Ülgen and Kayra Khan are the two sky gods of the Altaians in the record of the nineteenth century. Radloff, Verbitskii and the collectors on whom later comparative work draws wrote down their names, their prayers and the stories of their deeds among the Altaians, the Teleut and neighbouring peoples.[1] Ülgen is the good god and creator. In Radloff’s account he sits on a golden throne in the sixteenth heaven.[2] Kayra Khan, the gracious khan, rules the seventeenth and highest.[2]

The accounts do not agree on how the two stand to each other. In Radloff’s account Ülgen comes forth from Kayra Khan.[2] Some kams make Kayra Khan the greatest of all the gods, with Ülgen as his son. Others hold the name to be a title of great spirits and no god’s own.[3]

Neither name appears in the Orkhon inscriptions, in the Yenisei texts or in the Chinese accounts of the Göktürks.[4] The two figures belong to the ethnography of the Altai. Reading them back into the sixth to eighth centuries is a reconstruction. The sources of the khaganates give it no ground.

Sources of the record

Radloff opens his account of Altaian belief with a warning. The picture of shamanism, he writes, has to be put together from contradictory single reports. No written document supports it. The shamans, who could be the one sure source, fear to betray their secrets.[5] Two baptised shamans whom he met at the mission at Kebis refused every answer. Their former god was angry enough already that they had left him, they said. They feared the Russian god more if he heard that they spoke of the old faith.[5]

Verbitskii was a missionary. The section of his book of 1893 on the beliefs of the Altaians begins with the two principles that govern the world.[6] He prints the stories of the creation in the same volume.[7] Potanin recorded an Altai Tatar tale of the making of the earth.[8] He also recorded a Soyot tale of the flood.[9] Anokhin recorded what the shamans of the Altai say of the road to Ülgen.[10] Katanov glossed the name Kayrakan.[3]

Ülgen in the heavens

Radloff sets the gods in the layers of heaven. Tengere Kaira Kan lives in the seventeenth layer and guides the fate of the universe from there.[2] Three of the highest gods came out of him by emanation: Bai Ülgön in the sixteenth layer, Kysagan Tengere in the ninth and the all-wise Mergen Tengere in the seventh, where the Mother Sun also stands.[2] The Father Moon lives in the sixth layer and the highest creator, kudai jajutschi, in the fifth.[2] Bai Ülgön has two sons, Jajyk, who is also called Mai-änä, and Mai-tärä, the protector of mankind. They live in the third layer with the lake of milk, the source of all life, and the mountain Süro, the seat of the seven Kudai.[2]

THE HEAVENS IN RADLOFF'S ACCOUNT 171697653 Tengere Kaira Kan; from him the three highest gods Bai Ülgön on a golden throne on a golden mountain Kysagan Tengere Mergen Tengere; the Mother Sun the Father Moon Kudai Jajutschi, the highest creator Jajyk and Mai-tärä; the lake of milk; Mount Süro of the seven Kudai the earth Below the earth lie the nine layers of the underworld; Erlik Kan sits on a black throne in the fifth or the ninth.Every label comes from Radloff's account of the nineteenth century.
The layers of heaven in Radloff's account, with the gods that he places in them. Modern diagram; the labels come from the Altaian record of the nineteenth century, not from the Göktürk sources.

The number and order of the layers differ from account to account. The kam of the sacrifice climbs nine notches of a birch. The strongest go on to the twelfth heaven.[11] The description that Radloff took down from the Lebed Tatars has seven heavens, with Ülgen and his wife Kanym in the topmost.[12] In Verbitskii’s book the sky of our world has 33 circles. Beyond it lie 99 worlds, each with its own sky, earth and hell.[13] Anokhin’s shamans speak of seven or nine obstacles on the road to Ülgen. Only a male shaman can travel it, and even he reaches only the fifth of them.[14] Inside Radloff’s own account, Ülgen’s tent stands in the sixteenth layer. The blessing spoken over the horse, by contrast, sends its soul up to the ninth layer, to the white tent of Ülgön.[15]

