Longmu (Dragon Mother)

The Longmu cult originated in the Xi River basin. Legend holds that during the Qin dynasty, Wen, a woman from Tengxian County in present-day Guangxi, discovered five eggs by the riverbank; she hatched them to reveal five young dragons, which she raised and later released into the river. Revered as Wen Ao or Longmu, she possessed the power to foretell floods and droughts and to heal the sick, bringing prosperity to her region. After her death, her five dragon sons transformed into five scholarly young men and buried her beside the riverbank at Yuecheng; local villagers then erected a shrine in her honour. The Yuecheng Longmu Ancestral Temple in Deqing County, Guangdong, and the Wuzhou Longmu Temple jointly serve as the twin spiritual centres of this faith; the Yuecheng temple—renowned for its grandeur—is ranked alongside the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall in Guangzhou and the Foshan Ancestral Temple as one of the 'Three Treasures of Lingnan Architecture'. On the 8th day of the 5th lunar month—the Longmu Birthday Festival—elaborate ceremonies including the 'Opening of the Golden Treasury' and dragon-boat races are held throughout the Xi River basin; devotees from Hong Kong, Macau, and Southeast Asia journey upstream to pay homage, sustaining an unbroken tradition of worship for more than two thousand years.