Tengri

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For the group of Mongol gods, see Tngri. For the Polynesian god, see Tangaroa.

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Tengri (

Proto-Turkic: *teŋri / *taŋrɨ; Mongolian script: ᠲᠩᠷᠢ,[1] T'ngri; Mongolian: Тэнгэр, Tenger; Uyghur: تەڭرى, tengri[2]) is the all-encompassing God of Heaven in the traditional Turkic, Yeniseian, Mongolic, and various other nomadic Altaic religious beliefs.[3] Tengri is not considered a deity in the usual sense, but a personification of the universe.[4] However, some qualities associated with Tengri as the judge and source of life, and being eternal and supreme, led European and Muslim writers to identify Tengri as a deity of Turkic and Mongolic peoples.[5] According to Mongolian belief, Tengri's will (jayayan) may break its own usual laws and intervene by sending a chosen person to earth.[6]

It is also one of the terms used for the primary chief deity of the early Turkic and Mongolic peoples.

Worship surrounding Tengri is called

totemism.[citation needed
]

Name

Spelling of 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃‎ tengri in the Old Turkic script (written from right to left, as t²ṅr²i)

The oldest form of the name is recorded in Chinese annals from the 4th century BC, describing the beliefs of the

Altaic etymology from *T`aŋgiri ("oath" or "god") would emphasize the god's divinity rather than his domain over the sky.[9] It is generally assumed the term tengri originally meant "sky".[10][11] Andrey Kononov suggested that the term is formed by the words tän (morning) and injir (evening) into tänri, referring to the sky as whole.[10]

The Turkic form, Tengri, is attested in the 8th century

Abrahamic God, and is used today by Turkish people to refer to any god. The supreme deity of the traditional religion of the Chuvash is Tură.[12]

Other reflexes of the name in modern languages include Mongolian: Тэнгэр ("sky"), Bulgarian: Тангра, Azerbaijani: Tanrı.

Earlier, the Chinese word for "sky" 天 (

dorsal *x, both of which likely originated from an earlier voiceless lateral *l̥ˤ.[18]

Linguist Stefan Georg has proposed that the Turkic word ultimately originates as a loanword from Proto-Yeniseian *tɨŋgɨr- "high".[19][20]

Amy Chua renders the name as "[T]he Eternal Blue Sky",[21] likely because of the connotations of the name's usage.

History

Güyüg Khan's letter to Pope Innocent IV
, 1246. The first four words, from top to bottom, left to right, read "möngke ṭngri-yin küčündür" – "Under the power of the eternal heaven".

Tengri was the

Göktürks, described as the "god of the Turks" (Türük Tängrisi).[8] 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 kut, some sort of heavenly and spiritual force granted to these rulers by Tengri.[22]

Prior to foreign influences, the Turkic conception of tengri was regarded as the heaven or the will controlling heaven, probably some sort of force. Out of this, the concept of a personal being developed. First, when Turkic people took over other religions, the term tengri became the name of a (personal) god or "higher being".[23]

Tengri was the chief deity worshipped by the ruling class of the Central Asian steppe peoples in 6th to 9th centuries (Turkic peoples, Mongols and Hungarians).[24] It lost its importance when the Uighuric kagans proclaimed Manichaeism the state religion in the 8th century.[25] The worship of Tengri was brought into Eastern Europe by the Huns and early Bulgars.

Tengri is considered to be the chief god who created all things. In addition to this celestial god, they also had minor divinities (Alps) that served the purposes of Tengri.[26] As Gök Tanrı, he was the father of the sun (

Ay Tanrı) and also Umay, Erlik, and sometimes Ülgen
.

Mythology

Tengri was the main god of the Turkic pantheon, controlling the celestial sphere.

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.[28] In Christian Turkish usage Tengri is used for the father of Jesus, who is referred to as "Tengri Oghli" (Son of God) and "Mshikha Tengri" (Messiah God). Tengri is also compared to Allah and Khuda. Apart from foreign religious influences, as far as known today, the original Turkish concept of Tengri was that of "heaven" or a spirit ruling in heaven. This spirit was probably imagined as some sort of force, corresponding to "mana" in modern ethnology.[29]

The most important contemporary testimony of Tengri worship is found in the

Old Turkic Orkhon inscriptions
, dated to the early 8th century. Written in the so-called
Orkhon script
, these inscriptions record an account of the mythological origins of the Turks. The inscription dedicated to
Old Turkic
: Öd Teŋri yasar kisi oγlu qop ölgeli törürmis), (face 2, line 9); "You passed away (lit.: 'went flying') until Tengri gives you life again" (face 2, line 14). Khagans ruled by the will of Tengri thought the ancient Turkic people and preserved these thoughts in the texts of the
Old Turkic: Teŋiriteg Teŋiride bolmuš Türük Bilge Qaγan bü ödüke olurtum).[30]

In one

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.[31]

