Xi Wangmu

Xiwangmu near Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Xi Wangmu (西王母), in Chinese mythology, literally "Queen Mother of the West," is the ruler of the western paradise and goddess of immortality. She is charged with overseeing the wall of heaven.

Originally, from the earliest known depictions of her in the "Guideways of Moutains and Seas", she was a ferocious goddess with the teeth of a tiger, who sent plagues down upon the world. After she was adopted into the Taoist pantheon, she was transformed into a benign deity. In popular Chinese mythology, Xi Wangmu lived in a palace made entirely of jade, so she has often been considered the patron deity of jade carvers. She also possesses a peach tree which, every 3,000 years, produces a peach that grants immortality. Her role with respect to immortality and everlasting happiness probably arose from her origin as the goddess of fertility, and may be related to the West Asian fertility goddess Astarte. A fictional account of her meeting up with King Mu of Zhou Dynasty, as part of his journey to the west meeting various exotic characters, may be related to the story of King Solomon and Queen Sheba, both derived from ancient tales of Egypt/Babylon. The story of her daughter the Weaving Fairy eloping with the Cowherd Boy, who stole her clothes when she came down to earth for a bath, may derive from primitive annual fertility rituals in which women of a village bathing at a sacred spring would be joined by men from other villages.

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