Close to the world’s tallest statue of the goddess A-Ma (also known as Tian Hou), which stands on a 170-metre high peak on a mountaintop on Macau’s Coloane Island, is a 7,000-square-meter Qing dynasty-style complex that honors one of Macau’s most beloved deities.
The complex comprises a bell tower, drum tower, carved marble altar in the Tian-Hou Palace, a dressing hall, museum and shops, which visitors approach by six rows of stairs carved with auspicious Chinese patterns including the roaring tiger, double lion, five cranes and double phoenix.
The goddess A-Ma has an estimated 200 million devotees worldwide and has long been revered as the protector of people who make their living on the sea. The village, begun after the first A-Ma Cultural and Tourism Festival of Macau in 2001, today attracts throngs of A-Ma devotees and interested tourists, especially those from the mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Fujian Province, where the goddess is believed to have been born more than 1,000 years ago. A well-known local legend tells of the goddess saving the occupants of a ship during a fierce storm, and ascending afterward into heaven near the site of the historic A-Ma temple, a local landmark believed to have been built during the Ming dynasty.
A-Ma Cultural Village, Coloane
