Tengri Khan

Tengri was the younger son of Bilge Khan. He was set up after his brother Yiran died within months of their father. The Tang history explains his name as “recompense”. That is what a Chinese ear made of Tengri, Heaven.^[1] He was young. The state was run by his mother, the daughter of Tonyukuk, and by her lover, a minor official named Yinsi Dagan. The Tang history adds that “the people would not submit to her”.^[1] The army was divided between two of his father’s cousins, the Left Shad in the east and the Right Shad in the west. All the best troops were under them.^[1]

In 740 the Tang invested him as khan a second time, with a sealed letter carried by the general Li Zhi.^[1] One dating of the Ongi stele reads the “sacred Bilge Khan” of its last lines as Tengri Khan and puts the stone in 740, a Dragon year, the year of this investiture.^[2] Soon afterward he and his mother lured the Western Shad to them, beheaded him and took over his people. The Left Shad, fearing the same fate, marched on Tengri and killed him. He then set himself up as Ozmish Khan.^[1] He is given the years 734 to 741.^[3] His reign is the regency in which the Second Khaganate came apart. Turkic Atlas tells the rest under the khaganate.