Ülgen is imagined as a man. In Anokhin’s account he has a palace with a golden throne. He lives beyond the sun and the moon, above the stars.[14] The prayers call him white light, shining khan and the sender of lightning.[16] The drawings of the Altaian drums show a heaven god in human form wreathed in rays.[17]

The good god

Verbitskii opens the section on belief with two principles that rule the world, the good Ülgen and the evil Erlik, each with a host of spirits under him.[6] Ülgen is so good and merciful, he writes, that he cannot do anything unpleasant to a man. He is good to the point of weakness. Erlik is so evil that he cannot help doing harm.[6] For that reason Ülgen is sacrificed to rarely. He is good without it.[6] A synthesis of the Altaian beliefs repeats the judgement: the Ülgen of the Altai Tatars is, according to Verbitskii, a good being who does nothing evil.[18]

Ülgen and Erlik have one door, say the Altaians. When a man neglects his sacrifice, Ülgen, who is too kind to punish, tells Erlik to do it.[19] The man then owes a double payment, first to Erlik and afterwards to Ülgen.[19] In Radloff’s account, the kam’s prayer to the god at the end of his journey calls Ülgön a prince to whom three ladders lead and a father who made all people and gave all cattle. It asks him not to hand the people over to misfortune or to the evil spirit, the Körmös.[11]

Ülgen in the tales

In Verbitskii’s version of the creation Ülgen alone exists before heaven and earth. He makes the earth and the heaven by his word. He makes three great fish to carry the earth. He makes the first man, Erlik, from a floating clay.[20] The creation lasts six days. Ülgen sleeps on the seventh and rises on the eighth. For that reason the Oirot ancestors prayed on the seventh morning.[21] The versions in which a first man dives for the earth and the Erlik of those versions are told in altaian-creation-story.

Other deeds belong to him in other tales. When men lived on plants and had no fire, Ülgen struck a white stone and a black stone together, and the spark that fell from the sky set the dry grass alight.[22] In a flood tale of the Altai Tatars he bids a good man called Nama to build an ark.[23] In Anokhin’s telling Ülgen and his six brothers know of the flood in advance and build a ship.[9] At the end of the world, Altaian shamanists say, Ülgen withdraws from the sinful people while Erlik draws near. The dead rise when Ülgen calls to them.[24]

Ülgen has helpers and children. In Anokhin’s account he has seven sons and nine daughters. The daughters are called white girls and are the shaman’s inspiring spirits.[25] A record of the shamans’ companions makes Jajyk one of the helpers. He lives among men, protects them against evil and passes their prayers on to Ülgen.[26] The lists of the seven sons vary from district to district. One names Jashigan, Karshit, Bakhtagan, Kara, Kushkan, Kanym and Jaik.[27] Among the Lebed Tatars Kara-Khan, the Black Prince, left his father’s heaven for the underworld.[12]

Sacrifice to Ülgen

The horse is Ülgen’s victim. Every married man owed him a horse of light colour. A horse promised to him wore a red ribbon in its mane.[6] The sacrifice, the birch with nine notches and the kam’s journey through the heavens are set out in horse-sacrifice. At the end of the journey the kam calls on Ülgön and learns from him whether the sacrifice is accepted and what the weather and the harvest will bring.[28] Among the Lebed Tatars white horses were sacrificed to Ülgen, brown ones to the lesser gods.[12]

Kayra Khan

In Radloff’s account of the creation the maker is Tengere Kaira Kan, the highest of the gods, who is the beginning of all that is.[29] He banishes Erlik. He makes the seventeen heavens and takes the highest as his dwelling.[30] The same name stands in a prayer. In 1861, near the sources of the Abakan, one of Radloff’s guides of the Tölös, a weather-maker, raised both hands to the sky during a storm that had followed the party for weeks. He cried “Kaira Kan, Kaira Kan!” and asked that heaven be opened a hand’s breadth.[31] Radloff says in the same place that a weak man does not dare turn to the gods of the highest heaven and needs a forefather as mediator.[32]

