Tian Hou Gong, Bintawa



Like many of the Tian Hou Gong in Sarawak or Ma Zhu temples around Southern China; Ma Zhu, the Taoist Goddess of the Sea, is worshipped in the temple; here with two Heavenly Guardians at the sides.

Ma Zhu is widely worshipped among the Chinese communities traditionally engaged in the fishing line of work or whose ancestors lived around the Southern China coastlines.



She is widely worshipped & popular among the Taiwanese, Fujians, Cantonese, and the Chinese in the South East Asia.

According to legend, Ma Zhu or Lin Mo Niang was born in 960 on Meizhou Island, Fujian. She had the gift of heavenly power, and her warm heartedness & eagerness had earned her respects & love from the villagers. She died at the young age of 28; according to one legend, when she climbed a mountain alone and flew to heaven and became a goddess.

The Tian Hou Gong in Bintawa; it was said that in the 1960s or earlier, the local pioneer Heng Hua community live around the Ang Cheng Ho area before been relocated to the present Bintawa. As devotees to Ma Zhu, the earlier Heng Hua people used to commute between the earlier Ang Cheng Ho & the nearby Padungan Tian Hou Gong, a routine practice for a fishing community especially before & after a fishing trip.


After the relocation, a new Tian Hou Gong was then initiated as it was & it still is a more convenient location of worship and to provide the required spiritual needs to the Bintawa community.

The present Tian Hou Gong has gone through many times of upgrading & expansion since then, especially in the 1990s where few of local devotees had contributed tremendously to the current glamorous architecture of the temple.





Location: 93450 Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

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