Tenger
/ˈtɛŋɡər/noun
A sky or heaven deity in Mongolian and related Central Asian religious traditions.
Did you know?In Mongolian cosmology, Tenger could mean both the physical sky and a divine heavenly power, blurring the boundary between nature and deity.
Etymological Timeline
Early Turkic period
Proto-Turkic
*teŋri
“Sky or heavenly power; the reconstructed ancestor of later Turkic forms”
8th Century
Old Turkic
täŋri
“Heaven, sky, or the supreme celestial deity”
13th Century
Middle Mongolian
tengri
“Sky, heaven, or divine heavenly being”
17th Century
Mongolian
tenger
“Sky, heaven, and a class or power of celestial spirits”
19th–20th Century
English usage
Tenger
“A Mongolian sky deity or heavenly spiritual power, used in anthropological and religious writing”
Modern English
English
Tenger
“A transliterated term for the Mongolian sky deity or sacred heaven”