Tengrism (also known as Tengriism, Tengerism, or Tengrianism) is a belief system originating in the Eurasian steppes, based on shamanism and animism, and commonly centered on the titular sky god Tengri. According to some scholars, adherents of Tengrism view the purpose of life as living in harmony with the universe.York, M. (2018). Pagan Mysticism: Paganism as a World Religion. Vereinigtes Königreich: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 250
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 (God of Turks). 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 identical to the ancient Turkic religion.This Thing of Darkness: Shedding Light on Evil. (2019). Deutschland: Brill. p. 38
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 (Kyrgyzstan, 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, 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 (tngri) such as Ülgen and Kayra, Tengri per se is considered an "abstract phenomenon".Aykanat, Fatma. "The Contemporary Reflections of Tengrism in Turkish Climate Change Fictions". Turkish Ecocriticism: From Neolithic to Contemporary Timescapes (2020): 21. 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 ("the sky") is derived from ("daybreak") or Tan ("dawn"). Meanwhile, Stefan Georg has proposed that the Turkic Tengri ultimately originates as a loanword from Proto-Yeniseian *tɨŋgɨr- – "high".Georg, Stefan (2001): Türkisch/Mongolisch tengri "Himmel/Gott" und seine Herkunft. Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia 6: 83–100.Starostin, Sergei A., and Merritt Ruhlen. (1994). Proto-Yeniseian Reconstructions, with Extra-Yeniseian Comparisons. In M. Ruhlen, on the Origin of Languages: Studies in Linguistic Taxonomy. Stanford: Stanford University Press. pp. 70–92. [Partial translation of Starostin 1982, with additional comparisons by Ruhlen.] 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 (also Tangol) ("god of the mountains") of Korean folk religion is related to the Siberian Tengri ("heaven"), while the bear is a symbol of the Big Dipper (Ursa Major).
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.E.g., Bergounioux (ed.), Primitive and prehistoric religions, Vol. 140, Hawthorn Books, 1966, p. 80.
Tengrianism is a reflection of the Russian term ("Tengriánstvo"). 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 ("so-called Tengrianism") 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 or ("sky god religion"); the Turkish ("sky") and ("god") correspond to the Mongolian ("blue") and ("sky"), respectively. The Mongolian is used in a 1999 biography of Genghis Khan.Boldbaatar et al., , , 1999, [ p. 18].
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 (1876–1924) 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 (see a historiography of the problem: ).
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,Meserve, R., Religions in the central Asian environment. In: History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Vol. 4 , The age of achievement: A.D. 750 to the end of the fifteenth century, Part Two: The achievements, p. 68: "The 'imperial' religion was more monotheistic, centred around the all-powerful god Tengri, the sky god."Fergus, Michael; Jandosova, Janar. [ Kazakhstan: Coming of Age], Stacey International, 2003, p. 91: "... a profound combination of monotheism and polytheism that has come to be known as Tengrism." and, perhaps, only by the 12th–13th centuries (a late form of development of ancient animistic shamanism in the era of the Mongol Empire).
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 (founded 209 BC) to the Mongol Empire (13th century). 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.
Terms for "shaman" and "shamaness" in Siberian languages: 'shaman': saman (Nedigal, Nanay, Ulcha, Orok), sama (Manchu). The variant /šaman/ (i.e., pronounced "shaman") is Evenk (whence it was borrowed into Russian). 'shaman': alman, olman, wolmen (Yukagir) 'shaman': (Tatar, Shor, Oyrat), (Tuva, Tofalar) The Buryat word for shaman is бөө (böö) , from early Mongolian böge. 'shaman': ńajt (Khanty, Mansi), from Proto-Uralic *nojta (cf. Sámi noaidi) 'shamaness': (Mongol), (Yakut), udagan (Buryat), udugan (Evenki, Lamut), odogan (Nedigal). 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".
Buryat scholar Irina S. Urbanaeva developed a theory of Tengrist esoteric traditions in Central Asia after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the revival of national sentiment in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.English language discussion in Znamenski, Andrei A., Shamanism in Siberia: Russian records of indigenous spirituality, Springer, 2003, , [ pp. 350–352].
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 (chēnglí, Old Chinese ).
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.Marlene Laruelle "Tengrism: In Search for Central Asia's Spiritual Roots" Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst, 22 March 2006
The cult of Heaven-Tengri is fixed by the Orkhon, or Old Turkic script used by the Göktürks ("celestial Turks") and other early khanates during the 8th to 10th centuries.
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 (Khazaria) 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 (13th century). The priests-prophets (temujin) 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.Lee, Jung Young (1981). Korean Shamanistic Rituals. Mouton De Gruyter.