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Few people know the name of Copper Bowl Village on the East Hill Island in Fujian Province and yet the village is famous. It is widely known as the Village of Widows and it is where the ancestral temple of Second Mazu is located.

The tragedy of the Village of Widows occurred in May, 1950. On the early morning of May 10th, the soldiers of Chiang Kai-shek, on their way retreating to Taiwan, seized the village and rounded up all the adult males in front of the village temple. There were altogether 147 adult males above the age of 17 in the village. They were conscripted as soldiers on the spot and pushed onto the warships waiting on the sea. Ninety one of the 147 men were married. From that day on, 91 wives were known as widows as they were separated from their husbands. The separation lasted for more than 50 years. In the 1980s, an eponymous film was made on the widows tragic life experiences and their yearning for reunion with their husbands. A television drama was also partly based on the stories of these widows.

The ancestral temple of Second Mazu embodies part of the regional history and the regional religious faith. Situated south of the village on the East Hill Island, the temple was first built in 1589, a year during the reign of Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Mazu literally refers to “Mother Ancestor”, the goddess of the sea who protects fishermen and sailors on the sea, widely worshiped in southeastern coastal areas of China. Unlike numerous Mazu Temples across China and overseas where the goddess of the sea whose mortal name is Lin Moniang is worshiped, this temple is the shrine of another Mazu, whose mortal name is Lady Rouyi.

The history of this deified lady goes back to more than 1,300 years, when the region was largely a wilderness where gangsters ruled. Chen Yuanguang, a general who led an army came down to Fujian, wiped out the gangsters and brought the province under the rule of the central government. Chen Huaiyu, the 17-year-old daughter of the general, was a brave soldier. She came with her father to help accomplish the military mission. She died in battle. She was posthumously granted the title of Lady Rouyi. She became Mazu. The memorial temple on the East Hill Island may not be the oldest ever built in her honor, but it is the oldest one known and existing today.

In the Ming Dynasty, General Zheng Chenggong drilled his navy on the East Hill Island before he led his army across the straits to drive away the Dutch invaders and recover the island province. The fleet left for the war on the 12th day of the third month on the lunar calendar in 1661. Dozens of men from the village followed Zheng Chenggong to war. Before they left, they prayed for the blessing of the goddess and moved the statue from the temple to one of their ships. After they left with the original goddess, the villagers created a new statue of Mazu to bless the soldiers. Zhengs army defeated the Dutch brought Taiwan back to the sovereignty of the motherland. The soldiers from the village felt they were indeed blessed, for miraculously none of them was injured in the war.

The men from the village even believed they won the war because they were blessed by the motherly protector. After some villagers escorted the original statue back to the temple on the East Hill Island, the temple ran into a problem, for it now had two different goddesses. Villagers came up with this solution: the two goddesses were recognized as the first motherly protector and second motherly protector. As they had both helped soldiers win the war, they were worshiped in the same place.

Lady Rouyi has been worshipped as second Mazu in Taiwan since that time. There are thirteen temples across the island province in honor of the Second Mother. However, the origin of the goddess was somehow lost over years and for a long time, disciples in modern days did not know where this goddess came from. Some followers in Taiwan searched the roots for decades before they located the temple on East Hill Island in Fujian Province. The temple is now officially recognized as the ancestral temple of second Mazu goddess.

On the New Years Day of 2007, a delegation of more than 10 representatives from Taiwan made a detoured journey all the way and arrived at the temple. They presented a drum and a bell to the ancestral temple. A documentary was made to record the pilgrimage. In 2007, the temple was officially put on the second list of the intangible cultural heritages of Fujian Province.

On February 16th, 2009, a delegation of 650 disciples, representatives of 26 Mazu temples in Taiwan, took a pilgrimage to the temple. The delegation escorted a statue of Yu the Second Mother back to the ancestral temple. It was also the first large-scale pilgrimage since the ban on the sea traffic across the Taiwan Straits was lifted.

The local Mazu followers and those from Taiwan celebrated their common Mazu together. They paraded in the streets, staged a thanksgiving performance, and held a sacrificial ritual at the temple. □