words yvonne teh

Her name may indicate she is a celestial monarch, but Tin Hau is really the goddess of the sea.

Close to 1,000 years ago (in the year 1093 according to some accounts but 960 according to others), a baby girl was born on the island of Meizhou in China’s Fujian Province. Because she didn’t cry at birth, she was given the name Lim Bek Niu (‘Silent Girl’ in the native Fujianese dialect and transliterated into Mandarin as Lin Moniang). The seventh daughter of a fisherman named Lin Yuan, she is said to have taken to the water only in her teens but soon became an excellent swimmer.

At some point in her life, according to legend, she also took to wearing red and standing on the shore to guide fishing boats home, even during dangerous typhoons and harsh storms. Or maybe it was especially during inclement weather since, when she was just a child, she reportedly developed the clairvoyant and supernatural powers that allowed her to make accurate weather predictions as well as see hazards out at sea.

Over time, Lim Bek Niu has been credited with being the protector and rescuer of numerous fishermen, sailors and other seafarers. There are many stories about her and the sea. In the most famous, on a day her fishermen father and brothers were out at sea, a severe storm arose. While the rest of her family feared for the men’s lives, Lim Bek Niu – depending on different accounts – either went to sleep or into a trance. While her physical being remained on shore, her spirit flew on clouds to her father’s floundering boat where it grabbed hold of her relatives with its hands and mouth and sought to carry them to safety.

Before she could complete the rescue though, her mother tried to shake her awake. As a result, she dropped the person she held in her mouth, causing him to drown. Still, it was considered miracle enough that the others returned, and Lim Bek Niu’s legendary status was sealed by her surviving male relatives’ amazing account of somehow being held up in the water as the terrible tempest raged around them.

Lim Bek Niu passed away before her 30th birthday. After her death, her fame among fisherfolk and their families spread and her popularity as a protective figure for seafarers increased. Her special status was officially recognized as early as 1155 when the Song Dynasty Emperor Gaozong bestowed upon her the title ‘Princess of Supernatural Favour’. Then, during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), she was declared ‘Protector of the Empire and the Brilliantly Outstanding Heavenly Princess’, with emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) following suit and honouring her with further grand imperial titles.

Looked upon as the goddess of the sea for centuries now, she is widely worshipped in southeast China and as far away as Southeast Asia and the USA (where temples to her have been built in San Francisco and Los Angeles). With an estimated 1,500 temples built in her honour in some 26 countries, she has come to be variously known as Ma-Chor (Mother Ancestor) among the Fujianese, Matsu (another variant of Mother Ancestor) in Macau – the territory whose name is derived from the A-Ma Temple dating back to 1448 – and Tin Hau (Heavenly Queen), the title bestowed on her by the Qing Dynasty’s Emperor Kangxi, in Hong Kong.

Each year, on the 23rd day of the third moon (or month) of the Chinese calendar, Tin Hau’s birthday is celebrated with much fanfare in many of these lands. In Hong Kong, even though the goddess has 60 temples dedicated to her and there is a local area, an MTR station and a road named Tin Hau, the day, which this year falls on April 28, is not an official public holiday. Nevertheless, it is still treated as a special festive occasion by those Hong Kongers who make their living from the sea and continue to look to Tin Hau for divine assistance and protection.

Although the 18th century Tin Hau Temple on 10 Tin Hau Temple Road in the section of Causeway Bay commonly known as Tin Hau may be the most well known of Hong Kong’s temples to this deity, it is actually the over 700-year-old temple in Sai Kung’s Joss House Bay that hosts the biggest and most colourful Tin Hau festival celebrations. This is the largest Tin Hau temple in Hong Kong and its festivities regularly attract thousands of devotees. While many of those folk will make the pilgrimage on land to that which also is the oldest existent Tin Hau temple in the Cantonese-speaking area, thousands of others will sail into the usually quiet bay in hundreds of vessels bedecked with bright ribbons, streamers, banners and flags, and laden with tokens of devotion for the goddess of the sea.

On the western side of the territory, the Tai Shu Ha Tin Hau Temple in Yuen Long’s Shap Pat Heung section is also a hive of activity on the goddess’s birthday. This year, as with many others, a procession of dragon, lion and unicorn dances will begin at Yuen Long Stadium and parade through various streets before ending at the temple, where a colourful display of giant fa pau, towers of elaborate paper floral art, will have been specially erected to bring good luck and protection to the community.

Additionally, while Hong Kong’s other Tin Hau temples may not claim or expect as many visitors on the deity’s birthday as either the one in Joss House Bay (which is so big it is also known as Tai Mui or the Grand Temple) or the other in Yuen Long District, they too will attract their share of devotees intent on offering prayers to this compassionate motherly protector.

With some Tin Hau temples now a good distance from the sea due to aggressive land reclamation – as in Yau Ma Tei (whose Temple Street is named after the Tin Hau Temple in the area) and Sham Shui Po – if you wanted to join the celebrations, you probably won’t have to venture as far to find a temple as you might think.

At the same time, plenty of Tin Hau temples can be found in the communities of fisherfolk and others who make their livelihood from the sea. You will find one serving the islands of Tap Mun Chau, Cheung Chau and Peng Chau and others in Stanley, Shek O, Aberdeen, Shau Kei Wan, Lei Yue Mun and Tuen Mun. And even though you may go to these temples that are close enough to the coast for you to catch a whiff of sea breeze just for the celebrations, do spare a thought while there for the woman once known as Lim Bek Niu but these days is far better known in Hong Kong as Tin Hau.