The Mongol mythology is the traditional religion of the Mongols.

Creation

There are many Mongol creation myths. In the most ancient one, the creation of the world is attributed to a Buddhist deity Lama. At the start of time, there was only water, and from the heavens, Lama came down to it holding an iron rod with which he began to stir. As he began to stir the water, the stirring brought about a wind and fire which caused a thickening at the centre of the waters to form the earth. Another narrative also attributes the creation of heaven and earth to a lama who is called Udan. Udan began by separating earth from heaven, and then dividing heaven and earth both into nine stories, and creating nine rivers. After the creation of the earth itself, the first male and female couple were created out of clay. They would become the progenitors of all humanity. In another example the world began as an agitating gas which grew increasingly warm and damp, precipitating a heavy rain that created the oceans. Dust and sand emerged to the surface and became earth. Yet another account tells of the Buddha Sakyamuni searching the surface of the sea for a means to create the earth and spotted a golden frog. From its east side, Buddha pierced the frog through, causing it to spin and face north. From its mouth burst fire, and its rump streamed water. Buddha tossed golden sand on his back which became land. And this was the origin of the five earthly elements, wood and metal from the arrow, and fire, water and sand. These myths date from the 17th century when Yellow Shamanism (Tibetan Buddhism using shamanistic forms) was established in Mongolia. Black Shamanism and White Shamanism from pre-Buddhist times survive only in far-northern Mongolia (around

Lake Khuvsgul A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a Depression (geology), basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the World Ocean, oce ...

) and the region around Lake Baikal where Lamaist persecution had not been effective.

Deities

* Bai-Ulgan and

Esege Malan Esege Malan ( mn, Эсеге Малан, bua, Эсэгэ, russian: Эсэгэ Малан), according to Mongol myth and the belief of the Buryats, is the great Creator of all living things. He is a Buryat sky-god who rules over the western hori ...

are

creator deities A creator deity or creator god (often called the Creator) is a deity responsible for the creation of the Earth, world, and universe in human religion and mythology. In monotheism, the single God is often also the creator. A number of monolatri ...

. * Ot is the goddess of marriage. *

Tung-ak The Mongol mythology is the traditional religion of the Mongols. Creation There are many Mongol creation myths. In the most ancient one, the creation of the world is attributed to a Buddhist deity Lama. At the start of time, there was only wat ...

is the patron god of tribal chiefs and the ruler of the lesser spirits of Mongol mythology * Erlig Khan (

Erlik Erlik, Erlig, Erlik Khan, Erleg or Yerleg (Hungarian mythology equivalent to ''Ördög'') is the god of death and the underworld, sometimes referred to as ''Tamag'' (hell) in Turkic mythology. ''Er'' (or ''yer'') means ''Earth'', in the depth ...

Khan) is the King of the Underworld. * Daichi Tengri is the red god of war to whom enemy soldiers were sometimes sacrificed during battle campaigns. * Zaarin Tengri is a spirit who gives Khorchi (in the

Secret History of the Mongols ''The Secret History of the Mongols'' (Middle Mongol: ''Mongɣol‑un niɣuca tobciyan''; Traditional Mongolian: , Khalkha Mongolian: , ; ) is the oldest surviving literary work in the Mongolian language. It was written for the Mongol royal fa ...

) a vision of a cow mooing "Heaven and earth have agreed to make Temujin (later Genghis Khan) the lord of the nation". * The sky god

Tengri Tengri ( zh, 騰格里; otk, 𐰚𐰇𐰚:𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, Kök Teŋri/Teŋiri, lit=Blue Heaven; Old Uyghur: ''tängri''; Middle Turkic: تآنغرِ; ky, теңир; tr, Tanrı; az, Tanrı; bg, Тангра; Proto-Turkic *''teŋri / ...

is attested from the

Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 20 ...

of the 2nd century BC. The Xiongnu may not have been Mongol, but Tengri is common to several Central Asian peoples, including the Mongols. The

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

, falcon,

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...

and

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

were important symbolic animals.

Texts and myths

The Uliger are traditional epic tales and the

Epic of King Gesar The Epic of King Gesar ( Tibetan, Bhutanese: གླིང་གེ་སར །), also spelled Geser (especially in Mongolian contexts) or Kesar (), is a work of epic literature of Tibet and greater Central Asia. The epic originally develop ...

is shared with much of

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

and

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...

. The ''

'' (Ges'r, Kesar) is a Mongol religious epic about ''Geser'' (also known as ''Buche Beligte''), a prophet of

Tengriism Tengrism (also known as Tengriism, Tengerism, or Tengrianism) is an ethnic and old state Turko- Mongolic religion originating in the Eurasian steppes, based on folk shamanism, animism and generally centered around the titular sky god Tengri. Te ...

Notes

References

*Walter Heissig, ''The Religions of Mongolia'', Kegan Paul (2000).
Myths Connected With Mongol Religion, A Journey in Southern Siberia, by Jeremiah Curtin.
*Gerald Hausman, Loretta Hausman, ''The Mythology of Horses: Horse Legend and Lore Throughout the Ages'' (2003), 37-46. *Yves Bonnefoy, Wendy Doniger, ''Asian Mythologies'', University Of Chicago Press (1993), 315-339. *满都呼, ''中国阿尔泰语系诸民族神话故事''(folklores of Chinese Altaic races).民族出版社, 1997. . *贺灵, ''新疆宗教古籍资料辑注''(materials of old texts of Xinjiang religions).新疆人民出版社, May 2006. . * * *S. G. Klyashtornyj, 'Political Background of the Old Turkic Religion' in: Oelschlägel, Nentwig, Taube (eds.), ''"Roter Altai, gib dein Echo!"'' (FS Taube), Leipzig, 2005, , 260-265.

External links