The name is used for more than one being. Among the seven earth princes whom Radloff lists, the northern Altaians name a Kaira Kan beside Jäbyr Kan and Puisan Kan.[33] A Soyot tale gives the hero of the flood the name Kezer-Chingis-Kaira-Khan and has him make everything anew after the flood.[34] Verbitskii prints a greeting to a Kaira-khan among the spirits that the kam welcomes on the second evening of the sacrifice. The verses name a black argymak and black arak, and call him father.[35] The telling of the end of the world among the Telengit has “the great khan, father god”, Kayra kaan ada kuday, stop his ears when the last age comes.[24]

One god, two gods or an epithet

The sources present the pair in four ways. In the first, Kayra Khan stands above and Ülgen comes from him. Radloff has the three highest gods issue from Tengere Kaira Kan by emanation.[2] Some kams, according to a Turkish collection of Altaian material, call Kayrakan the greatest of all the gods and Ülgen, Kızağan and Mergen his sons.[3]

In the second, the two names belong to one god. Of the spirits of the upper heavens, only Kaira-Khan and Bai-Ülgin are named, the first in the seventeenth heaven and the second in the sixteenth. By the most general belief, the two names belong to the same over-god.[36] A Beltir prayer addresses the sky god in one breath as gracious khan, kaira-kän, as ruler and, in Mongolian, as blue sky.[37]

In the third, Kayra is a title. The shamans’ prayers, according to the Turkish collection, show that Kayrahan is no particular god’s name but an epithet of great spirits. Some shamans use it for Erlik, and there are holy mountains called Kayrakan.[38] Katanov glossed the name as great khan.[3]

The fourth is the account of the modern compendia. Here Kayra is the oldest of the gods, Ülgen his son, and Mergen and Kızağan sons of Ülgen or of Kayra. In it Kayra himself dives into the primal water for earth.[39] The versions that Radloff, Verbitskii and Potanin recorded have no dive by the god. In Radloff’s account the diver is a first man. In Potanin’s Altai Tatar tale it is simply “Man”.[40]

Relation to Tengri

None of the records makes Tengri the maker. Among the many variants of the creation, a comparative synthesis finds none in which tengri appears as the creator.[37] In the stories of the Mongols, Buryats and Soyots, the maker is Burkhan, the Buddha, or a Buddhist bodhisattva. Among the Altai Tatars the maker is Ülgen, and among the Yakut he is Yryn Ay Tojon.[37] Radloff himself glosses Tengere Kaira Kan as the gracious heaven.[41] The Beltir prayer calls its god gracious khan and blue sky in one breath.[37] Kayra Khan may therefore be the Altaian heaven under an epithet. This rests on a gloss and a prayer.

Modern compendia go further. One says that in some traditions of the Altaian Turks, Kayra and Tengri are aspects of one divine power. In others, Kayra is a separate god and Tengri’s son. It also says that Tengri sent Ülgen to earth with the black and the white stone.[42] The records of the nineteenth century do not give this. In the Altaian tale of the fire the giver is Ülgen.[22] What the Göktürk texts say of Tengri is set out in tengri and tengrism.

Ülgen and Kayra in the Old Turkic sources

Ülgen is not attested in the Old Turkic sources. The Kül Tegin and Bilge Khan inscriptions and the Tonyukuk inscription name no god of that name. The text of the Tonyukuk inscription contains neither Ülgen nor Kayra.[4] The powers that these texts do name are tengri, iduk-yer-sub and umay.[4]

One Turkish study states the contrary. It says that the Orkhon inscriptions of the seventh century show Ülgen as a clean spirit created by Gök Tanrı and as his son. It says that this makes him a creator of the second rank.[43] The study gives no passage. The inscriptions as published carry none.[4] The statement stands as a position and not as a finding.

