Abaeva Lubov (Ulan-Ude, Russia)

The Sacralization of the Heaven in the Religious Culture of the Altaic Peoples

(57th Annual Meeting ofthe PIAC Vladivostok, 2014)

From time immemorial all the Altaic peoples, or met ethnical Altaic unity, have typically common religious beliefs and customs in their lifestyle, though still nowadays exist some ethno differential local peculiarities among them. In comparison with Europe and Russia, where only the Elite persons may point their genealogy, all the Altaic peoples, (the Mongolian peoples in Mongolia, Inner Mongolia of China, Russian Federation; the Manchu in the time of their Epoch and long time after; the Tungus – mainly the Evenks and their neighbors), were greatly used to know their genealogy deeply to the seventh or ninth generations of really existing fore-fathers.

In their cosmological, cosmogenetical and genealogical myths their First Ancestor was originated from the Heaven. And this phenomenon is registered not only in their mythology, but is fixed in their religious Culture – beliefs, rituals and customs. For example, Chengis – khan’s and his relatives’ origin were considered to be originated from the Heaven. And it is very interesting that, as in many confessional traditions in the world – there exist the idea of the immaculate conception.

Before Buddhism, as a world religion appeared, the “Tenggeriyn murgel” (Praying to the Heaven) was spread among the Mongolian and Turkish peoples in the territory of the Central Asia. By the way, the term – “tengger” – (the sky, the heaven) is common for all the Altaians. The Uyghurs also were the adapters of tenggerism. So, nearly all the peoples which belong to the Altaic origin, were used to pray to the Heaven in their every-day lifestyle, first, and it is fixed in their religious culture, second.