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Vattisen Yaly (Chuvash: Ваттисен йӑли, Ancestral traditions) is a contemporary revival of the ethnic religion of the Chuvash people,[1] a Turkic ethnicity of Bulgar ancestry mostly settled in the republic of Chuvashia and surrounding federal subjects of Russia.
Vattisen Yaly could be categorised as a particular form of Tengrism, a related revivalist movement of Central Asian traditional religion. However, Vattisen Yaly differs significantly from other forms of Tengrism in that the Chuvash have been heavily influenced by Finno-Ugric and Slavic cultures as well as those of other Indo-European speaking ethnicities[2] (they were also never fully Islamised, unlike most other Turkic peoples). Their religion shows many similarities with Finnic and Slavic Paganisms; moreover, the revival of "Vattisen Yaly" in recent decades has occurred following Neopagan patterns.[3] Today the followers of the Chuvash Traditional Religion are called "the true Chuvash".[1] Their main god is Tura, a deity comparable to the Estonian Taara, the Germanic Thunraz and the pan-Turkic Tengri.[2]
The Chuvash traditional religion boasts an unbroken continuity from pre-Christian times, having been preserved in a few villages of the Chuvash diaspora outside Chuvashia until modern times.[4] In the late 1980s and early 1990s, together with the demise of the Soviet Union, a cultural and national revival blossomed among the Chuvash, and its leaders gradually embraced the idea of a return to indigenous Paganism, as did Chuvash intellectuals.[5] The Chuvash identity movement looked to movements in the Baltic states for inspiration.
The national movement, meanwhile embodied in a Chuvash National Congress, carried on its "national religion" idea during the 1990s. Intellectuals started to recover and codify ancient rituals and started practicing them among the population both in cities and countryside villages, declaring themselves the guardians of tradition and the descendants of elder priests.[6]
- ^ a b "Chuvash faith and beliefs". Chuvash Culture Portal. Archived from the original on 2009-08-15.
- ^ a b Stetsyuk, Valentin. Introduction to the Study of Prehistoric Ethnogenic Processes in Eastern Europe and Asia, The Turkic Tribe Bulgar in Eastern Europe. Lviv, Ukraine.
- ^ Filatov, Sergei; Shchipkov, Aleksandr (1995). "Religious Developments among the Volga Nations as a Model for the Russian Federation". Religion, State & Society. 23 (3): 239–243. doi:10.1080/09637499508431705.
- ^ Vovina 2000, p. 2.
- ^ Vovina 2000, pp. 3–5.
- ^ Vovina 2000, p. 7.