Tengri
Encyclopedia
Tengri or TenggerTengri or Tengger (Old Turkic: ; Mongolian
: Тэнгэр, Tenger; Chinese: 腾格里, Mandarin: Ténggélǐ, Hungarian
: Tengri, Turkish
: Tanrı, Bulgarian
: Tangra (Тангра) is a sky god, formerly the chief deity of the early Turkic
peoples, including the Xiongnu
, Huns
, Bulgars
, Magyars and Xianbei
.
Because of his importance to their religion, it is sometimes referred to as Tengriism
. The core deities of Tengriism were the Sky Father
and Earth Mother (Yer Tanrı
). Its practice involved elements of shamanism
, animism
, totemism
and ancestor worship.
The oldest form of the name is recorded in Chinese annals from the 4th century BC, describing the beliefs of the Xiongnu
. It takes the form 撑犁/Cheng-li, which is hypothesized to be a Chinese transcription of Tängri. (The Proto-Turkic form of the word has been reconstructed as *Teŋri or *Taŋrɨ.) Stefan Georg
(2001) has suggested an ultimately Yeniseian origin, from a *tɨŋgVr-, "high." Alternatively, a reconstructed Altaic etymology from *T`aŋgiri ("oath" or "god") would emphasize the god's divinity rather than his domain over the sky.
The Bulgarian form Tengri or Tanak-Ra (all means one and the same)
The Turkic form, Tengri, is attested in the 11th century by Mahmud al-Kashgari. In modern Turkish
, the derived word "Tanrı" is used as the generic word for "god", or for the Abrahamic God, and is often used today by Muslim
Turks
to refer to God in Turkish as an alternative to the Arabic
Allah
.
The supreme deity of the traditional religion of the Chuvash
is Tură.
Other reflexes of the name in modern languages include ("sky"), , . The Chinese word for "sky" 天 (Mandarin: tiān
) may also be related, possibly a loan from a prehistoric Central Asian language.However, this hypothesis can be disproved, considering that recent historical linguist reconstructs the ancient pronunciation of the character "天" as "qhl'iin"
Aspandiat is the name given to Tengri by the Persians
.
, controlling the celestial sphere. The Turkic sky god Tengri is strikingly similar to the Indo-European sky god, *Dyeus
, and the structure of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion
is closer to that of the early Turks than to the religion of any people of Near Eastern or Mediterranean antiquity.
In Turkic mythology, Tengri is a pure, white goose that flies constantly over an endless expanse of water, which represents time. Beneath this water, Ak Ana ("White Mother") calls out to him saying "Create". To overcome his loneliness, Tengri creates Er Kishi, who is not as pure or as white as Tengri and together they set up the world. Er Kishi becomes a demonic character and strives to mislead people and draw them into its darkness. Tengri assumes the name Tengri Ülgen and withdraws into Heaven from which he tries to provide people with guidance through sacred animals that he sends among them. The Ak Tengris occupy the fifth level of Heaven. Shaman priests who want to reach Tengri Ülgen never get further than this level, where they convey their wishes to the divine guides. Returns to earth or to the human level take place in a goose-shaped vessel.
According to Mahmud Kashgari
, Tengri was known to make plants grow and the lightning flash. Turks used the adjective tengri which means "heavenly, divine", to label everything that seemed grandiose, such as a tree or a mountain, and they stooped to such entities.
Tengri is considered to be the chief god who created all things. In addition to this celestial god, they also had minor divinities that served the purposes of Tengri.
As Gök Tanrı, he was the father of the sun (Koyash
) and moon (Ay Tanrı
) and also Umay
, Erlik
, and sometimes Ülgen.
Tengri was the national god
of the Göktürks, described as the "god of the Turks" (Türük Tängrisi)
The Göktürk khans
based their power on a mandate from Tengri. These rulers were generally accepted as the sons of Tengri who represented him on Earth. They wore titles such as tengrikut, kutluġ or kutalmysh, based on the belief that they attained the kut, the mighty spirit granted to these rulers by Tengri.