The Chinese accounts of Göktürk worship know the sacrifice of sheep and horses to heaven and name no god Ülgen or Kayra.[44]

Layers and borrowings

The accounts themselves point to older and foreign strata. Radloff finds in the stories of the Altaians clear traces of the Mosaic account of creation and of Buddhism. He names Mandyshirä and Mai-tärä as Buddhist figures.[45] A synthesis of the Altaian beliefs takes the seventeen-layered heaven for a late idea. It takes the three highest gods for an Indian idea that came by way of the Mongols. It takes Kysagan Tengere for the Mongol god of war, Kisagan Tengri.[46] A comparative study of the Siberian myths reads the divine name Kurbystan, which one Altaian tale gives to God, as a form of the Iranian Ahura Mazda. It finds the planet gods of Babylon behind the gods of the seven heavens.[47] These are positions, and the sources of the khaganates cannot test them.

The word Ülgen has its own debate. A Turkish collection notes that in Kirghiz-Kazakh ülken means great. It notes that in Buryat ülgen is an epithet of the earth, which would make Ülgen once a name of the earth god.[48] It dismisses the derivation from ulu and gün as folk etymology. It thinks that the word meant great in Old Turkic, preserved as the name of a great and good god only among the Altaians.[14] The name is rendered as the Great in the comparative literature.[17] The etymology is not settled.

Names

  • ÜlgenAltaian
  • Bai ÜlgenAltaian
  • KudaiAltaian
  • KurbustanAltaian
  • Kaira KanAltaian
  • KayrakanAltaian

Ülgen is the Altaian name as recorded. Radloff spells it Ülgön and Ülgän, and the Altai Tatars call him the Great, or Rich and Great, Bai Ülgen.[2][17] The southern Altaian shamanists call him kuday, god.[3] Verbitskii gives Kurbustan as the Oirot name. The same word forms part of kan-Kurbustan-tengere, the name of the highest of the 99 worlds.[49]

Tengere Kaira Kan is glossed by Radloff as the gracious heaven.[41] The comparative literature renders kaira-kan as merciful khan and gracious khan.[50] Katanov’s gloss is great khan.[3] Two glosses are therefore on record. The Telengit and Soyot form is Kayrakan.[51] Radloff writes Tengere Kaira Kan and Verbitskii Kaira-khan.[52]

Kudai is a word for god. Radloff also gives the kudai jajutschi, the creator, in the fifth heaven, and seven Kudai on the mountain Süro. These are not Ülgen.[2] In the longer Altaian text of the creation the god who makes the earth is called Kuday, or Ölgen. In the same text he takes the name of the true Kurbustan.[53]

Reliability

For the Altaians of the nineteenth century the record is rich and consistent in outline. Ülgen is good, he is the maker, he sits high, and a horse is his sacrifice.[54] In the details it contradicts itself. Its collectors said so. Radloff built his picture from contradictory single reports. His own pages put Ülgen in the sixteenth heaven, in the ninth and, in the song of the sacrifice, in a white tent.[55] The account of the creation names Kaira Kan as the maker of Erlik on one page and Bai Ülgän on another.[56]

For the Göktürks the record yields nothing of its own. The names are missing from every text of the khaganates. What the Altai says of Ülgen and Kayra Khan cannot be carried back into the sixth and seventh centuries without a source that does so.[4] Where the figures appear in modern accounts of Göktürk belief, they appear as a later layer laid over it.

