The History of Kazakhstan from the Earliest Period to the Present time. Volume I. Zhanat Kundakbayeva

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СКАЧАТЬ spirits and evil ones. In some inscriptions there are also references to a goddess whose name is given as Umay (Umai). Such animistic beliefs are common among all early tribal cultures. For instance among the Asian Huns, horses and sheep were sacrificed to the sky god, to ancestors, and to the forces of nature during the first month of the year at the palace of their ruler, and in late spring (June) in the vicinity of the Ongkin river. The Blue Turks and Uighurs made similar sacrifices during the same month at the source of the Temir river. The Huns also conducted a similar ritual in the fall at Tai-lin. Among the Blue Turks, there were three sacred rituals held during the year in which sacrifices were offered to Tangri (the sky god) and to ancestors. Both the Blue Turks and Uighurs practiced astrology, determining the advisability of courses of action upon the positions and movement of the planets and stars. The Tabgatch planted beech trees by their graves and regarded them as sacred. Forces of nature called yer-sub (in modern Kazakh, "jer-su," meaning "earth-and-water") were genies or sprits dwelling in hills and springs that were considered to be sacred (iduk) places. Tamik-iduk-bas and Iduk-otuken are two such sites. In the Uighurs' Kutlu-Dag Efsanesi ("Legend of Happy-Mountain"), a rock is held to be sacred because its houses a spirit that gives people strength and fortitude. To cause rain or hail to fall or to make the wind blow, the ancient Turks had recourse to a natural magic involving a stone that they believed to be sacred.

      The second pillar of this religion was an ancestral cult. The worship of departed leaders and the veneration of ancestors are thought to be a manifestation of a patriarchal social order in religion. The Asian Huns, Tabgatch and Blue Turks frequently offered sacrifices to their ancestors at the mouths of sacred caverns. The deep respect that was held for ancestors is one reason why grave robbery and the despoliation of Turkic tombs was punished so severely. A kurgan, mound or cairn of stones was erected so that the departed spirit would have a place to call its own. Sometimes stone statues (called balbal) were also set up. Only animals, however, were sacrificed to Tangri and ancestors. Human sacrifice was never practiced among the Turks. Only males were chosen as sacrificial animals, and the most valuable of these was of course the horse. Skeletons of sacrificed horses are found frequently in steppe lander Turkic tombs everywhere, from the empire of the Asian Huns to the Hun-Avar tombs of Central Asia.

      The third element was the worship of the sky god. This was the fundamental creed of the ancient Turks, and in this particular form appears only among them. In this system of belief, the sky god (Tangri, Tengri) is the Supreme Being, the central object of all worship, the source of all power. The Old Turks followed a religious tradition that blended shamanism with what Western scholars have named “Tengrism,” a faith worshiping Heaven (Türk. Tengri) as the supreme God and venerating certain mountains as seats of power. Tengrism was never an organized religion and appeared in several forms among almost all the peoples of the Central Asian steppes – Türk, Mongol, and Tangut alike. In its Turkic form, it supported the Turkic social structure, which was built on the basis of a hierarchy of tribes. One tribe is dominant and its chief is the source of a hereditary line of rulers for all. The Turkic form of Tengrism, then, regards any Turkic chief controlling Otukan as supreme ruler (Türk. qaghan) of all Turkic tribes and embodiment of society’s fortune. If Turkic society’s fortune declined, the Khagan was accountable and could even be sacrificed. His son would then succeed to his position.

