Tengri or Tengger (Old Turkic: 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃; Turkish: Tanrı, Mongolian: Тэнгэр, Tenger; Chinese: 腾格里, Mandarin: Ténggélǐ, Hungarian: Tengri, Bulgarian: Tangra (Тангра) is a sky god, formerly the chief deity of the early Turkic peoples, including the Xiongnu, Huns, Bulgars, Magyars and Xianbei.[1]
Because of his importance to their religion, it is sometimes referred to as Tengriism. The core deities of Tengriism were the Sky Father and Earth Mother (Yer Tanrı). Its practice involved elements of shamanism, animism, totemism and ancestor worship.
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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 撑犁/Cheng-li, which is hypothesized to be a Chinese transcription of Tängri. (The Proto-Turkic form of the word has been reconstructed as *Teŋri or *Taŋrɨ.)[3] Stefan Georg (2001) has suggested an ultimately Yeniseian origin, from a *tɨŋgVr-, "high." Alternatively, a reconstructed Altaic etymology from *T`aŋgiri ("oath" or "god") would emphasize the god's divinity rather than his domain over the sky.[4] The Bulgarian form Tengri or Tanak-Ra (all means one and the same) The Turkic form, Tengri, is attested in the 11th century by Mahmud al-Kashgari. In modern Turkish, the derived word "Tanrı" is used as the generic word for "god", or for the Abrahamic God, and is often used today by Muslim Turks to refer to God in Turkish as an alternative to the Arabic Allah. The supreme deity of the traditional religion of the Chuvash is Tură.[5]
Other reflexes of the name in modern languages include Mongolian: Тэнгэр ("sky"), Bulgarian: Тангра, Azerbaijani: Tanrı. The Chinese word for "sky" 天 (Mandarin: tiān) may also be related, possibly a loan from a prehistoric Central Asian language.[6] However, this hypothesis can be disproved, considering that recent historical linguist reconstructs the ancient pronunciation of the character "天" as "qhl'iin"[7]
Aspandiat is the name given to Tengri by the Persians.[8][9]
Tengri was the main god of the Turkic pantheon, controlling the celestial sphere.[10] The Turkic sky god Tengri is 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.[11]
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.[12]
According to Mahmud 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.[13]
Tengri is considered to be the chief god who created all things. In addition to this celestial god, they also had minor divinities that served the purposes of Tengri.[14]
As Gök Tanrı, he was the father of the sun (Koyash) and moon (Ay Tanrı) and also Umay, Erlik, and sometimes Ülgen.
Tengri was the national god of the Göktürks, described as the "god of the Turks" (Türük Tängrisi)[3] 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, kutluġ or kutalmysh, based on the belief that they attained the kut, the mighty spirit granted to these rulers by Tengri.[15]
The Mongolian Great Khans of the 13th century ideologically based their power on a mandate from Tengri himself, and began their declarations with the words "by the will of Eternal [Blue] Heaven."
The Turko-Mongolic concept of a sky god has an analogy in the Daoist coinage of 靝 (with 青 "blue" and 氣 "qi", i.e., "blue heaven") and Confucian concept of Tian Li. The four direction symbols of Blue Dragon (East), White Tiger (West), Red Phoenix (South), Black Snake-Turtle (North) in Chinese cosmology is also analogous with the four direction symbol used in Tengriism.
A severely damaged Greek language inscription from the times of Danube Bulgarian paganism is found on a column near Madara, Bulgaria, which is believed to have been used as an altar stone. The inscription has been interpreted as saying "(Kanasubig)i Omu(rtag), ruler (from God), was ... and sacri(ficed to go)d Tangra ...(some Bulgar titles follow)."[16]