Kaira-Khan ("the merciful lord") is the highest sky-deity of the Altai creation account recorded by Radloff, dwelling on the uppermost layer of heaven. In the cosmogony he floats above a limitless primordial water and, moved to create, causes the earth to be lifted from the depths; from him proceed the powers that govern the sky, war, wisdom, and the world below. Sources differ on whether Kaira-Khan is a distinct primordial being above Ülgen or an exalted name of Ülgen himself, and later Altai usage often merges the two under the general term Kudai, "God."