Geographical names

The Khan Tengri pyramidal peak

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "ТЭНГЭР". Mongolian State Dictionary (in Mongolian). Retrieved 2017-10-05.
  2. ^ "تەڭرى pronunciation: How to pronounce تەڭرى in Uyghur". Forvo.com.
  3. ^ Bukharaev, R. (2014). Islam in Russia: The Four Seasons. Vereinigtes Königreich: Taylor & Francis. p. 78
  4. ^ Bekebassova, A. N. "Archetypes of Kazakh and Japanese cultures." News of the national academy of sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Series of social and human sciences 6.328 (2019): 87-93.
  5. ^ BANZAROV, Dorji; NATTIER, Jan; KRUEGER, John R. The Black faith, or Shamanism among the Mongols. Mongolian Studies, 1981, S. 53-91.
  6. ^ BANZAROV, Dorji; NATTIER, Jan; KRUEGER, John R. The Black faith, or Shamanism among the Mongols. Mongolian Studies, 1981, S. 53-91.
  7. ISBN 978-1-335-42927-8
    .
  8. ^ a b Jean-Paul Roux, Die alttürkische Mythologie, p. 255
  9. ^ "Altaic etymology : Query result". starling.rinet.ru.
  10. ^ a b Religion and State in the Altaic World: Proceedings of the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC), Friedensau, Germany, August 18–23, 2019. (2022). Deutschland: De Gruyter. p. 178
  11. ^ Moldagaliyev, Bauyrzhan Eskaliyevich, et al. "Synthesis of traditional and Islamic values in Kazakhstan." European Journal of Science and Theology 11.5 (2015): 217-229.
  12. ^ Tokarev, A. et al. 1987–1988. Mify narodov mira.
  13. ^ "Chinese characters : Query result". starling.rinet.ru.
  14. ^ Schuessler, Axel. (2007). An Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese. University of Hawaii Press. p. 495
  15. ^ The connection was noted by Max Müller in Lectures on the Science of Religion (1870).[1] 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)."
  16. ^ 鄭張尚芳 《上古音系》(2003) 上海教育出版社
  17. ^ Baxter W. & Sagart, L. Baxter-Sagart Old Chinese reconstruction, version 1.1 (20 September 2014) Archived 2021-05-04 at the Wayback Machine p. 110 of 161
  18. ^ Baxter, W. H. & Sagart, L. (2014) Old Chinese: A New Reconstruction. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 113-114
  19. ^ Georg, Stefan (2001): Türkisch/Mongolisch tengri “Himmel/Gott” und seine Herkunft. Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia 6: 83–100.
  20. ^ Starostin, Sergei A., and Merritt Ruhlen. (1994). Proto-Yeniseian Reconstructions, with Extra-Yeniseian Comparisons. In M. Ruhlen, On the Origin of Languages: Studies in Linguistic Taxonomy Archived 2021-11-03 at the Wayback Machine. Stanford: Stanford University Press. pp. 70–92. [Partial translation of Starostin 1982, with additional comparisons by Ruhlen.]
  21. OCLC 123079516
    .
  22. ISBN 3-12-909870-4
  23. ^ Brill, E. J. (1993). E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam: 1913-1936. Ṭāʻif - Zūrkhāna. Niederlande: Brill.
  24. ISBN 978-963-9116-48-1, p. 151
    .
  25. ^ Buddhist studies review, Volumes 6–8, 1989, p. 164.
  26. ^ Kaya, Polat. "Search For the Origin of the Crescent and Star Motif in the Turkish Flag", 1997. [2] Archived 2006-06-18 at the Wayback Machine
  27. Greenwood Press, 2006. page 62
  28. ^ Mircea Eliade, John C. Holt, Patterns in comparative religion, 1958, p. 94.
  29. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_7392
    First published online: 2012 First print edition:
    ISBN 9789004161214
    , 1960-2007
  30. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.05.177
    .
  31. ^ Göknil, Can. "Creation myths from Central Asia to Anatolia". Yapı Kredi Art Galleries, 1997. [3] Archived 2009-12-03 at the Wayback Machine

References

  • Brent, Peter. The Mongol Empire: Genghis Khan: His Triumph and his Legacy. Book Club Associates, London. 1976.
  • Sarangerel. Chosen by the Spirits. Destiny Books, Rochester (Vermont). 2001
  • Schuessler, Axel. ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese.
    University of Hawaii Press
    . 2007.
  • Georg, Stefan. „Türkisch/Mongolisch tängri “Himmel/Gott” und seine Herkunft", "Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia 6, 83–100
  • Bruno J. Richtsfeld: Rezente ostmongolische Schöpfungs-, Ursprungs- und Weltkatastrophenerzählungen und ihre innerasiatischen Motiv- und Sujetparallelen; in: Münchner Beiträge zur Völkerkunde. Jahrbuch des Staatlichen Museums für Völkerkunde München 9 (2004), S. 225–274.
  • Yves Bonnefoy, Asian mythologies, University of Chicago Press, 1993,
    ISBN 978-0-226-06456-7, p. 331
    .

Güngör, Harun (Winter 2013). "Tengrism as a religious and political phenomenon in Turkish World: Tengriyanstvo" (PDF). KARADENİZ – BLACK SEA – ЧЕРНОЕ МОРЕ. 19 (Winter 2013). Erdoğan Altinkaynak: 189–195.

ISSN 1308-6200. Archived from the original
(PDF) on 13 August 2016. Retrieved 19 June 2016.

External links

Look up tanrı in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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