The ancient Mongol and Turkic people were animists
who believed in many spirits (tengri) that inhabited the
natural world. Supreme among these spirits was a sky
god called Mongke Tengri (or just Tengri), who was the
creator of humanity and the world, and who protected
humans from malevolent demons. Tengri also controlled the
different elements and influenced the fertility of the land.The Great Sky God
WEST ASIAcommanded a cat and a dog to guard the humans. But
once he left for the Spring of Immortality, Erlik Khan, the
Lord of the Underworld, tempted the cat away with a bowl
of milk, and the dog with a piece of meat, and then defiled
Tengri’s creations by urinating all over them.THE CAT AND THE DOG
When Tengri returned, he was enraged to find out that
Erlik Khan had tainted his creations; he was especially
angry with the cat and the dog because they had failed in
their task of watching over and protecting the man and
woman. Consequently, Tengri punished the animals by
making the cat lick of all the body hair from the humans
and stick it on the dog’s skin. The cat licked of almost all
the hair from their bodies, excluding that on their heads,
which Erlik Khan had not polluted, and some on the lower
parts of their bodies – which the cat avoided because they
gave of a foul odour. Once the cat had finished the task,
Tengri took the water of
eternal life and poured it
over his creations in an
attempt to immortalize
them, but he failed in
this venture because
the humans had been
polluted by Erlik
Khan’s foul deed.THE MYTH
The Mongol account of the Earth’s creation involves
the high-ranking tengri Qormusta, and Sakyamuni – the
Buddha – who is also a member of the Mongol pantheon of
gods. Qormusta gave Sakyamuni a handful of yellow earth that
was composed of precious stones. Sakyamuni threw it into
the eternal ocean, causing it to begin to coalesce into a vast
continent. At this point, a tortoise emerged from the depths of
the ocean and stole the Earth. Sakyamuni realized that only the
death of the tortoise would free the Earth and let the ground
form. As a monk and a lover of peace, he was hesitant about
killing the tortoise, but the tengri assured him that it was the
right thing to do, because many lives would eventually flourish
on the Earth after the loss of one. Thus, Sakyamuni slew the
tortoise and subsequently the world was formed.THE FIRST HUMANS
When the Earth had taken shape, only animals lived
on it, so Mongke Tengri created the first man and woman
to populate the world. He perfected their physical forms
over time, and then covered their
bodies with soft hair. Once Tengri
was satisfied with his creations,
he decided to fetch water from
the Spring of Immortality so
that the first man and woman
could live forever. Worried
about their safety, TengriMongke Tengri
Tengri is a fierce sky
god, and wields his
weaponry to fight the demons and evil
spirits that threaten human beings.Primal tortoiseBurial stone
The early Turkic people buried their dead
in the Earth created by Tengri, and
erected burial stones, such as this
6th-century one, to mark the graves.88