Tengrism
Tengrism is a belief system originating in the Eurasian steppes, based on shamanism and animism. It generally involves the titular sky god Tengri. According to some scholars, adherents of Tengrism view the purpose of life as to be in harmony with the universe.
It was the prevailing religion of the Göktürk, Hun, Xianbei, Bulgar, Xiongnu, Yeniseian, and Mongolic peoples, 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. According to many academics, Tengrism was, and to some extent still is, a predominantly polytheistic religion based on the shamanistic concept of animism, and it was first influenced by monotheism during the imperial period, especially by the 12th–13th centuries. Abdulkadir Inan has argued that Yakut and Altai shamanism are not entirely equal to the ancient Turkic religion.
According to Turkish historian Ahmet Taşağıl, Turkic Tengrism differed from classical shamanism, possessing a distinct theological structure. He argues that what is commonly termed "shamanism" constitutes a "Buddhism-mixed steppe tradition" and "a system of magic" rather than a formal religion. Based on historical evidence, he proposes that the ancient Turks were not shamanists, and they adhered to a unique Tengrist belief system centered around an abstract deity in heaven, distinguishing it from other forms.
The term also describes several contemporary Turkic and Mongolic native religious movements and teachings. All modern adherents of "political" Tengrism are monotheists. Tengrism has been advocated for in intellectual circles of the Turkic nations of Central Asia and Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, during the 1990s. Still practiced, it is undergoing an organized revival in Buryatia, Sakha, Khakassia, Tuva, and other Turkic nations in Siberia. Altaian Burkhanism and Chuvash Vattisen Yaly are contemporary movements similar to Tengrism.
The term tengri 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 such as Ülgen and Kayra, Tengri per se is considered an "abstract phenomenon". In Mongolian folk religion, Genghis Khan is considered one of the embodiments, if not the main embodiment, of Tengri's will.
Terminology and relationship with shamanism
The forms of the name Tengri among the ancient and modern Turkic and Mongolic languages are Tengeri, Tangara, Tangri, Tanri, Tangre, Tegri, Tingir, Tenkri, Tangra, Teri, Ter, and Ture. The name Tengri is derived from or Tan. Meanwhile, Stefan Georg has proposed that the Turkic Tengri ultimately originates as a loanword from Proto-Yeniseian *tɨŋgɨr- – "high". Mongolia is sometimes poetically called the "Land of Eternal Blue Sky" by its inhabitants. According to some scholars, the name of the important deity Dangun of Korean folk religion is related to the Siberian Tengri, while the bear is a symbol of the Big Dipper.The word "Tengrism" is a fairly new term. The current spelling is found in the works of the 19th-century Kazakh ethnographer Shoqan Walikhanov. The term was introduced into scientific circulation in 1956 by French scholar Jean-Paul Roux and later in the 1960s as a general term in English-language papers.
Tengrianism is a reflection of the Russian term Тенгрианство. It was introduced by Kazakh poet and turkologist Olzhas Suleymenov in his 1975 book AZ-and-IA. Since the 1990s, Russian-language literature uses it in the general sense, as for instance, reported in 1996 in the context of the nationalist rivalry over Bulgar legacy.
The spellings Tengriism, Tangrism, and Tengrianity can also be found since the 1990s. In modern Turkey and, partly in Kyrgyzstan, Tengrism is known as Tengricilik or Göktanrı dini ; the Turkish and correspond to the Mongolian khukh and Tengeri, respectively. The Mongolian Тэнгэр шүтлэг is used in a 1999 biography of Genghis Khan.
In the 20th century, a number of scientists proposed the existence of a religious imperial khagan cult in the ancient Turkic and Mongolian states. The Turkish historian of religion Ziya Gökalp wrote in his History of Turkish Holy Tradition and Turkish Civilization that the religion of the ancient Turkic states could not be primitive shamanism, which was only a magical part of the religion of the ancient Türks.
The nature of this religion remains debatable. According to many scholars, it was originally polytheistic, but a monotheistic branch with the sky god Kök-Tengri as the supreme being evolved as a dynastical legitimation. It is at least agreed that Tengrism formed from the various folk religions of the local people and may have had diverse branches.
Some scholars have suggested that Tengrism was a monotheistic religion only at the imperial level in aristocratic circles, and, perhaps, only by the 12th–13th centuries.
According to Jean-Paul Roux, the monotheistic concept evolved later out of a polytheistic system and was not the original form of Tengrism. The monotheistic concept helped to legitimate the rule of the dynasty: "As there is only one God in Heaven, there can only be one ruler on the earth ...".
