Tengri and Kut | Part 1

Spelling of tengri in the Orkhon script (written from right to left).


Mavi Boncuk |

  Tengri 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.

Tengri [1] was the main god of the Turkic pantheon, controlling the celestial sphere.[10] 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,[clarification needed] 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. Shamanpriests 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.

[1]  A pyramidal peak of the Tian Shan range between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, is called "Khan Tengri." The Tian Shan itself is known in Uyghur as the Tanri Tagi. ‘Wolf Totem’ a best-selling Chinese novel by Lu Jiamin describing worship of Tengger among the people of Inner Mongolia. The Chinese word for "sky" 天 (Mandarin: tiān) may also be related, possibly a loan from a prehistoric Central Asian language. The connection was noted by Max Müller in Lectures on the Science of Religion (1870). Axel Schüssler (2007:495): "Because the deity Tiān came into prominence with the Zhou dynasty (a western state), a Central Asian origin has been suggested, note Mongolian tengri 'sky, heaven, heavenly deity'" (Shaughnessy Sino-Platonic Papers, July 1989, and others, like Shirakawa Shizuka before him)."

Transcription of text columns (modern Mongolian in brackets)

Möngke ṭngri-yin (Monkh tengeriin)

küčündür. Yeke Mongγol (khuchin dor. Ikh Mongol)

ulus-un dalai-in (ulsyn dalai)

qanu ǰrlγ. Il bulγa (khaany zarlig. Il bulkha)

irgen-dür kürbesü, (irgen dor khurvees)

büsiretügüi ayutuγai. (bishirtugei ayutugai.)

Seal of Güyük Khan using the classical Mongolian script, as found in a letter sent to the Roman Pope Innocent IV in 1246. English translation: "Under the Power of the Eternal Heaven, if the Decree of the Oceanic Khan of the Great Mongol Nation reaches people both subject or belligerent, let them revere, let them fear". Literally: "Eternal Heaven's Power-under, Great Mongol Nation's Oceanic Khan's Decree, Subject Belligerent People-unto reach-if, Revere-may Fear-may".