| The Dragon Mother Temple in Wuzhou City of Guangxi
Province was firstly built in the beginning years of North Song
Dynasty and its reconstruction occurred in the Wanli Period of Ming
Dynasty and Kang Period and Yongzheng Period of Qing Dynasty.
It is
located on the bank of Guijiang River in the northern part of Wuzhou
city. Resting on the mountains and facing the waters, it used to be
an architecture cluster composed of by the mountain gate, the front
palace, the back palace, the corridor rooms on the two sides and
other corner kiosks.
The front palace is very magnificent while the
back palace imposes more emphasis on the decoration.
The corridor on
the right side is the residential place of the general Mr. Fu of Fengji
in charge of the repairing of the whole temple and the carved girder
and the painted walls. Later, due to chaos caused by wars, the
appearance of the temple was damaged and it was even transferred
into the workshops of factory during the ten year catastrophe of the
"Cultural Revolution". After the comminuting of the "the Gang of
Four", it received reconstruction and expansion gradually. The
Dragon Mother Temple at present has coverage of about five thousand
square meters.
As a deity like the Goddess Matsu of the Sea in Fujian, the Dragon
Mother has a very profound influence, with believers all over
Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Hong Kong, Macao, South-east
Asian and other places and regions. Before and after May, 8th, on
Chinese calendar, visitors in group home and abroad gathering here
to celebrate the birthday of Dragon Mother are countless, and on the
usual days, there are also plenty of believers to visit there. The
Wuzhou Dragon Mother Temple is the most famous Dragon Mother Temple
in China.
Legend of the Dragon Mother
Legend of the Dragon Mother:
Wuzhou is the birthplace of Dragon
Mother and called "the place of dragon in Lingnan".
Dragon Mother real name is Wen Ao, was born on May 8th, on
Chinese calendar, in the 25th year of She emperor of Zhou dynasty
(290B.C.) and died on August 15th, in the 36th year of Yongzheng
Period of Qing Dynasty (211B.C.)
When
she was young, Wen Ao followed her parents to Yuecheng where they
lived on weaving and fishing.
Afterwards, she did her best to bring
benefits to people there by leading her father to exploit the
mountains and rivers and deal with the flood disaster caused by the Xijiang River, and was chosen to be the chief of Chuangwu
nationality.
On August 15th, in the 36th year of Yongzheng Period of
Qing Dynasty (211B.C.), Wen Ao died in the age of 79 in Yuecheng,
because of the illness occurred on her way to the capital by water
which passed Wuzhou and Guilin.
It is said that she had brought up
five dragons and the adult dragons helped her to control the forces
of nature, exploit the mountains and rivers, and solve the flood
disaster caused by the Xijiang River which had brought a lot
benefits to the people, thus called the Dragon Mother.
Dragon Mother was enshrined by the
feudal dynasties and offered by the people to pray for a happy life.
To memorize the Dragon Mother, the later generations had built
several hundred Dragon Mother Temples on the two sides of the Xijiang River and in many other places of the country, mainly in
Yuecheng and Quzhou city.
Along side the Changjiang River,
especially in Hong Kong, Macao and Guangdong, the Dragon Mother can
parallel the Matsu in the influence and popularity. All the Dragon
Mother Temple, if linked together, can form a tourist line to search
for the root of Dragon Mother.
The best time to visit the temple is during the main festival –
held on the seventh and eighth days of the fifth lunar month, as
well as the 15thday of the eighth lunar month.
A good time to visit is during the
temple's main festival, held on the seventh and eighth days of the
fifth lunar month and the 15th day of the eighth lunar month.
Dragon Mother was a woman chieftain of the Baiyue nationality in
Southern China during the Warring States Period.
She had a lofty ideal and was highly respected and beloved by her
people.
Backing the Beishan Hill and facing the Guijiang River, the temple
gets the spirit of the fairyland.
A stone carving tortoise and a monument to the prefecture's
Autograph exhibited in the temple, both are precious unearthed
artifacts of Ming Dynasty.
May 8 in Chinese lunar calendar is Dragon Mother's birthday. We call
it Long Mu Dan. On the day, tens of thousands of tourists and
worshippers from Guangdong, Guangxi, HK, Macao and Taiwan tour here
for a worship. They pray for a good harvest and hope the country is
prosperous and the people live in peace.
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