Jingzaijiao Zhenhai Jiangjun Temple

An unassuming folk shrine beside the Jingzaijiao Tile-Paved Salt Fields in Beimen, Tainan, venerating the spirit of a pregnant sow said to have drowned in a nearby drainage ditch where pigs were once slaughtered. After consulting the deities of Xing’an Temple (興安宮), the local center of worship, residents enshrined the sow under the title Zhenhai Dajiangjun (鎮海大將軍), though she is popularly known as Zhumu Niangniang (豬母娘娘). The present shrine was erected in 1977; the original statue was stolen in 2008 and replaced with a replica in 2011. Residents, fishermen, and anglers leave offerings of sweet potato leaves and fruit, pork being strictly taboo, and the sow has also acquired a reputation as a matchmaking deity.