References

  1. ^ Radloff 1893 (zweite Ausgabe), p. 2–10; 43–44; 401–406; Verbitskii 1893, p. 2–10; 43–44; 401–406; Holmberg 1927, p. 2–10; 43–44; 401–406
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Radloff 1893 (zweite Ausgabe), p. 6
  3. ^ a b c d e f İnan 2017; first edition 1954, p. 31
  4. ^ a b c d e Kül Tegin inscription; Bilge Khan inscription; Tonyukuk inscription
  5. ^ a b Radloff 1893 (zweite Ausgabe), p. 2
  6. ^ a b c d e Verbitskii 1893, p. 43
  7. ^ Verbitskii 1893, p. 89–100
  8. ^ Holmberg 1927, p. 314–315
  9. ^ a b İnan 2017; first edition 1954, p. 23
  10. ^ Harva 1938, p. 154–155
  11. ^ a b Radloff 1893 (zweite Ausgabe), p. 49
  12. ^ a b c Holmberg 1927, p. 405
  13. ^ Verbitskii 1893, p. 90–91
  14. ^ a b c İnan 2017; first edition 1954, p. 32
  15. ^ Radloff 1893 (zweite Ausgabe), p. 6; 25
  16. ^ Harva 1938, p. 154; 32; İnan 2017; first edition 1954, p. 154; 32
  17. ^ a b c Harva 1938, p. 154
  18. ^ Harva 1938, p. 151
  19. ^ a b Verbitskii 1893, p. 44
  20. ^ Verbitskii 1893, p. 89–91
  21. ^ Verbitskii 1893, p. 90
  22. ^ a b Holmberg 1927, p. 449
  23. ^ Holmberg 1927, p. 364
  24. ^ a b İnan 2017; first edition 1954, p. 24
  25. ^ İnan 2017; first edition 1954, p. 33
  26. ^ Harva 1938, p. 155
  27. ^ Holmberg 1927, p. 402
  28. ^ Radloff 1893 (zweite Ausgabe), p. 49–50
  29. ^ Radloff 1893 (zweite Ausgabe), p. 3–4
  30. ^ Radloff 1893 (zweite Ausgabe), p. 5
  31. ^ Radloff 1893 (zweite Ausgabe), p. 8–9
  32. ^ Radloff 1893 (zweite Ausgabe), p. 8
  33. ^ Radloff 1893 (zweite Ausgabe), p. 7
  34. ^ Holmberg 1927, p. 366; 134; Harva 1938, p. 366; 134
  35. ^ Verbitskii 1893, p. 54
  36. ^ Holmberg 1927, p. 406
  37. ^ a b c d Harva 1938, p. 144
  38. ^ İnan 2017; first edition 1954, p. 31; 49
  39. ^ Yavuz 2025, p. 166–168
  40. ^ Radloff 1893 (zweite Ausgabe), p. 4; 314–315; Holmberg 1927, p. 4; 314–315
  41. ^ a b Radloff 1893 (zweite Ausgabe), p. 4
  42. ^ Yavuz 2025, p. 142; 166
  43. ^ Demirlikan 2022, p. 79
  44. ^ Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 84; Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 50
  45. ^ Radloff 1893 (zweite Ausgabe), p. 5–6
  46. ^ Harva 1938, p. 161
  47. ^ Holmberg 1927, p. 321; 405–406
  48. ^ İnan 2017; first edition 1954, p. 31–32
  49. ^ Verbitskii 1893, p. 89–90
  50. ^ Holmberg 1927, p. 401; 144; Harva 1938, p. 401; 144
  51. ^ İnan 2017; first edition 1954, p. 24; 31
  52. ^ Radloff 1893 (zweite Ausgabe), p. 3; 54; Verbitskii 1893, p. 3; 54
  53. ^ İnan 2017; first edition 1954, p. 14–15
  54. ^ Radloff 1893 (zweite Ausgabe), p. 6; 43; 49; Verbitskii 1893, p. 6; 43; 49
  55. ^ Radloff 1893 (zweite Ausgabe), p. 2; 6; 25
  56. ^ Radloff 1893 (zweite Ausgabe), p. 4; 10

Sources

Literature

  • Wilhelm Radloff, Aus Sibirien. Lose Blätter aus meinem Tagebuche. Zweiter Band (1893 (zweite Ausgabe))
  • Vasilii Ivanovich Verbitskii, Алтайские инородцы (Altai Foreigners) (1893)
  • Uno Holmberg (Harva), The Mythology of All Races, Volume IV: Finno-Ugric, Siberian (1927)
  • Uno Harva, Die religiösen Vorstellungen der altaischen Völker (1938)
  • Abdülkadir İnan, Tarihte ve Bugün Şamanizm: Materyaller ve Araştırmalar (2017; first edition 1954)
  • Yasemin Usta Demirlikan, Türk Mitolojisinin Yer Altı Kötücüsü „Erlik Han“ (2022)
  • Emre-E. Yavuz, The Gokturk Empire: 2nd Edition (2025)

Related

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Religions
Altaian Creation Story

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Ülgen and Kayra Khan.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/religions/ulgen-and-kayra-khan/

Last revised: 8 November 2026