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Kayra or Kaira (
Old Turkic Old Siberian Turkic, generally known as East Old Turkic and often shortened to Old Turkic, was a Siberian Turkic language spoken around East Turkistan and Mongolia. It was first discovered in inscriptions originating from the Second Turkic Kh ...
: 𐰴𐰖𐰺𐰀) is the creator god in
Turkic mythology Turkic mythology refers to myths and legends told by the Turkic people. It features Tengrism, Tengrist and Shamanism in Central Asia, Shamanist strata of belief along with many other social and cultural constructs related to the nomadic and wa ...
. He is the god who planted the tree of life called Ulukayın. Kayra is described as both father and mother, and resides in the 17th layer of heaven. Kayra is the supreme god of the pantheon and the son of the sky deity named
Tengri Tengri (; Old Uyghur: ; Middle Turkic: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Proto-Turkic: / ; Mongolian script: , ; , ; , ) is the all-encompassing God of Heaven in the traditional Turkic, Yeniseian, Mongolic, and various other nomadic religious beliefs. So ...
. Kayra is occasionally identified with Kara Han (the black king or ruler of the land – Kara may mean land, earth, black or in a sense strong, powerful), a son of Tengri, who left his father's home in heaven and went to live in the underworld.


Etymology

The name of this deity is found in several forms, as is that of his opponent. "Kayra-Khan" which may be translated as "merciful king", while the form "Kara Han" signifies "black king". For this reason, the authority on Turkic Mythology Deniz Karakurt, considers Kara-Han and Kayra-Han to be two different deities.Türk Söylence Sözlüğü (Turkic Mythology Dictionary), Deniz Karakurt, (OTRS: CC BY-SA 3.0) Furthermore, the Turkish word ''kara'' can mean both ''black'' and ''land'', with the result that Kara Han can mean not only 'Black (Dark) Ruler' but also 'Ruler of the Land'.


God of Creation

In the Altai myth of creation, Tengri (God) Kayra Han is neither male nor female nor even human in form, but a pure-white goose that flies constantly over an endless expanse of water (time), the benign creator of all that is, including the other, lesser gods. Among all Altai people the dualistic division is most clear (Ulgen and Erlik), and the highest god, Tengre Kaira Khan, is a good power. But before Ak Ana appears to urge it to create, Kara-han becomes anxious, creation occurring in a context of loneliness, turmoil and fear: the water becomes turbulent, but it reassures itself that it "need not fear" (the implication of such self-reassurance being that it is indeed afraid). A supreme being in the universe it created, Kara-han is the ruler of the three realms of air, water and land, seated on the seventeenth level of the universe, from which it determines the fate of its creation. After creating the universe it planted the nine-boughed tree of life, from the branches of which came the ancestors of humans. Thus emerged the nine races (nine clans). It has three sons: Ulgan, Mergen and Kyzaghan. A Tuvinian / Soyoth legend, told as follows: The giant turtle which supported the earth moved, which caused the cosmic ocean to begin flooding the earth. An old man who had guessed something like this would happen, built a raft. Boarded it with his family, and he was saved. When the waters receded, the raft was left on a high wooded mountain, where, it is said, it remains today. After the flood Kaira-Khan created everything around the world. Among other things, he taught people how to make Arak (anise drink).


See also

* Bai-Ulgan * Turul


References


Bibliography

* Türk Mitolojisi, Murat Uraz, * Türk Mitolojisi Ansiklopedik Sözlük, Celal Beydili, Yurt Yayınevi (Page-305, Kayrakan)


External links


Kayra Han
{{Turkic Deities Turkic gods Creator gods