A-Ma Temple is one of the most well known historical heritages of Macau. The temple which has gone through development history of over 500 years is one of the three largest ancient temples of Macau.
Ma Temple was generally named as Tianhou Temple by the locals. It was said that Tianhou who originated from Putian of Fujian Province could predict ones future. After his death, he still continued to assist the fishermen to solve problems especially during their fishing journey. For this reason, the locals believed that Tianhou had turned to be immortal and can help them in pursuing good fortune. Therefore, they built the temple by the sea to show their appreciation to him.
400 years ago when the Portuguese reached Macau for the first time and landed at the shore in front of the temple, they asked the locals regarding the name of the land. Anyway, the local residents misunderstood that they asked for the name of the temple, so they answered as ‘Mage”. Then, the Portuguese pronounced as Macau and this was how Macau gained its Portuguese name.