Tunghak

The Tunghak is the keeper of the game, an old spirit-being who dwells in the moon and holds the animals of land and sea in his power, releasing or withholding them and so deciding the success of the hunt. When game grew scarce, shamans undertook spirit journeys to the moon to plead with the tunghak for abundance and other favors, and masks bearing his features were carved and danced in the great winter ceremonies of the Lower Yukon; Edward Nelson collected one such mask in 1879. The word tunghak is also used more broadly of spirit-beings and of the shaman's helping spirits, but in this cycle it names the singular master of game in the moon.

Domains

• game keeping
• moon celestial
• animals wild

Powers

• control the supply of game animals
• receive the visits of shamans

Sources

• In Bering Sea Yup'ik belief a tunghak, an old being dwelling in the moon, controls the supply of game animals; shamans traveled to it to plead for plentiful game, and masks were made in its likeness.: Edward W. Nelson, The Eskimo about Bering Strait, 18th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (1899) (primary); University of Pennsylvania Museum, Museum Bulletin (1907), 'Eskimo Tun-Ghat Mask' (secondary)