TYPE: Goddess of waters
KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP: circa 1300 CE until present
SYNONYMS: Lin Ma-Tzu; Ma-Niang; Ma-Tzu.
CENTER(S) OF CULT: Hangchow and throughout Chinese culture.
ART REFERENCES: Paintings and sculptures.
LITERARY SOURCES: Various philosophical and religious texts, mostly inadequately researched and untranslated.
ORIGIN: Taoist (Chinese)
INFORMATION: Tin Hau originates as a mortal born on the island of Mei-CHou in the Fukien province of China, the daugther of a minor official. She died at the age of twenty-eight, having perfected herself and having experienced recurrent dreams of saving fishing boats from the waters close to her village. This tradition was inscribed on the wall of a sanctuary in Hangchow in 1228 CE. She was deified in 1278 by the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan, who introduced the title "queen of heaven". The first of the Ch'ing emperors subsequently conferred on her the title "imperial consort." She was thus subordinate only to Yu Huang Shang Ti, the Jade Emperor
Tin Hau was first worshiped as a guardian goddess of boats and fishermen, but her role was extended so that she became the deity of oceans and fresh waters. She is celebrated in a festival on the twenty-third day of the third month. In art she is frequently depicted with two grotesque attendant figures known as "Thousand League Eyes" and "Favoring Wind Ears".