In which God did the Turks actually believe before they accepted Islam? This is a question that I have often been asked by relatives, friends and you, the YouTube community. In the Turkic Book of Divination, which was written in the 9th century in East Asia, a certain name drops many times throughout the text: Tengri. This being is there described as the God of the Turks. It is him who the Turks – and other steppe peoples like the Mongols and Huns – prayed to before converting to other religions.

Thus, the original religion of all Turkic peoples - i.e. the Anatolian Turks, Kazakhs, Tartars, Uighurs and so on - was Tengrism, a religious system built around its name-giver.

But who was/is Tengri exactly? Weren't the Turks and Mongols used to be Shamanists? Contrary to popular belief, these two peoples as well as many other ethnicities of the Eurasian Steppe were followers of Tengri, the omnipotent ruler of the eternal blue sky - as Genghis Khan once put it. The Shaman only played a marginal role within the blief system. But in spite of its monotheistic direction, there existed many other deities within Tengrism, including Umay, the protector of the unborn, and Mother Earth. There were also Gods of Fire, the Sun, the Moon and even a guardian of the underworld. Therefore, in this video we take a look at Turkic mythology in particular.

Tengrism in general was built on the belief that all life on earth is connected, and that heaven and hell were situated literally above and beyond humandkind. But unlike other religions, Tengri and other deities were not specifically targeting humands whenever they did something wrong. Instead, all life was part of a delicate balance of the powers - on earth, in heaven and in the underworld. The Turks, Mongols and so on were educated to learn to respect nature and all animals around them. They were being raised to refrain from waste, gluttony and destruction of nature.

In this sense, Tengrism was less a religion and more a philosophy on life. A belief system that might very well be relevant in our contemporary world.

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Additional music by Adrian von Ziegler. Visit his bandcamp page! [ Ссылка ]

00:00-02:32 Basic concept of Tengrism
02:33-03:31 Spread among Turkic peoples
03:32-06:12 Why Tengrism is not Shamanism
06:13-07:20 The Role of women
07:21-09:20 How animals and nature are treated
09:21-11:59 Cosmology and Justice
12:00-13:46 Modesty, Balance and the Lifestream
13:47-15:00 About me

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