Lord of the Dead
Buryat · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Spirit-class lord of the dead (classed as deity). Buryat form Erlen Khan, cognate with Turkic-Altai Erlik and ultimately Tibetan/Indic Yama. Counterpart in the eastern (black) half of the 99-tengri dualism opposite Khan Khormusta.
Domains
- death underworld
- judgment of souls
Powers
- judges the souls of the dead in the lower world
- leads the forty-four eastern (black) spirits against the western ones
- sends sickness to seize the souls of the living
Relations
- equated with: Erlig KhanBuryat Erlen Khan is the regional form of Mongol Erlig Khan, judge of the dead with scribes and soul-ledger; Buryat dualism subordinates him to the hostile eastern tengri, a placement Khalkha lacks.Ágnes Birtalan, 'Die Mythologie der mongolischen Volksreligion', Wörterbuch der Mythologie (2001); Garma Sandschejew, Weltanschauung und Schamanismus der Alaren-Burjaten (1927-28) (secondary)
Sources
- Erlen Khan is the Buryat lord of the lower world, leader of the 44 eastern (black) spirits and judge of the dead.: Uno Holmberg (Harva), Finno-Ugric and Siberian Mythology, 1927 (secondary); Mircea Eliade, Shamanism, 1964 (secondary)