Tengrism

Tengrism (also known as Tengriism, Tengerism, or Tengrianism) is a belief system originating in the Eurasian steppes, based on shamanism and animism. It generally involves the titular sky god Tengri. According to some scholars, adherents of Tengrism view the purpose of life as to be in harmony with the universe.

It was the prevailing religion of the Göktürk, Hun, Xianbei, Bulgar, Xiongnu, Yeniseian and Mongolic peoples, as well as the state religion of several medieval states such as the First Turkic Khaganate, the Western Turkic Khaganate, the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, Old Great Bulgaria, the First Bulgarian Empire, Volga Bulgaria, Khazaria, and the Mongol Empire. In the Irk Bitig, a ninth century manuscript on divination, Tengri is mentioned as Türük Tängrisi (God of Turks). According to many academics, Tengrism was, and to some extent still is, a predominantly polytheistic religion based on the shamanistic concept of animism, and was first influenced by monotheism during the imperial period, especially by the 12th–13th centuries. Abdulkadir Inan argues that Yakut and Altai shamanism are not entirely equal to the ancient Turkic religion.

According to Turkish historian Ahmet Taşağıl, Turkic Tengrism differed from classical shamanism, possessing a distinct theological structure. He argues that what is commonly termed "Shamanism" constitutes a "Buddhism-mixed steppe tradition" and "a system of magic" rather than a formal religion. Based on historical evidence, he proposes that the ancient Turks were not Shamanists and adhered to a unique Tengrist belief system centered around an abstract deity in heaven, distinguishing it from other forms.

The term also describes several contemporary Turkic and Mongolic native religious movements and teachings. All modern adherents of "political" Tengrism are monotheists. Tengrism has been advocated for in intellectual circles of the Turkic nations of Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan) and Russia (Tatarstan, Bashkortostan) since the dissolution of the Soviet Union during the 1990s. Still practiced, it is undergoing an organized revival in Buryatia, Sakha, Khakassia, Tuva and other Turkic nations in Siberia. Altaian Burkhanism and Chuvash Vattisen Yaly are contemporary movements similar to Tengrism.

The term tengri can refer to the sky deity Tenger Etseg – also Gök Tengri; Sky Father, Blue Sky – or to other deities. While Tengrism includes the worship of personified gods (tngri) such as Ülgen and Kayra, Tengri per se is considered an "abstract phenomenon". In Mongolian folk religion, Genghis Khan is considered one of the embodiments, if not the main embodiment, of Tengri's will.

The forms of the name Tengri (Old Turkic: Täŋri) among the ancient and modern Turkic and Mongolic languages are Tengeri, Tangara, Tangri, Tanri, Tangre, Tegri, Tingir, Tenkri, Tangra, Teri, Ter, and Ture. The name Tengri ("the Sky") is derived from Old Turkic: Tenk ("daybreak") or Tan ("dawn"). Meanwhile, Stefan Georg proposed that the Turkic Tengri ultimately originates as a loanword from Proto-Yeniseian *tɨŋgɨr- "high". Mongolia is sometimes poetically called the "Land of Eternal Blue Sky" (Mönkh Khökh Tengeriin Oron) by its inhabitants. According to some scholars, the name of the important deity Dangun (also Tangol) (God of the Mountains) of Korean folk religion is related to the Siberian Tengri ("Heaven"), while the bear is a symbol of the Big Dipper (Ursa Major).

The word "Tengrism" is a fairly new term. The spelling Tengrism for the religion of the ancient Turks is found in the works of the 19th century Kazakh ethnographer Shoqan Walikhanov. The term was introduced into a wide scientific circulation in 1956 by French scholar Jean-Paul Roux and later in the 1960s as a general term in English-language papers.

Tengrianism is a reflection of the Russian term, Тенгрианство ("Tengriánstvo"). It is introduced by Kazakh poet and turkologist Olzhas Suleymenov in his 1975 book AZ-and-IA. Since the 1990s, Russian-language literature uses it in the general sense, as for instance, reported in 1996 ("so-called Tengrianism") in the context of the nationalist rivalry over Bulgar legacy.