Tengri

Kazakh · deity · Kazakh traditional religion; continuing · deity

Tengri is the sky-god and supreme deity of the old Turkic religion carried into Kazakh tradition, the vault of the eternal blue heaven personified as a conscious, ordering power. From him descends qut, the fortune and charisma that legitimates khans and prospers herds, and by his will the length of every life is measured. First attested by name in the eighth-century Orkhon inscriptions, where the blue Tengri above and the sacred Earth-Water below are said to have ordered the Turkic people into being, he remained central to Kazakh oath, blessing and lament; the everyday invocation Tanir jarylqasyn preserves his name. In later folk usage his figure merged with the Islamic Kudai, so that Tanir came to name the one God without wholly losing its ancient celestial coloring.

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