Tngri

In the pantheon of Mongolian shamanism and Tengrism, tngri (also tengri, tegrí) constitute the highest class of divinities and are attested in sources going back to the 13th century. They are led by different chief deities in different documents and are divided into a number of different groups—including black (terrifying) and white (benevolent), and eastern and western. While there generally seem to be 99 tngri, some documents propose three others (from the north), and while they are generally the highest divinities, some liturgical texts propose an additional group of 33 chief gods alongside the tngri. They were invoked only by the highest shamans and leaders for special occasions; they continue to be venerated especially in black shamanism. Chief among the tngri are Qormusata Tngri and (Khan) Möngke Tngri.

The term tngri is cognate with the Turkic theonym tengri "sky", Mongolian taŋɣaraɣ "oath" and tenger "sky".^[1]

^ Sergei Starostin, StarLing database: "Proto-Altaic: *t`aŋgiri "oath, god" (клятва, божество) "An interesting common Altaic religious / juridical term. The proposed etymology presumes that the meaning 'sky' in Turkic is secondary ( < 'God'); if it is not the case, one could accept S. Georg's thesis about a loan in Turkic < Yenisseian *tɨŋgVr- 'high' (see Georg 2001) - although we must admit that other loans from Yenisseian are unknown to us."

[1] Sergei Starostin, StarLing database: "Proto-Altaic: *t`aŋgiri "oath, god" (клятва, божество) "An interesting common Altaic religious / juridical term. The proposed etymology presumes that the meaning 'sky' in Turkic is secondary ( < 'God'); if it is not the case, one could accept S. Georg's thesis about a loan in Turkic < Yenisseian *tɨŋgVr- 'high' (see Georg 2001) - although we must admit that other loans from Yenisseian are unknown to us."

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