The Mongolian Great Khans of the 13th century ideologically based their power on a mandate from Tengri himself, and began their declarations with the words "by the will of Eternal [Blue] Heaven."
The Turko-Mongolic concept of a sky god has an analogy in the Daoist coinage of 靝 (with 青 "blue" and 氣 "qi", i.e., "blue heaven") and Confucian concept of Tian
Li
. The four direction symbols of Blue Dragon (East), White Tiger (West), Red Phoenix (South), Black Snake-Turtle (North) in Chinese cosmology is also analogous with the four direction symbol used in Tengriism.
A severely damaged Greek language inscription from the times of Danube Bulgarian paganism is found on a column near Madara, Bulgaria, which is believed to have been used as an altar stone. The inscription has been interpreted as saying "(Kanasubig)i Omu(rtag)
, ruler (from God), was ... and sacri(ficed to go)d Tangra ...(some Bulgar titles follow)."
Mongolian language
The Mongolian language is the official language of Mongolia and the best-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5.2 million, including the vast majority of the residents of Mongolia and many of the Mongolian residents of the Inner...
: Тэнгэр, Tenger; Chinese: 腾格里, Mandarin: Ténggélǐ, Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
: Tengri, Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
: Tanrı, Bulgarian
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
: Tangra (Тангра) is a sky god, formerly the chief deity of the early Turkic
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
peoples, including the Xiongnu
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu were ancient nomadic-based people that formed a state or confederation north of the agriculture-based empire of the Han Dynasty. Most of the information on the Xiongnu comes from Chinese sources...
, Huns
Huns
The Huns were a group of nomadic people who, appearing from east of the Volga River, migrated into Europe c. AD 370 and established the vast Hunnic Empire there. Since de Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu, who had been northern neighbours of China 300 years prior to the emergence of the Huns,...
, Bulgars
Bulgars
The Bulgars were a semi-nomadic who flourished in the Pontic Steppe and the Volga basin in the 7th century.The Bulgars emerge after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the 5th century....
, Magyars and Xianbei
Xianbei
The Xianbei were a significant Mongolic nomadic people residing in Manchuria, Inner Mongolia and eastern Mongolia. The title “Khan” was first used among the Xianbei.-Origins:...
.
Because of his importance to their religion, it is sometimes referred to as Tengriism
Tengriism
Tengriism is a Central Asian religion that incorporates elements of shamanism, animism, totemism and ancestor worship. Despite still being active in some minorities, it was, in old times, the major belief of Turkic peoples , Bulgars, Hungarians and Mongols...
. The core deities of Tengriism were the Sky Father
Sky father
The sky father or heavenly father is a recurring theme in mythology all over the world. The sky father is the complement of the earth mother and appears in some creation myths, many of which are Indo-European or ancient Near Eastern. Other cultures have quite different myths; Egyptian mythology...
and Earth Mother (Yer Tanrı
Yer Tanri
Yer Tanrı is the goddess of earth in Turkic mythology.With her husband, Gök Tanrı, she was the parent of Ay Tanrı, Umay, Ülgen, Koyash, and Erlik. As a fertility goddess, she was recognized as the giver of crops and abundance. In the spring and in the autumn — before the beginning of the...
). Its practice involved elements of shamanism
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
, animism
Animism
Animism refers to the belief that non-human entities are spiritual beings, or at least embody some kind of life-principle....
, totemism
Totemism
Totemism is a system of belief in which humans are said to have kinship or a mystical relationship with a spirit-being, such as an animal or plant...
and ancestor worship.
Name
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu were ancient nomadic-based people that formed a state or confederation north of the agriculture-based empire of the Han Dynasty. Most of the information on the Xiongnu comes from Chinese sources...
. It takes the form 撑犁/Cheng-li, which is hypothesized to be a Chinese transcription of Tängri. (The Proto-Turkic form of the word has been reconstructed as *Teŋri or *Taŋrɨ.) Stefan Georg
Stefan Georg
Stefan Georg is currently Privatdozent at the University of Bonn in Bonn, Germany, for Altaic Linguistics and Culture Studies.- Background :...
