Choppa
Karachay Balkar · deity · Karachay Balkar traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Choppa is the Karachay-Balkar power of the storm, presiding over thunder and lightning and over the rain the herders and farmers depended on. His worship centred on the round-dance and procession that gave the rite its name, in which villagers circled a stone cairn, the Choppany tashy, chanting 'Elia-Choppa' to draw down rain in time of drought. A person or place struck by lightning was regarded as claimed by Choppa and made an object of reverence, the dead honoured with song and a cairn rather than lamented. Sources differ on whether Choppa is a distinct deity or a ritual aspect of Eliya, the thunder-name drawn from the prophet Elijah.
Domains
- thunder
- lightning
Powers
- strikes with thunder and lightning
- sends rain in drought
Epithets
- Элия-Чоппа — Elia-ChoppaДжуртубаев М.Ч. «Древние верования балкарцев и карачаевцев». Нальчик: Эльбрус, 1991. (secondary)
Sources
- Choppa is the Karachay-Balkar power of thunder and lightning, invoked in drought processions and round-dances at stone cairns with the cry 'Elia-Choppa'.: Джуртубаев М.Ч. «Древние верования балкарцев и карачаевцев». Нальчик: Эльбрус, 1991. (secondary); Каракетов М.Д. «Из традиционной обрядово-культовой жизни карачаевцев». Москва: Наука, 1995. (secondary)
- Sources differ on whether Choppa is an independent deity or a ritual aspect of the saint-derived thunder-name Eliya.: Каракетов М.Д. «Из традиционной обрядово-культовой жизни карачаевцев». Москва: Наука, 1995. (secondary)