Nganasan · deity · Nganasan traditional religion; continuing · deity
Bydy-nyamy, the Water Mother, is the elemental 'mother of the world' (nguo) who personifies the rivers, lakes and waters of the Taymyr Peninsula. The waters were both a source of life and sustenance — fishing and travel depended on them — and a domain of danger, and the Water Mother was addressed with offerings for safe passage and good catch. Her name preserves the Nganasan word bydy 'water'. She is recorded together with the other elemental mothers in the ethnography of the Taymyr Samoyeds.