Tianhou — Tiānhòu (天后), the Empress of Heaven — is the supreme exalted title and aspect of the sea-goddess Mazu in Chinese religion: the highest honour by which the beloved protectress of sailors is venerated, raised by imperial decree to be the “Empress of Heaven,” a great celestial goddess. Where Mazu is the intimate, maternal sea-goddess, Tianhou is her exalted, imperial, heavenly form.
The Exaltation of Mazu
Tianhou (“Empress/Queen of Heaven”) is the highest of the many titles given over the centuries to Mazu, the deified sea-goddess (the spirit of Lin Moniang). As Mazu’s cult grew ever greater — carried across the seas by the seafaring peoples of southern China, Taiwan, and the overseas Chinese diaspora, and credited with countless rescues of sailors and even of imperial fleets and envoys — successive emperors honoured her with ever-grander posthumous titles, raising her step by step up the celestial hierarchy: from “Lady” to “Consort” to “Heavenly Consort (Tianfei)” and at last, in the Qing dynasty, to the supreme rank of “Tianhou,” the “Empress of Heaven” — and even “Holy Mother in Heaven.” In this exalted form she is a great celestial empress-goddess, second in dignity among the goddesses perhaps only to the highest.
The Empress of Heaven and the Sea
As Tianhou, the Empress of Heaven, Mazu is venerated in her most majestic aspect — robed and crowned as a celestial empress, enthroned in glory, the supreme protectress of the seas and of all who depend on them. Her great temples are called Tianhou temples (Tin Hau temples in Cantonese) — found in every coastal Chinese city, in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and throughout the overseas Chinese world from Southeast Asia to the ports of the wider world — among the most important and beautiful temples of the Chinese religious landscape. Whether invoked intimately as “Mazu” (Maternal Ancestor, the kindly mother of sailors) or majestically as “Tianhou” (the Empress of Heaven), she is the same beloved goddess of the sea — the fisherman’s daughter raised, by her boundless mercy and the gratitude of the seafaring peoples, to the highest heaven.
The Imperial Goddess of the Seafarers
The title Tianhou reflects the supreme importance of Mazu to the maritime Chinese world and the official recognition of her cult by the empire itself. The Empress of Heaven, the exalted celestial form of the sea-goddess Mazu, crowned and enthroned in glory, protectress of the seas, honoured in the great Tianhou temples of every port — Tianhou is the imperial, heavenly aspect of the beloved sea-goddess of China. (See also Mazu for her life and legend.)
