Kaira-Khan
Altai · deity · Altai traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
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."
Children
Domains
- creation
- sky
Powers
- summon the earth from the primordial waters
- beget the ruling powers of the three worlds
Epithets
- Тегри Кайракан — Heaven, the Merciful LordV. V. Radloff, Proben der Volkslitteratur der türkischen Stämme Süd-Sibiriens, Bd. I, St. Petersburg, 1866 (primary)
Relations
- parent: ÜlgenL. P. Potapov, Altaiskii shamanizm, Leningrad: Nauka, 1991 (secondary)
- parent: ErlikL. P. Potapov, Altaiskii shamanizm, Leningrad: Nauka, 1991 (secondary)
- parent: KyzaghanA. V. Anokhin, Materialy po shamanstvu u altaitsev, Sbornik MAE IV(2), Leningrad: Izd. AN SSSR, 1924 (primary)
- parent: MergenA. V. Anokhin, Materialy po shamanstvu u altaitsev, Sbornik MAE IV(2), Leningrad: Izd. AN SSSR, 1924 (primary)
Sources
- Kaira-Khan is the supreme celestial creator of the Altai cosmogony, who raises the earth from the world-ocean and from whom the ruling divine powers descend.: V. V. Radloff, Proben der Volkslitteratur der türkischen Stämme Süd-Sibiriens, Bd. I, St. Petersburg, 1866 (primary); Uno Harva, Die religiösen Vorstellungen der altaischen Völker, FF Communications 125, Helsinki, 1938 (secondary)