Tengerism

This year's full moon of the mouse month (3rd of January) is tsasan tergel sar. It marks the start of yukhen-yukhen (yes yes, in khalkh), the nine nines. Nine periods of nine days each are used to keep track of the progress of winter.

Tsasan tergel sar, is the day to call for protection against the harsh winter. Rituals with offerings to the gal (fire) and övgöd (ancestors) are performed. The winter is a period of dormancy of earth and spiritual distance heaven, so focus is on spirits of the house and community.

In many cultures winter is thought of as a time of absence, decline and demise. It may be considered as a disruption of the normal functioning of the world. In many cultures winter is mythically explained as being the result of disastrous events or moral transgressions.

But in the Tengerist view winter is harsh but not wrong or malevolent. It's seen as conserving vitality, rather than eliminating it. It is essential to many lifecycles. Plant life retreats into roots and soil, where it is preserved by the earth itself and protected by the blanket of snow cover. Any herder knows that reindeer need winter to stay healthy. Reindeer grow weaker and are more prone to disease in warm climates. Herds have to migrate north, to the cold, when a period of warmer winters strikes.

Chegeen Chebdeg Khan, the lord of winter, being between belonging to the tsagaan tenger or to the khar tenger symbolises the effects of winter. Khar tenger often promote change, and may employ terrifying, ruthless and unmerciful means; while tsagaan tenger often maintain order, purity and rest. Winter maintains the cycle of life and balance on earth, but is coupled with privation and hardship.

The traditional dates in the progress of winter are as follows:

The full moon of the wolf (9th) month is the day that Bayan Khangai and other spirits of the forest are honoured. This period is the advent of winter, as around this time the first snow falls in Siberia.

Övliin tuil (winter's peak, the winter solstice) is an important day for ritual. On that day people call for a good winter and the speedy return of warmth.

Tsasan tergel sar (the snow moon) is the full moon closest to övliin tuil, it marks the start of yukhen-yukhen. On that day people call for protection against winter.

81 days after tsasan tergel sar, övliin tögsgön (winter's completion) is the day the yukhen-yukhen ends.

On the new moon of the first month of the new year is sagaalgan (white moon). It marks the advent of spring.

(Since these days are dependent on solar and lunar cycles their ordering may differ. Övliin tögsgön often occurs after sagaalgan for instance.)

Upcoming dates for the yukhen-yukhen in the Gregorian calendar:

I often see the idea being spread that according to nature-focused religious traditions everything everything exists for an essential role, be it ecological, spiritual or otherwise. And that this causes nature to be harmonic and good because everything lives according to that role. This idea assumes a top-down teleological plan imposed by a creator on the world to create a greater system for some purpose. This idea may be present in some such worldviews, but it's often generalized to all indigenous cosmologies.

These ideas are often ascribed to an indigenous tradition in ethnographies written by predominantly Cristian scholars or scholars from a Christian cultural background during the last few centuries. This is ascribed to those worldviews based on assumptions; an inability to imagine a worldview that is too different from what they know; or from an (imperialistic) idea in which they believe that the people whose culture they describe are actually mistaken about their own worldview, and that the scholars know better. So, they 'correct' or punctuate their ethnographies with their own ideas .

The ideas of essential roles is often given more prominence in modern reinterpretations under influence of said ethnographies and people returning or coming to an indigenous tradition from a Christian background, taking teleological ideas with them.

In Tengerism, and other North and Inner Asian traditions, many people will say that they belong to the place they live and play a role in nature. They cut wood, hunt, herd reindeer, etc. in turn in the clearings new plants will grow, their reindeer graze. Their actions ripple across the ecosystem.

When the local humans leave the local nature will change, different plants grow, other animals increase in numbers, and this too ripples across the ecosystem. This change is often catastrophic and causes strife for many beings.

The balance is called tegsh. All actions even out, so that they don't take more than they return; sometimes directly, often through cycles and a web of connections. Trees grow with nutrients from the soil; fungi break down trees and return the nutrients to the soil. Grouse is hunted by humans; humans herd reindeer; reindeer clear brush and grass; young plants can grow; plants feed Grouse.