(2001) has suggested an ultimately Yeniseian origin, from a *tɨŋgVr-, "high." Alternatively, a reconstructed Altaic etymology from *T`aŋgiri ("oath" or "god") would emphasize the god's divinity rather than his domain over the sky.
The Bulgarian form Tengri or Tanak-Ra (all means one and the same)
The Turkic form, Tengri, is attested in the 11th century by Mahmud al-Kashgari. In modern Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
, the derived word "Tanrı" is used as the generic word for "god", or for the Abrahamic God, and is often used today by Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
Turks
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
to refer to God in Turkish as an alternative to the Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
Allah
Allah
Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...
.
The supreme deity of the traditional religion of the Chuvash
Chuvash people
The Chuvash people are a Turkic ethnic group, native to an area stretching from the Volga Region to Siberia. Most of them live in Republic of Chuvashia and surrounding areas, although Chuvash communities may be found throughout all Russia.- Etymology :...
is Tură.
Other reflexes of the name in modern languages include ("sky"), , . The Chinese word for "sky" 天 (Mandarin: tiān
Tian
Tian is one of the oldest Chinese terms for the cosmos and a key concept in Chinese mythology, philosophy, and religion. During the Shang Dynasty the Chinese called god Shangdi or Di , and during the Zhou Dynasty Tian "heaven; god" became synonymous with Shangdi...
) may also be related, possibly a loan from a prehistoric Central Asian language.However, this hypothesis can be disproved, considering that recent historical linguist reconstructs the ancient pronunciation of the character "天" as "qhl'iin"
Aspandiat is the name given to Tengri by the Persians
Persian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...
.
Characteristics
Tengri was the main god of the Turkic pantheonPantheon (gods)
A pantheon is a set of all the gods of a particular polytheistic religion or mythology.Max Weber's 1922 opus, Economy and Society discusses the link between a...
, controlling the celestial sphere. The Turkic sky god Tengri is strikingly similar to the Indo-European sky god, *Dyeus
Dyeus
*Dyēus is the reconstructed chief deity of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon. He was the god of the daylight sky, and his position may have mirrored the position of the patriarch or monarch in society....
, and the structure of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion
Proto-Indo-European religion
Proto-Indo-European religion is the hypothesized religion of the Proto-Indo-European peoples based on the existence of similarities among the deities, religious practices and mythologies of the Indo-European peoples. Reconstruction of the hypotheses below is based on linguistic evidence using the...
is closer to that of the early Turks than to the religion of any people of Near Eastern or Mediterranean antiquity.
In Turkic mythology, Tengri is a pure, white goose that flies constantly over an endless expanse of water, which represents time. Beneath this water, Ak Ana ("White Mother") calls out to him saying "Create". To overcome his loneliness, Tengri creates Er Kishi, who is not as pure or as white as Tengri and together they set up the world. Er Kishi becomes a demonic character and strives to mislead people and draw them into its darkness. Tengri assumes the name Tengri Ülgen and withdraws into Heaven from which he tries to provide people with guidance through sacred animals that he sends among them. The Ak Tengris occupy the fifth level of Heaven. Shaman priests who want to reach Tengri Ülgen never get further than this level, where they convey their wishes to the divine guides. Returns to earth or to the human level take place in a goose-shaped vessel.
According to Mahmud Kashgari
Mahmud Kashgari
Mahmud ibn Hussayn ibn Muhammad al-Kashgari was an 11th century Turkic scholar and lexicographer of Turkic languages from Kashgar.His father, Hussayn, was the mayor of Barsgan and related to the Qara-Khanid ruling dynasty...
, Tengri was known to make plants grow and the lightning flash. Turks used the adjective tengri which means "heavenly, divine", to label everything that seemed grandiose, such as a tree or a mountain, and they stooped to such entities.
Tengri is considered to be the chief god who created all things. In addition to this celestial god, they also had minor divinities that served the purposes of Tengri.
As Gök Tanrı, he was the father of the sun (Koyash
Koyash
Koyash is the god of sun in Turkic mythology.Gök Tanrı created the earth with rays of sun light, thus, Koyash took part in the creation of earth. Solar rays are also considered to be "strings" between the sun and the spirits of plants, animals and humans....
