Uçmag (also spelled: Uçmag, Uçmak, Ocmah, Uçmah) (pronounced: Utchmaq) is

heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...

in Turk- and Altaic mythology. It is the opposite of

Tamag Tam (also ''tam'', ''tamuk'', ''tam'' or ''tamu'') is the name of hell in Tengrism. It is the place where the criminals go to be punished after they die. There are several depictions of Tamag, but the common point in almost all views is about fire. ...

. The souls of the righteous people dwell in heaven after death.

Etymology

Since the soul reaches heaven by flying up to it, for example by taking the appearance of a bird or carried by a spirit sent by

Ülgen Bai-Ülgen or Ülgen (Old Turkic: Bey Ülgen; also spelled Bai-Ulgen, Bai-Ülgen, Bay-Ulgan, Bay-Ulgen, or Bay-Ülgen; Khakas, Shor and alt, Ӱлген; mn, Үлгэн; russian: Ульге́нь) is a Turkic and Mongolian creator-deity, usu ...

, will be carried to heaven after death, heaven carries a connotation of flying. Since the Turkic word for flight (''uç'') combined with the infinitive verbal suffix ''-mak'' means ''to take flight'', from the eleventh century onwards, this word served to designate this particular region of the

afterlife The afterlife (also referred to as life after death) is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's identity or their stream of consciousness continues to live after the death of their physical body. The surviving es ...

Description

Tengrism 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. ...

, heaven resembles the earth, but as undefiled by humans with an untouched nature. It is much brighter than the earth there and the natives of this world have never deviated from the traditions of their ancestors.

Shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spir ...

s can visit this place in their rituals.http://members.tripod.com/Mongolian_Page/shaman.txt

References

Conceptions of heaven Turkic mythology {{mythology-stub