Master of the Sky

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 нивхТаксами, Ч. М. "Тлы ыз." In Мифы народов мира: Энциклопедия, ed. С. А. Токарев. Москва: Советская энциклопедия, 1980–1982. (secondary)

Relations

• subordinate to: KurŋThe sky over which Tly yz presides is itself kurŋ, the domain and body of the supreme being, so the sky master administers a realm that ultimately belongs to Kurŋ.Штернберг, Л. Я. Гиляки, орочи, гольды, негидальцы, айны. Хабаровск: Дальгиз, 1933. (secondary)

Sources

• Tly yz (Tly nivkh), the Master of the Sky, is the Nivkh spirit-owner of the heavens who rules the Upper World, completing the triad with the masters of the mountain and the sea.: Таксами, Ч. М. "Тлы ыз." In Мифы народов мира: Энциклопедия, ed. С. А. Токарев. Москва: Советская энциклопедия, 1980–1982. (secondary); "Nivkhs." Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life, 2nd ed., ed. Timothy L. Gall and Jeneen Hobby. Detroit: Gale, 2009. (secondary); Таксами, Ч. М. Основные проблемы этнографии и истории нивхов. Ленинград: Наука, 1975. (secondary)