) and moon (Ay Tanrı
Ay Tanri
Ay Tanrı is the goddess of moon in Turkic mythology.She was both feared and loved. She was believed to give magic powers to shamans, thus positively perceived in that way. But in general Ay Tanrı was related to negative issues such as malicious spirits, illness, and death. Turkish people always...
) and also Umay
Umay
Umay is the goddess of fertility and virginity in Turkic mythology and Tengriism and as such related to women, mothers and children. Umay resembles earth-mother goddesses found in various other world religions. Literally in the Mongolian language, "eje" or "eej" means "mother." In Mongolian "Umai"...
, Erlik
Erlik
Erlik, or Erlig, is the god of death and underworld in Turkic and Mongolian mythology.According to Siberian mythology, Erlik was the first creation of Tengri or Ulgan, the creator god, but Erlik's pride led to friction between the two, and he was banished to the underworld.In the myths of the...
, and sometimes Ülgen.
History
National god
The concept of a national god is most closely associated with the God of Israel who in the Torah is described as the sole God to be worshipped by the nation of Israel...
of the Göktürks, described as the "god of the Turks" (Türük Tängrisi)
The Göktürk khans
Khan (title)
Khan is an originally Altaic and subsequently Central Asian title for a sovereign or military ruler, widely used by medieval nomadic Turko-Mongol tribes living to the north of China. 'Khan' is also seen as a title in the Xianbei confederation for their chief between 283 and 289...
based their power on a mandate from Tengri. These rulers were generally accepted as the sons of Tengri who represented him on Earth. They wore titles such as tengrikut, kutluġ or kutalmysh, based on the belief that they attained the kut, the mighty spirit granted to these rulers by Tengri.
The Mongolian Great Khans of the 13th century ideologically based their power on a mandate from Tengri himself, and began their declarations with the words "by the will of Eternal [Blue] Heaven."
The Turko-Mongolic concept of a sky god has an analogy in the Daoist coinage of 靝 (with 青 "blue" and 氣 "qi", i.e., "blue heaven") and Confucian concept of Tian
Tian
Tian is one of the oldest Chinese terms for the cosmos and a key concept in Chinese mythology, philosophy, and religion. During the Shang Dynasty the Chinese called god Shangdi or Di , and during the Zhou Dynasty Tian "heaven; god" became synonymous with Shangdi...
Li
Li (Confucian)
Li is a classical Chinese word which finds its most extensive use in Confucian and post-Confucian Chinese philosophy. Li encompasses not a definitive object but rather a somewhat abstract idea; as such, it is translated in a number of different ways...
. The four direction symbols of Blue Dragon (East), White Tiger (West), Red Phoenix (South), Black Snake-Turtle (North) in Chinese cosmology is also analogous with the four direction symbol used in Tengriism.
A severely damaged Greek language inscription from the times of Danube Bulgarian paganism is found on a column near Madara, Bulgaria, which is believed to have been used as an altar stone. The inscription has been interpreted as saying "(Kanasubig)i Omu(rtag)
Omurtag of Bulgaria
Omurtag was a Great Khan of Bulgaria from 814 to 831. He is known as "the Builder".In the very beginning of his reign he signed a 30-year peace treaty with the neighboring Eastern Roman Empire which remained in force to the end of his life...
, ruler (from God), was ... and sacri(ficed to go)d Tangra ...(some Bulgar titles follow)."
Place Names for Tengri
- A pyramidal peakPyramidal peakA pyramidal peak, or sometimes in its most extreme form called a glacial horn, is a mountaintop that has been modified by the action of ice during glaciation and frost weathering...
of the Tian ShanTian ShanThe Tian Shan , also spelled Tien Shan, is a large mountain system located in Central Asia. The highest peak in the Tian Shan is Victory Peak , ....
range between KazakhstanKazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
and KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
, is called "Khan TengriKhan TengriKhan Tengri is a mountain of the Tian Shan mountain range. It is located on the China—Kyrgyzstan—Kazakhstan border, east of lake Issyk Kul. Its geologic elevation is , but its glacial cap rises to...