      The principle beliefs and practices of the Tangri cult can be more or less determined by a study of Chinese sources and the Orkhon monuments. In a letter sent to the Chinese emperor by Mo-tun, the ruler of the Asian Huns, the latter notes that he had been elevated to the throne by Tangri and that his military victories were won first and foremost by virtue of the sky god's grace. Another Hun ruler, having escaped a trap set for him by the Chinese in 133 B.C. declared that his deliverance had been the will of Tangri, who watched over him and ensured his success. A Turkish ruler in 328 is reported as raising his arms to the heavens upon having achieved a success and saying "O Sky (Kok)… Thanks be to thee!" In the treaty between the Avar the Khagan and the Byzantine emperor, the former swore to uphold the agreement in the name of Kok-Tangri. After a victorious battle in 598 or 599, the Blue Türk (KokTürk) the Khagan Tardu dismounted, addressed the sky and proclaimed his thanks. According to the inscriptions on the Orkhon monuments, Tangri was the creator of the universe. The Blue Turks believed that their empire's formation was a consequence of the sky god's wishes and that their khagan had been sent to them by their god. In other words, Tangri took a personal interest in the independent existence of the Turks. Victory in the battle was a consequence of Tangri's will. Tangri intervened directly in the lives of the Turks and of people in general. He commanded and punished the disobedient. Tangri bestowed fortune and retracted it from those who were unworthy. It was Tangri who broke the light of day at dawn and who fused vegetation with life. Death was also dependent upon his will. Tangri granted life and could take it back whenever he wished: "When his time came, Kul Tegin died. Human beings are created to die. Law and right come from Tangri. He joins that which is broken and mends that which is torn."

      The progress of the development of the concept of Tangri among the Turks from that of the physical sense of "sky" to a supreme being is interesting. In the Orkhon inscriptions there is a sentence that sums up the Turkish cosmogony in a nutshell: "Uze kok Tengri, asra yagiz yer kilindikta ikin ara kisi ogli kilinis" (When almighty Kok-tangri formed the dark yonder-earth, he also created man). To these early steppe landers the vast over-arching sky seemed to embrace everything from the phenomenal rising and setting of the sun and moon to the regular movements of the stars; from the unchanging cycle of the seasons to rain, snow, and wind; the heat of the day and the cold of the night; the quickening of vegetation in spring and its desiccation in summer; the sudden flowing of streams and their dying up; the birth and growth of animals in an invariable order and balance whose harmony was so perfect that it was inconceivable to the mind of man, and it was only natural that they should have regarded it as a supreme being. In addition to the absolute might of Tangri's immortality, Tangri also acquired the attribute of being everywhere at all times and of being incapable of being represented physically.

      It has also been asserted that totemism was practiced among the early Turks; however, recent investigations have disproved this allegation. Researchers working in Siberia and Mongolia during the second half of the 19th century put forth an assertion that the early Turks were originally shamanists. Although incorrect, this notion became widespread and still persists.

      In the course of their long history and wanderings, Turkish groups came into contact with many other religions prior to Islam. Some groups in China adopted Buddhism. The Danube Bulgars opted for Christianity. Judaism was popular with the Khazars. The Uighurs adopted Buddhism and Manichaeanism. The consequences for Turkish identity were not always providential since these groups were eventually assimilated into the larger communities.

      Buddhism earlier than all great religions became popular in the first Turk khaganate aristocratic environment. The third son of Bumen (Il-Qağan) and Wei Chang'le, and the fourth khagan of the Gokturk khaganate Taspar reigned from 572-581. Unlike his father and older brothers he embraced chinese culture, especially Buddhism. He was converted to this religion by the Qi monk Huilin, for whom he built a pagoda. It is known from the Bugut inscription (VI c.) at court of Taspar khagan lived Sogdians-Buddhists. The Bugut inscription itself was written with the script typical for Buddhist sutrs. The khaganate rulers saw in Buddhism a universal form, that could help to creating a certain ideological community in the heterogeneous power. However, a social-political crisis in the khaganate begun in 581 г. Halted this process. In the west and east of the khaganate Buddhism was kept for some time. Some spreading Buddhism got among the Yenisei Kyrghyz and the Kimaks. One of the princes of the Yenisei Kyrghyz princely house even became a Buddhist monk, settled in one of the Buddhist monastery of Eastern Turkestan and translated sacred texts from Tibetan into Turkic.

      A bronze mirror with a runic inscription found in a burial place of a Kimak woman in Eastern Kazakhstan, was decorated with a Buddhist maxim in the Turkic language. However only the Uighurs of Eastern Turkestan adopted Buddhism as a state religion and created the richest heritage of Buddhist texts translations, written in India, Tibet, Eastern Turkestan. Another religion spread among the Turks was Manichaeism. Manichaeism (Manichaeanism), dualistic religious movement founded in Persia in the 3rd century ad by Mani, СКАЧАТЬ