Master of the Sky
Nivkh · deity · primordial · deity
Tly yz, 'Master of the Sky' (also called Tly nivkh, 'sky person'), is the celestial counterpart of the Nivkh masters of the mountain (Pal yz) and the sea (Tol yz). In the Nivkh three-tiered cosmos he presides over the Upper World, Tly vo, the sky village above the Middle World of humans and above the Lower World of the dead. The sky is populated by his people, the tly nivgun, and shamans' helper spirits could be sent from his realm as readily as from the sea or the mountain. He received respect rather than an organized cult, as befits the diffuse, master-based theism that Shternberg, Kreinovich, and Taksami all described among the Nivkh.
Domains
- sky
- upper world
Powers
- to rule the Upper World and its celestial sky-people
- to send helper spirits to shamans from the sky realm
Epithets
- Тлы нивх
Relations
- subordinate to: Kurŋ
Sources
- Таксами, Ч. М. "Тлы ыз." In Мифы народов мира: Энциклопедия, ed. С. А. Токарев. Москва: Советская энциклопедия, 1980–1982.
- "Nivkhs." Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life, 2nd ed., ed. Timothy L. Gall and Jeneen Hobby. Detroit: Gale, 2009.
- Таксами, Ч. М. Основные проблемы этнографии и истории нивхов. Ленинград: Наука, 1975.