Qiang folk religion · deity · Qiang folk religion traditional religion; continuing · deity
The Goddess of the Mountains is the female mountain divinity of Qiang folk religion and the fifth of the five great gods whose white quartz stones are set together on the rooftop and grove altar of every household, beside the gods of heaven, earth, the mountains, and the trees. Ethnographers record her as a deity distinct from the male mountain god, and Qiang scholarship places her within a rich tradition of goddess worship that also embraces the heavenly progenitor Mujiezhu. She is invoked for the protection and fertility of the village and its lands, her presence in the white stone bringing the power of the female mountains into the home.
Domains
mountains and wild land
fertility and protection
Powers
to bless the mountain heights and the increase of those who dwell beneath them
Sources
Graham, David Crockett. The Customs and Religion of the Ch'iang. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 135, no. 1. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1958.
Li Xianglin. "Goddess Worship and Ethnic Consciousness in Qiang Folk Literature" (Qiangzu minjian wenxue zhong de nushen chongbai yu zuqun yishi). Wenhua yichan (Cultural Heritage), no. 1 (2012).