Mazu is a respected female deity in Taiwan. She is known for offering help to endangered seafarers using supernatural aid. She is also known as the Empress of Heaven, the sea goddess, and other names. Mazu is said to have been a young woman with magical powers, who was given life after death after a tragedy. The legend originated in China during the 10th century (900s), then traveled down the coast and across the strait to Taiwan. Word spread, temples sprung up, and Mazu became a very powerful figure on the island.

Mazu, or Matsu, is the deified form of Lin Moniang, a shamaness from Meizhou Island. She was said to have been born to Lin Yuan, a local fisherman. Her birth happened under Liu Congxiao’s reign, a Quanzhonese warlord in the Min Kingdom, on the 23rd day of the third month of the lunar calendar, in the year 960. This was the first year of the Song dynasty. Despite being awfully quiet, she was blessed with many abilities even as a normal child, such as being able to predict the weather and experiencing divine visions. Mazu is a goddess as the result of a miracle that occurred while she was a teenager.

One day, her father and four brothers were out on a fishing trip off of Meizhou Island, when suddenly dark clouds began to fill the sky. A hurricane that they could not conquer had fallen upon them, blocking out the sun and rocking their boat with huge waves until it capsized. At the same time, Lin Moniang (mortal Mazu) was weaving at her loom, when she suddenly fell into a trance and turned into her pure spirit form. She transported herself to her father and brother’s boat and managed to save her brothers from the storm. Unfortunately, her mother saw her in her trance and woke her up, preventing her from rescuing her father, who was still in the ocean. Out of depression, Lin Moniang climbed up to a cliff and jumped into the sea, but right before she hit the water she transformed into a beam of celestial light and ascended to Heaven. In Heaven, she was rebirthed as the goddess we now know as Mazu. As the light disappeared, a rainbow appeared in the sky, signaling the end of the storm.

She is guarded by two demons, Qianliyan (“Eyes That Can See One Thousand Miles”) and Shunfenger (“Ears That Can Hear the Wind”). Before they became her guards, they were both in love with her, and she made a deal with them that if they could defeat her in battle, they could marry her. She easily beat both of them though with the help of a magic scarf that blinded them, and they vowed to serve as her guards forever.