Tengrism

Not to be confused with Tenrikyo.

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Tengrism
A Central Asian–Eurasian Steppe and partly Siberian–East Asian religion
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Tengrism (also known as Tengriism, Tengerism, or Tengrianism) is a religion originating in the Eurasian steppes, based on shamanism and animism. It generally involves the titular sky god Tengri,[1] who is not considered a deity in the usual sense but a personification of the universe.[2] According to some scholars, adherents of Tengrism view the purpose of life to be in harmony with the universe.[3]

Peak of Khan Tengri at sunset

It was the prevailing religion of the Göktürks, Xianbei, Bulgars, Xiongnu, Yeniseian and Mongolic peoples and Huns, as well as the state religion of several medieval states such as the First Turkic Khaganate, the Western Turkic Khaganate, the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, Old Great Bulgaria, the First Bulgarian Empire, Volga Bulgaria, Khazaria, and the Mongol Empire. In the Irk Bitig, a ninth century manuscript on divination, Tengri is mentioned as Türük Tängrisi (God of Turks).[4] According to many academics, Tengrism was, and to some extent still is, a predominantly polytheistic religion based on the shamanistic concept of animism, and was first influenced by monotheism during the imperial period, especially by the 12th–13th centuries.[5] Abdulkadir Inan argues that Yakut and Altai shamanism are not entirely equal to the ancient Turkic religion.[6]

The term also describes several contemporary Turkic and Mongolic native religious movements and teachings. All modern adherents of "political" Tengrism are monotheists.[7] Tengrism has been advocated for in intellectual circles of the Turkic nations of Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan with Kazakhstan) and Russia (Tatarstan, Bashkortostan) since the dissolution of the Soviet Union during the 1990s. Still practiced, it is undergoing an organized revival in Buryatia, Sakha (Yakutia), Khakassia, Tuva and other Turkic nations in Siberia. Altaian Burkhanism and Chuvash Vattisen Yaly are contemporary movements similar to Tengrism.

The term tengri (compare with Kami) can refer to the sky deity Tenger Etseg – also Gök Tengri; Sky father, Blue sky – or to other deities. While Tengrism includes the worship of personified gods (tngri) such as Ülgen and Kayra, Tengri is considered an "abstract phenomenon".[8]: 23  In Mongolian folk religion, Genghis Khan is considered one of the embodiments, if not the main embodiment, of Tengri's will.[9]

  1. ^ Roux 1956; Heissig 1980.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ York, M. (2018). Pagan Mysticism: Paganism as a World Religion. Vereinigtes Königreich: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 250
  4. ^ Tekin 1993.
  5. ^ Roux 1956; Roux 1984; Róna-Tas 1987, pp. 33–45; Kodar 2009; Bira 2011, p. 14.
  6. ^ This Thing of Darkness: Shedding Light on Evil. (2019). Deutschland: Brill. p. 38
  7. ^ Laruelle 2006, pp. 3–4.
  8. ^ Aykanat, Fatma. "The Contemporary Reflections of Tengrism in Turkish Climate Change Fictions." Turkish Ecocriticism: From Neolithic to Contemporary Timescapes (2020): 21.
  9. ^ Man 2004, pp. 402–404.