Tengri
The sky god of Turkic and Mongol peoples, and the name of a modern movement to revive pre-Islamic steppe religion.
Also: tengri, tenger, tangri, tengrism
Tengri, or Tenger in Mongolian, is the sky, and the sky as a divine power, honoured by the Xiongnu and Turkic and Mongol peoples in written sources from the first millennium onward. Inscriptions of the Orkhon Valley invoke it, and Mongol khans were said to rule by its mandate. Offerings were made on mountains and at piled-stone cairns, ovoo in Mongolia, which are still honoured today. The word Tengrism describes a modern revival in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tatarstan and elsewhere, which some scholars regard as a rebuilt tradition shaped by nationalism more than a continuous one. Most steppe peoples also practise Islam or Buddhism and keep older customs alongside.