Tengri
Tengri East AsiaLiteral meaning: ‘god’ or ‘heaven’. The sky god of the Mongols, their original creator deity. Tengri was regarded as the author of all things visible and invisible, the controller of destiny, and the ruler of the world. ‘The sky decrees.’ This strong belief in fate may have been a Persian inheritance. Like the other northern peoples, however, the Mongols were deeply impressed by natural phenomena. Meteors were considered lucky, for whoever saw such ‘a crack in the sky’ could at that moment ask of heaven a favour. Hail and thunderstorms were unpropitious. Because of a great hailstorm at Karakorum on 15 August 1246, the enthronement of Guyug as Khan was postponed on the advice of the shamans, the ceremony taking place eventually nine days later on another site. The attributes of Tengri include ‘the great’, the ‘merciful ruler’, and ‘the rich’. Genghis Khan died himself to be the chieftain most favoured by heaven. His...
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