Singapore Thian Hock Keng: Located in the city straight down Yay Street (the Chinese called Yuen Soon Street) in the Ox-Cheap Shui (i.e., Chinatown), built by the Chinese Singaporeans, it is one of the oldest temples in Singapore, and is now listed as a national key cultural heritage protection unit.　

It is reported that during the period of 1821-1822, Thian Hock Keng was only a simple Bodhisattva temple. Later, due to the growing incense, it was moved to Telok Ayer Street from 1839 and rebuilt, which was completed in 1842. The granite pillars and the wooden altar were shipped from Fujian, China, and the statue of the god was also shipped from China in 1840.

The whole palace has a lofty weather, and the temple is spacious and elegant. The highest part of the main hall is hung with a nine-dragon plaque given by Emperor Guangxu in 1907, which reads "Bojing Nanming" and is surrounded by dragons in relief. Another plaque titled "Hin Che Yuming" was dedicated by Zuo Binglong, the third consul of the Qing government in Singapore. The back of the palace is dedicated to the statue of Buddha Shakyamuni. Opposite it is the seated statue of Confucius. There are also several stone plaques engraved with the names of those who donated money to build the temple or the ship's treasure number in the hall.