Qualla: Nuwa Palace

Nuwa Palace: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Anagoria, CC BY 3.0. According to Chinese mythology, the sky once broke. A water god named Gonggong, defeated in a struggle for leadership of the gods, slammed into Mount Buzhou in rage and knocked the pillar of heaven askew. The sky cracked, the earth tilted, rivers poured southeast, and celestial bodies drifted northwest. It fell to the goddess Nuwa to repair the damage. She melted gems of five colors to patch the holes in the heavens and cut the four legs from the great sea tortoise Ao to prop up the sky at its corners. This creation myth -- which ancient Chinese scholars used to explain both the Earth's axial tilt and the southeastern flow of China's great rivers -- has been celebrated at Nuwa Palace on Phoenix Mountain in Hebei Province since at least the 2nd century AD.

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Image: Anagoria | CC BY 3.0

Nuwa Palace: A Temple for Humanity's Ancestor

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit PRC, Public domain. Nuwa is not merely a sky-mender in Chinese tradition. She is regarded as the creator of humanity itself, having fashioned the first humans from yellow earth. Nuwa Palace -- also known as Wahuang Palace -- sits in She County, under the jurisdiction of Handan Prefecture, and is tre...

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Image: PRC | Public domain

Nuwa Palace: Scripture Carved in Stone

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit H2v5o68z, CC0. The mountain's rock face bears one of the most extensive collections of carved Buddhist scripture in China. Beginning during the Northern Qi dynasty in the 6th century, monks began incising text into the cliff, and the practice continued across subsequent dynasties until the tota...

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Image: H2v5o68z | CC0

Nuwa Palace: Five Colors of the Sky

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit H2v5o68z, CC0. The myth of Nuwa repairing the heavens with five-colored stones connects to Wuxing, the Chinese philosophical system of five elements or phases: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Each element corresponds to a color, a season, a direction, and a quality. The five-colored gems N...

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Image: H2v5o68z | CC0

Nuwa Palace: Recognition and Renewal

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit H2v5o68z, CC0. Nuwa Palace was designated a nationally protected historical and cultural site by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage in 1996, recognizing both its antiquity and its continuous importance in Chinese religious life. In 2015, it received the highest tourist designation in...

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Image: H2v5o68z | CC0