Longmu Temple in Tengxian County

Longmu Temple in Tengxian County

Longmu Temple in Tengxian County is a cultural tourism attraction.

Longmu Temple in Tengxian County is one of the most renowned temples in the Xijiang River basin, alongside Guangdong’s Yuecheng Longmu Temple and Guangxi’s Wuzhou Longmu Temple (also known as the Grand Longmu Temple). Located in Shengxi Village beneath the Xijiang River Bridge in Tengxian County, Guangxi, it can be reached via the secondary road from Nanning to Wuzhou leading into the county town. It is said to be the birthplace of Longmu, the legendary guardian deity of the ancient Xijiang River region.

The Northern Song Dynasty text *Taiping Huanyu Ji* once documented the location of Longmu Temple in Tengxian County. The temple was destroyed during the “Cultural Revolution” and was rebuilt by local communities in 1994. Today, it houses cultural relics such as a Longmu Temple seal, a divine beast with the body of a snake and the face of a lion, a lotus-shaped column base, and an incense burner engraved with the characters “Longmu Niangniang.” Tengxian County is one of the birthplaces of Xijiang culture, and numerous sites related to the worship of Longmu and the legends associated with her—such as the Dragon-Rearing Pool, Dragon’s Neck, Returning Dragon Isle, Dragon Pool Gorge, Dragon Bay, Dragon Lane Terrace, Stone Dragon, and Dragon Lane Village—are recorded in historical editions of the *Tengxian County Annals*.

On the first day of the lunar calendar, known as “Longmu’s Birthday,” and on the fifth day of the eighth lunar month, celebrated as “Longmu’s Ascension Day,” worshippers gather at the temple to hold ceremonies in her honor. On the eve of “Longmu’s Birthday,” four purified women of good standing from Tengxian County are traditionally chosen to travel to Yuecheng Longmu Temple in Deqing, Guangdong—the place where Longmu grew up—to bathe and change the deity’s clothes in a mysterious ritual. Local people hold deep reverence for Longmu’s virtues of “benefiting all under heaven,” her contributions to the nation, and her moral excellence as a motherly figure, collectively referred to as the “benevolent and dignified spirit of the Dragon Mother.”