Doumu

Doumu
Goddess of Heaven
Member of Ursa Major deities
Other names	Lady Mother of the Chariot Mother of the Big Dipper
Weapon	Bow and arrow Spear
Animals	Boar
Symbols	Golden seal Bell
Gender	Female
Personal information
Children	Tianhuang Emperor Ziwei Emperor
Equivalents
Buddhist equivalent	Marici

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Dǒumǔ (Chinese: 斗母; literally: 'Mother of the Great Chariot / Big Dipper'), also known as Template:Zhp, Template:Zhp and Template:Zhp,^[1] is a goddess in Chinese religion and Taoism. She is also named through the honorific Tiānhòu (天后 "Queen of Heaven"), shared with other Chinese goddesses, especially Mazu, who are perhaps conceived as her aspects. Other names are Template:Zhp and Template:Zhp.^[2]

She is the feminine aspect of the cosmic God of Heaven.^[1] The seven stars of the Big Dipper, in addition to two not visible to the naked eye, are conceived as her sons, the Template:Zhp, themselves regarded as the ninefold manifestation of Template:Zhp or Template:Zhp, another name of the God of Heaven. She is therefore both wife and mother of the God of Heaven.^[3][4] In certain Taoist accounts she is identified as the ambiguous goddess of life and death Xiwangmu.

In the esoteric teachings of Taoism she is identified as the same as Jinling Shengmu, Template:Zhp and Template:Zhp, representing the mother of the immortal "red infant" (赤子; chìzǐ) Dao enshrined at the centre of the human body.^[5] This links her directly to the myths about the birth and initiation of Laozi^[5] and the Yellow Emperor (whose mother Fubao became pregnant with him after she was aroused by seeing lightning emanating from, or turning around, the Big Dipper^[6]), as attested, among others, by Ge Hong (283-343).^[7]

In Vajrayana traditions of Chinese Buddhism (Tangmi), Doumu was conflated with Bodhisattva Marici at least by the Tang dynasty. Marici too is described as the mother of the Way and the Dipper, at the centre of Brahma's Heaven of primal energy. Marici's chariot is pulled by seven boars.^[1] Furthermore she has also been associated and linked with Cundi. The incantation used in the Taoist scripture dedicated to Doumu is the same as one of the longer Buddhist dharanis used for Marici, but with eight verses in Han Chinese added in the beginning to praise her.

• Doumu in art
• 
  Hall of Doumu at the Green Ram Temple in Chengdu, Sichuan, China
• 
  Doumu altar at a temple in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia
• 
  Statue of Doumu at the Green Ram Temple
• 
  Song dynasty statue of Doumu
• 
  Statue of Doumu in Kunming, China
• 
  Doumu behind another god at Huayang Taoist Temple in Jieyang, Guangdong, China
• 
  Statue of Doumu in Taiwan
• 
  Illustration of Doumu (1922)

• Tai Sui
• Nine Emperor Gods Festival
• Chinese theology
• Big Dipper

Other goddesses identified with the Great Chariot

• Ungnyeo
• Ninlil
• Ninhursag

• Didier, John C. (2009). "In and Outside the Square: The Sky and the Power of Belief in Ancient China and the World, c. 4500 BC – AD 200". Sino-Platonic Papers (Victor H. Mair) (192).  Volume I: The Ancient Eurasian World and the Celestial Pivot, Volume II: Representations and Identities of High Powers in Neolithic and Bronze China, Volume III: Terrestrial and Celestial Transformations in Zhou and Early-Imperial China.
• Fowler, Jeanine D. (2005). An Introduction to the Philosophy and Religion of Taoism: Pathways to Immortality. Sussex Academic Press. ISBN 1845190866. https://books.google.com/books?id=9wi-ZDdmaqEC.  * Pregadio, Fabrizio (2013). The Encyclopedia of Taoism. Routledge. ISBN 978-1135796341. https://books.google.com/books?id=R3Sp6TfzhpIC.  Two volumes: 1) A-L; 2) L-Z.
• Wells, Marnix (2013). The Pheasant Cap Master and the End of History: Linking Religion to Philosophy in Early China. Lulu.com. ISBN 978-1931483261. https://books.google.com/books?id=KWasBQAAQBAJ. 

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