A lorcha, a three-masted ship with a European-style hull and the sails and rigging of a Chinese junk, depicted in colourful bas-relief on pink granite boulder by entrance to A-Ma Temple in Macau, China. It represents the vessel of a poor fisherman who carried A-Ma, Taoist mother-goddess and protector of seafarers, to safety after a storm. The temple, dating from 1488 AD, was built where she landed.
Macau, China: a pink granite boulder by the entrance to the A-Ma Temple bears this coloured bas relief of a lorcha, a type of fast three-masted sailing ship fusing a European-style hull with the rigging and batten lugsails of a traditional Chinese junk. Here, it represents the vessel believed to have carried A-Ma, the Taoist mother-goddess and protector of seafarers, to a safe landing place after a storm in the South China Sea. According to legend, A-Ma was a poor girl looking for a passage to Guangzhou, who was turned away by wealthy junk owners but found a poor fisherman who agreed to take her on his boat. During the voyage, a sudden storm wrecked all the junks at sea, but left his boat unscathed. The fisherman returned to land and witnessed A-Ma walking to the peak of nearby Barra Hill before ascending to heaven in a glowing aura or bright beam of light. The fisherman is said to have built a temple on the spot where they landed on the south-western tip of what is now known as the Macau Peninsula - a name derived from A-Ma. The site was originally at the water’s edge but now, due to land reclamation, lies at the entrance to Macau’s Inner Harbour. The present temple, founded in 1488 AD during the Ming Dynasty, attracts pilgrims to Macau every Spring for the A-Ma Festival. Elsewhere, A-Ma is worshipped in Hong Kong as Tianhou or Tin Hau, and in mainland China and other East and South East Asian centres of Chinese culture either by the title Mazu (Maternal Ancestor) or by various other names. Her cult is observed in around 1,500 temples across the Sinosphere.
Size: 3872px × 2592px
Location: A-Ma Temple, Macau, China.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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