One day the girl was sleeping and dreamed that two junks carrying her father and brothers were caught in a storm – she stretched out her arms and clenched the masts of the vessels in her fists. Her mother was alarmed and,fearing that the child was suffering a fit, shook her by the arm to wake her, causing her, in her dream, to let go of one of the boats. Later, when her brothers returned, they told the story that at the height of a terrible storm the vision of a beautiful girl had reached out to save them but was unable to hold onto their fathers boat and thus he had perished.
Miss Lin died tragically young in her early 20s (many Chinese deities are based upon historical characters who really did exist) but stories of miraculous rescues at sea continued. The lovely woman would calm the waves and bring the sailors to safety. Two centuries later Miss Lin was officially canonised (during the Ming Dynasty, AD 1368-1643) as the First Lady Attendant in Heaven and Protector of Seafarers. In the years that followed she was elevated with more titles until finally, in 1683, she was promoted to Tien Hau, Queen of Heaven.
In Macau Miss Lin is known by the more affectionate and informal title of A-Ma – Honoured Mother – and it is also from her that the peninsula got its name. It started with a local legend that echoed the stories of the fisher-folk of Fukien province.
A Fukienese peasant girl was seeking a free passage down the coast but none of the wealthy merchants would give her a berth. Eventually some humble fishermen took her on board and they set sail. During the voyage a typhoon struck and all the large vessels were lost – the only one to make it safely to the shore was the fishermens frail craft. When they landed the girl walked up to some boulders on the shore and mysteriously disappeared in a glow of light. Convinced that they had been saved because their passenger was none other than the goddess herself, the fishermen built a temple in her honour on the shore of the entrance to Macau’s inner harbour – Barra Point.
Years later when the Portuguese waded ashore at the same point, their first question was, quite naturally, “Where are we?” They were told, “A-Ma-Gau” meaning “The Bay of A-Ma”. History doesn’t tell us how they overcame the language problem, but the name stuck and was contracted to Macau.
The A-Ma temple was originally built during the Ming Dynasty but the oldest surviving parts of it date from 1573. The main hall is on the roadside and there are pavilions and altars ranging up the hillside connected by flights of steps. In the mid 1980s the main hall was gutted by fire just before Chinese New Year – a major calamity – but the reconstruction was so swift that many did not even realise that a disaster had taken place. The fire was suspected to be the work of arsonists but this has never been proven.
The Festival of A-Ma is the celebration of Miss Lin’s birthday and is on the 23rd day of the third moon. The temple is thronged with people giving thanks and praying for good fortune, burning incense and letting off strings of firecrackers. Fishing boats return to the harbor and take turns to line up in front off the temple to let off crackers – it’s deafening but fascinating.
For entertainment there is a week-long performance of Chinese opera opposite the temple (outside Maritime Museum) and there are stalls selling trinkets, joss sticks and lucky papers.
Apart from being the patron of seafarers, A-Ma has taken on the mantle of protector of Macau in general and many people from pay homage to her. Childless women believe that, in her capacity as Honoured Mother, prayers to A-Ma will help them to conceive the child that they long for.
The A-Ma Temple has long been a ‘must see’? for visitors to Macau but there is now a new attraction. At the top of Coloane Alto, the highest spot on Coloane Island, there stands a magnificent white marble sculpture of the goddess. There she stands, calm and serene, watching over Macau and its inhabitants – A-Ma, Queen of Heaven, Queen of Macau.
