Xiwangmu Temple, Heavenly Lake, Xinjiang新疆天池西王母祖庙
- Type
- Temples and Abbeys (Gongguan)
- Location
- China · Xinjiang · Fukang, Changji · Eastern shore of Heavenly Lake, Fukang
- Coordinates
- 43.88, 88.12 Map ↗
- School
- Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism
- First built
- During the Qianlong era, Qing (according to one account, earlier) · The 'Turquoise Pond' of the Account of Emperor Mu, Son of Heaven came to be identified with Heavenly Lake; the Iron-Tile Temple (Fushou Temple) was built in the Qing, destroyed in the 1930s, and rebuilt in 1999
- Heritage status
- Heavenly Lake, Tianshan: part of the UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site "Xinjiang Tianshan" (2013)
Overview
Heavenly Lake in the Tianshan Mountains has come to be identified in later tradition with the 'Turquoise Pond' where King Mu of Zhou met the Queen Mother of the West in the Account of Emperor Mu, Son of Heaven. During the Qianlong era of the Qing, Daoist priests in Xinjiang built the Fushou Temple (popularly called the Iron-Tile Temple) on the eastern shore of Heavenly Lake to worship the Queen Mother of the West, the most famous Daoist temple in Xinjiang; it was destroyed by warfare in the 1930s. The Xiwangmu Ancestral Temple was rebuilt on the original site in 1999 and expanded in the 2000s, enshrining images of the Queen Mother of the West and King Mu of Zhou; it is now one of the centers of Daoist activity in Xinjiang, and the Queen Mother's Peach Festival each July draws worshippers. Daoism came to Xinjiang with Han Chinese migration; in the Qing dynasty, Guandi temples, City God temples, and Wenchang palaces were built in places such as Ürümqi and Yili, though few survive today.
Highlights
- Xiwangmu Ancestral Temple
- Legend of the Turquoise Pond
- Heavenly Lake, Tianshan