Tengri (Old Turkic: ??????; Bulgarian: ??????; Modern Turkish: Tanr?; Proto-Turkic *te?ri / *ta?r?; Mongolian script: ?????, Tngri; Modern Mongolian: ??????, Tenger), is one of the names for the primary chief deity since the early Turkic, Xiongnu, Hunnic, Bulgar and Mongolic (Xianbei) peoples.
Worship of Tengri is Tengrism. The core beings in Tengrism are Heavenly-Father (Tengri/Tenger Etseg) and Earth Mother (Eje/Gazar Eej). It involves shamanism, animism, totemism and ancestor worship.
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Name
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 ??/Cheng-li, which is hypothesized to be a Chinese transcription of Tängri. (The Proto-Turkic form of the word has been reconstructed as *Te?ri or *Ta?r?.) Alternatively, a reconstructed Altaic etymology from *T`a?giri ("oath" or "god") would emphasize the god's divinity rather than his domain over the sky.
The Turkic form, Tengri, is attested in the 8th century Orkhon inscriptions as the Old Turkic form ?????? Te?ri. In modern Turkish, the derived word "Tanr?" is used as the generic word for "god", or for the 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 Tur?.
Other reflexes of the name in modern languages include Mongolian: ?????? ("sky"), Bulgarian: ??????, Azerbaijani: Tanr?. The Chinese word for "sky" ? (Mandarin: ti?n, Classical Chinese: th?n and Japanese Han Dynasty loanword ten) may also be related, possibly a loan from a prehistoric Central Asian language.
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History
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, kutlu? or kutalmysh, based on the belief that they attained the kut, the mighty spirit granted to these rulers by Tengri.
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). It lost its importance when the Uighuric kagans proclaimed Manichaeism the state religion in the 8th century. 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. As Gök Tanr?, he was the father of the sun (Koyash) and moon (Ay Tanr?) and also Umay, Erlik, and sometimes Ülgen.
Mythology
Tengri was the main god of the Turkic pantheon, controlling the celestial sphere. Tengri is considered to be 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.
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 Kul Tigin includes the passages (in the translation provided by the Language Committee of Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan): "When the blue sky [Tengri] above and the brown earth below were created, between them a human being was created. Over the human beings, my ancestors Bumin Kagan and Istemi Kagan ruled. They ruled people by Turkish laws, they led them and succeeded" (face 1, line 1); "Tengri creates death. Human beings have all been created in order to die" (face 2, line 9); "You passed away (lit.: 'went flying') until Tengri gives you life again" (face 2, line 14).
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 al-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 worship by "infidels" was viewed negatively by Kashgari. The non-Muslim Turks worship of Tengri was mocked and insulted by the al-Kashgari, who wrote a verse referring to them - The Infidels - May God destroy them!
al-Kashgari claimed that the Prophet assisted in a miraculous event where 700,000 Yab?qu infidels were defeated by 40,000 Muslims led by Arsl?n Teg?n claiming that fires shot sparks from gates located on a green mountain towards the Yab?qu. The Yabaqu were a Turkic people.
Place names
- 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.
- The Tangra Mountains on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica are also named after the deity.
- The Bulgars named a large mountain in the Rila mountain range after Tangra, although it was renamed in the 15th century to Musala ("Mountain of Allah") by the Ottoman Turks.
- Otgontenger, the highest mountain of the Khangai mountains in Mongolia.
- Tengger Desert, a desert in Inner Mongolia, China.
Modern revival
"Tengrism" is the term for a revival of Central Asian shamanism after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In Kyrgyzstan, Tengrism was suggested as a Pan-Turkic national ideology following the 2005 presidential elections by an ideological committee chaired by state secretary Dastan Sarygulov.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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