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Tengrism |
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Tengri | |
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God of Heaven | |
Abode | Sky |
Gender | Male |
Ethnic group | Turkic peoples |
Genealogy | |
Spouse | Umay |
Tengri (Old Turkic: 𐰚𐰇𐰚:𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, romanized: Kök Teŋri/Teŋiri, lit. 'Blue Heaven'; Old Uyghur: tängri; Middle Turkic: تآنغرِ; Ottoman Turkish: تڭری; Kyrgyz: Теңир; Kazakh: Тәңір; Turkish: Tanrı; Azerbaijani: Tanrı; Bulgarian: Тангра; Proto-Turkic: *teŋri / *taŋrɨ; Mongolian script: ᠲᠩᠷᠢ,[1] T'ngri; Mongolian: Тэнгэр, Tenger; Uyghur: تەڭرى, tengri[2]) is the all-encompassing God of Heaven in the traditional Turkic, Yeniseian,[citation needed] Mongolic, and various other nomadic religious beliefs.[3] Tengri is not considered a deity in the usual sense, but a personification of the universe.[4] However, some qualities associated with Tengri as the judge and source of life, and being eternal and supreme, led European and Muslim writers to identify Tengri as a deity of Turkic and Mongolic peoples.[5] According to Mongolian belief, Tengri's will (jayayan) may break its own usual laws and intervene by sending a chosen person to earth.[6]
It is also one of the terms used for the primary chief deity of the early Turkic and Mongolic peoples.
Worship surrounding Tengri is called Tengrism. The core beings in Tengrism are the Sky Father (Tenger Etseg) and the Earth Mother (Umay Ana).[dubious – discuss] It involves ancestor worship, as Tengri was thought to have been the ancestral progenitor of mankind in Turkic regions and Mongolia,[7] shamanism, animism, and totemism.[citation needed]