Which goddess is known as the Queen Mother of the West?

The goddess known as the Queen Mother of the West is Xi Wangmu.

Xi Wangmu, also written Xiwangmu or Hsi Wang-mu, is one of the most important female divinities in Chinese religion and mythology. Her name literally means “Queen Mother of the West,” and traditional accounts place her court on the mythological Mount Kunlun. She is especially associated with immortality, longevity, celestial authority, and the peaches of immortality served to divine guests.

Her character changed considerably across Chinese history. Early descriptions portray a formidable western deity linked with wild animals, disease, and heavenly punishment. By the Han dynasty, roughly from the 2nd century BCE onward, she had become strongly associated with longevity and the quest for immortality, developments that accompanied the growth of Daoist religious ideas and increased contact along the Silk Road.

Xi Wangmu is not Chang’e, the moon goddess, nor Nüwa, the creator and restorer of humanity. Mazu is a later sea goddess. The title also appears in neighboring traditions, including Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, but Xi Wangmu is the standard Chinese name.