Teyri
Karachay Balkar · deity · Karachay Balkar traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Teyri is the supreme deity of Karachay-Balkar religion, the personified sky whose name continues the ancient Turkic Tengri. He stands at the head of the pantheon, and the patron powers of the hunt, the herd, the threshing floor and the storm are understood to act under his dispensation. Prayers, oaths and rain rituals are addressed to him, often coupled with his thunder-aspect Choppa, and the invocation of Teyri by the sky survived long into the Islamic period as a fixed formula of blessing and cursing.
Domains
- sky
- supreme god
Powers
- ordains the fate of the world
- sends rain and heavenly weather
Epithets
- Кёк Тейри — Sky TeyriДжуртубаев М.Ч. «Древние верования балкарцев и карачаевцев». Нальчик: Эльбрус, 1991. (secondary)
- Уллу Тейри — Great TeyriКаракетов М.Д. «Из традиционной обрядово-культовой жизни карачаевцев». Москва: Наука, 1995. (secondary)
Sources
- Teyri is the supreme sky-god of the Karachays and Balkars, a survival of the pan-Turkic Tengri worshipped above all lesser patron powers.: Джуртубаев М.Ч. «Древние верования балкарцев и карачаевцев». Нальчик: Эльбрус, 1991. (secondary); «Мифы народов мира: Энциклопедия», гл. ред. С.А. Токарев. Москва, 1980–1982. (secondary)
- Oaths and prayers invoke Teyri by the sky, and the name persisted in the formula 'Kok Teyri' after Islamization.: Klaproth, Julius von. «Reise in den Kaukasus und nach Georgien in den Jahren 1807 und 1808». Halle & Berlin, 1812–1814. (primary)