Others have pointed out that Tengri itself was never an Absolute but only one of many gods of the upper world, the sky deity, of polytheistic shamanism, later known as Tengrism.
Tengrism differs from contemporary Siberian shamanism in that it was a more organized religion. Additionally, the polities practicing it were not small bands of hunter-gatherers like the Paleosiberians, but a continuous succession of pastoral, semi-sedentary khanates and empires from the Xiongnu empire to the Mongol Empire. In Mongolia, it survives as a synthesis with Tibetan Buddhism while existing in purer forms around Lake Khovsgol and Lake Baikal. Unlike Siberian shamanism, which has no written tradition, Tengrism can be identified from Turkic and Mongolic historical texts like the Orkhon inscriptions, the Secret History of the Mongols, and Altan Tobchi. However, these texts are more historically oriented and are not strictly religious texts like the scriptures and sutras of sedentary civilizations, which have elaborate doctrines and religious stories.
On a scale of complexity, Tengrism lies somewhere between the Proto-Indo-European religion and its later form, the Vedic religion. The chief god Tengri is considered strikingly similar to the Indo-European sky god *Dyḗus and the East Asian Tian. 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 neolithic European, Near Eastern, or Mediterranean antiquity.
Terms for "shaman" and "shamaness" in Siberian languages:
- 'shaman': saman, sama. The variant /šaman/ is Evenk.
- 'shaman': alman, olman, wolmen
- 'shaman': ,
- The Buryat word for shaman is бөө , from early Mongolian böge.
- 'shaman': ńajt, from Proto-Uralic *nojta
- 'shamaness': , , udagan, udugan, odogan. Related forms found in various Siberian languages include utagan, ubakan, utygan, utügun, iduan, or duana. All these are related to the Mongolian name of Etügen, the hearth goddess, and Etügen Eke "mother Earth". Maria Czaplicka points out that Siberian languages use words for male shamans from diverse roots, but the words for female shaman are almost all from the same root. She connects this with the theory that women's practice of shamanism was established earlier than men's and that "shamans were originally female".
Historical Tengrism
The first time the name Tengri was recorded in Chinese chronicles was in the 4th century BC as the sky god of the Xiongnu, using the Chinese form .Tengrism formed from the various Turkic and Mongolic folk religions, which had a diverse number of deities, spirits, and gods. Turkic folk religion was based on animism and was similar to various other religious traditions of Siberia, Central Asia, and Northeast Asia. Ancestor worship played an important part in Tengrism.
The cult of Heaven-Tengri is fixed by the Orkhon, or Old Turkic script used by the Göktürks and other early khanates during the 8th to 10th centuries.
File:Guyuk khan's Stamp 1246.jpg|thumb|Seal from 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". The words "Tngri" and "zrlg" exhibit vowel-less archaism.
Tengrism most probably existed in medieval states in Eurasia, such as the Göktürk Khaganate, Western Turkic Khaganate, Old Great Bulgaria, Danube Bulgaria, Volga Bulgaria, and Eastern Tourkia Turkic beliefs contain the sacral book Irk Bitig from the Uyghur Khaganate.
Tengrism also played a large role in the religion of the Mongol Empire as the primary state spirituality. Genghis Khan and several generations of his followers were Tengrian believers and "shaman-kings" until his fifth-generation descendant, Özbeg Khan, turned to Islam in the 14th century. Old Tengrist prayers have come to us from the Secret History of the Mongols. The priests-prophets received them, according to their faith, from the great deity/spirit Munkh Tenger.
Tengrism was probably similar to the folk traditions of the Tungusic peoples, such as the Manchu folk religion. Similarities with Korean shamanism and Wuism as well as Japanese Shinto are also evident.
According to Hungarian archaeological research, the religion of the Magyars until the end of the 10th century was a form of Tengrism and shamanism.
Tengrists view their existence as sustained by the eternal blue sky, the fertile mother-earth spirit, and a ruler regarded as the chosen one by the holy spirit of the sky. Heaven, earth, spirits of nature, and ancestors provide for every need and protect all humans. By living an upright, respectful life, a human will keep his world in balance and perfect his personal Wind Horse, or spirit. The Huns of the northern Caucasus reportedly believed in two gods: Tangri Han, considered identical to the Persian Esfandiyār and for whom horses were sacrificed, and Kuar.
Traditional Tengrism was more embraced by the nomadic Turks than by those residing in the lower mountains or forests. This belief influenced Turkic and Mongol religious history since ancient times until the 14th century, when the Golden Horde converted to Islam. From then on, Tengrism was mostly submerged by other religious ideas. Traditional Tengrism persists among the Mongols and in some Turkic and Mongolic-influenced regions of Russia, in parallel with other religions.