." The Tian Shan itself is known in UyghurUyghur languageUyghur , formerly known as Eastern Turk, is a Turkic language with 8 to 11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China. Significant communities of Uyghur-speakers are located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and various other...
as the Tanri Tagi. - The Tangra MountainsTangra MountainsTangra Mountains form the principal mountain range of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica...
on Livingston Island in the South Shetland IslandsSouth Shetland IslandsThe South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands, lying about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, with a total area of . By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the Islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for...
of Antarctica are also named after the deity. - The Bulgars named a large mountain in the Rila mountain rangeRilaRila is a mountain range in southwestern Bulgaria and the highest mountain range of Bulgaria and the Balkans, with its highest peak being Musala at 2,925 m...
after Tangra, although it was renamed in the 15th century to MusalaMusalaMusala is the highest peak in Bulgaria and the entire Balkan Peninsula, standing at 2,925 m . The summit of the Rila mountain in southwestern Bulgaria, Musala is the highest peak between the Alps and the Caucasus and the highest in Eastern Europe bar the Caucasus.Between 1949–1962 the peak was...
("Mountain of Allah") by the Ottoman TurksOttoman EmpireThe Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. - OtgontengerOtgontengerOtgontenger is the highest mountain of the Khangai Mountains in Mongolia. Its peak considered at the elevation of 4,008 m . The mountain is located in Zavkhan Province and the only mountain of the Khangai range that is capped with a glacier...
, the highest mountain of the Khangai mountains in MongoliaMongoliaMongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
. - Tengger DesertTengger DesertThe Tengger Desert covers about 36,700 km2 and is mostly in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in China.- External links :* *...
, a desert in Inner MongoliaInner MongoliaInner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...
, China.
See also
- Heaven worshipHeaven worshipHeaven worship is a Chinese religious belief that predates Taoism and Confucianism, but was later incorporated into both.The Ancient Chinese believed in a non-corporeal entity called Shangdi, an omnipotent, just, and monotheistic supreme being. Over time, Shangdi became synonymous with Tian , or...
- OtOtOt is the Mongolian goddess of marriage. In Mongolian folklore she is referred to as the "queen of fire". The word ōt means 'fire' in the Turkic languages. She was said to have been born at the beginning of the world, when the earth and sky separated...
- Wolf TotemWolf TotemWolf Totem is a semi-autobiographical novel about the experiences of a young student from Beijing who finds himself sent down to the countryside of Inner Mongolia in 1967, at the height of China's Cultural Revolution...
a best-selling Chinese novel by Lu JiaminLu JiaminLü Jiamin is a Chinese writer, most famous for his best-selling 2004 novel Wolf Totem, which he wrote under the pseudonym Jiang Rong. He is married to fellow novelist Zhang Kangkang.-Early life:...
describing worship of Tengger among the people of Inner MongoliaInner MongoliaInner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...
External links
- Mongolian film The Sky Son (Tengeriin Khuu)
- The Gods of the Turks (Tengrianism)
- Circle of Tengerism: an organization dedicated to the preservation of Siberian and Mongolian shaman traditions
- Excerpt from Tengrianizm: Religion of Turks and Mongols, by Rafael Bezertinov
- Shamanism (Tengerism) in Mongolia
- Julie Stewart's course in Mongolian shamanism--introduction
- Virtual Temple of Tengri
- Tengri on Mars
- Circle of Tengerism: an organization dedicated to the preservation of Siberian and Mongolian shaman traditions
- Excerpt from Tengrianizm: Religion of Turks and Mongols, by Rafael Bezertinov
- Virtual Temple of Tengri
- Shamanism (Tengerism) in Mongolia
- Julie Stewart's course in Mongolian shamanism--introduction
- Bog je Jedan blog: Avar Tengrism in Croatia
- "Tenri on Mars" by HB Paksoy
- http://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-01192005-154827/unrestricted/tezispdf.pdf