So that there is a cycle and the system can exist in perpetuity.

Tegsh is not because every being lives according to a essential role or purpose, but because that's the equilibrium the world has settled in. A disruption of tegsh leads to strife and turbulence, but in that turbulence eventually a new equilibrium will be settled. But there is no guarantee that this equilibrium is found while preserving all beings that were there before. A slower change will allow the location's tegsh to adjust gradually.

The full moon of the month of the horse (in 2025 on the 10th of July) is the day of the lus. Lus are water spirits that inhabit the landscape in places such as springs, rivers and lakes.

The day is an important moment for lus veneration. Offerings, like tea, liquor, and grains are given.

In many places bodies of waters are polluted and waste is littered in them. Cleaning up is a way to honour the water and the lus and I'd encourage people to do so on lus day.

Lus day is on the full moon of the month of the Horse because that is generally the time of the year when there is most rain fall and snowmelt in Inner Asia. So during this period bodies of water are the most full and lus most active.

Heralded by the cuckoo. In the wake of Sesege Nogoon flowers bloom. The daughter of the lord of winter, Chegeen Chebdeg Khan, is the maiden of spring. She gently wakes the beings that slept during winter, so the world may enter it's time of growth again.

Often natural resource extraction and industry have no ties to the location where they operate. Very often they're foreign companies that come in to extract and exploit, and when the resources are depleted they leave. Many companies neglect to make a long term plans how to treat their waste and disregard the consequences of their pollution. Leaving their mess to local people or the next generation to solve.

Indigenous people are generally most vulnerable to this. They're often not taken seriously or seen as deserving equal right to other citizens; and they have reduced say in matters that concern them. Governments easily give permits for destructive extraction and industry in places where indigenous people live.

Lus are water spirits that inhabit the landscape. They are the counterparts of savdag that inhabit the land. Lus are often ezen (master spirits) of places of many different bodies of water: springs, rivers, lakes. Some are very minor and local, while others are great and influence the entire world, like Dalai Khan, Usan Khan Lus and Lusan Khan.

Lus are often compared to 'dragons' in Chinese beliefs, because of their similar influence and nature, but this comparison is limited.

All over the world there are significant places. In Tengerism these places are sacred. If a human is to go to these places they should behave like they are in someone's home.

Because these places are the homes of the spirits. Ezen (masters) of nature, övög (ancestors), savdag and lus may live at these places. Worship in Tengerism is done in a place where the spirits that are communicated with in the ritual are present. So, these places are important to Tengeristic practice.

Savdag are spirits that inhabit the landscape. They are the terrestrial counterparts of lus, water spirits. Savdag are often ezen (master spirits) of places in nature. There they are worshipped.

They are associated with both benevolent and perilous aspects of nature; the wilds, wildlife, hunt, forage, fertile soil, getting lost, exposure.

According to Tengerist teachings there are Öör Yertönts (Other Worlds) hidden across the regular world.

These worlds are normally hidden from sight and entry; in the depths of lakes or caves, in dense forests, in mountain valleys, or over the horizon. They are described as 'folds' in the regular world. But under the right circumstances they can be entered. Lost travelers may find themselves suddenly in an Öör Yertönts.

Today is zuni nar gollolt, the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. It's an important day for Altan Nar Tenger, goddess of the sun.

Only 24 degrees tilt of the earth, about 1/20 of a circle, causes this to happen. Large differences in night and day, and temperatures.

"The winding taiga filled with pinecones,   I surround myself with it and it satisfies me.   The different plants and animals,   When they're in balance, they give me all I need.  

The mountainous taiga filled with streams,   I return to it and it satisfies me.   The many-coloured animals,   I care for them, they give me all I need."  

From the song:   - The Taiga Filled with Pinecones  

This song was once the anthem of Taiga-Tuva. It demonstrates an understanding of the importance of living in harmony with the world around. A state with that in mind would be good and enduring. The land would remain healthy and bring its inhabitants prosperity.