Temples Founded for "Drifting Corpses" in the Mazu Islands : The Makang Mazu Temple as a Preliminary Case Study.

There is a significant narrative about the origin of the Magang Tian-Hou Temple in the Mazu Islands. It says that the corpse of Lin Mo Niang (Tian Hou) drifted to the coast of Magang after she died at sea when rescuing her father, and the local people buried her and established the temple for her. We can still see the grave in the temple nowadays. In this essay, we try to figure out the social and cultural implication behind this story. First of all, we find that people burying a corpse found on the beach and establishing a temple for him (or her) is a common religious model in the Mazu Islands. Further, we argue that this kind of religious model represents a distinguishing characteristic of small island societies in southeast coastal China. These societies are relatively marginal and unstable. This religious model reflects the struggle over self-identity in these societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]