The Metamorphosis of Mazu Belief and the Reconstruction of Mazu Temples
Abstract
Mazu, also known as Tianhou/Tianfei is the most prosperous belief in Chinese Mainland and in the shipping developed areas like Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and overseas Chinese immigrants’ communities. It forms a unique belief system with goddess worship as its core, and form a religious culture integrating marine culture. This article focuses on the main carrier of Mazu belief, Mazu Temples, and attempts to sort out its architectural evolution strategies in the development of history. This article briefly analyzes the similarities and differences in the forms of Mazu temples in their birthplace and overseas regions. And a systematic summary is proposed, that is, Mazu Temple is not only a religious building and a sacred space experience. But more importantly, it act as a cultural and spiritual symbol, playing a different role in the dissemination of Mazu culture at home and abroad for communication purposes.In previous studies on Mazu culture and beliefs, the vast majority of researchers only focused on the changes in Mazu beliefs themselves, including the evolution of artistic sculptures, paintings, ritual offerings, and their political significance. But few people pay attention to Mazu Temple, or in other words, Mazu Temple, as an important material carrier of Mazu belief, has always been regarded by believers as a simple religious place and used by scholars as a way to study the development of Mazu belief, while its importance in architecture has been ignored.
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