Altai legend of the creation of the world

Over all the worlds — the Upper, Middle and Lower — reigns the god Tengri, who created the whole world.

Legend has it that one day Tengri decided to create the world. For this purpose he divided himself into two parts: male and female.

Umai is the name of his female part. She is depicted as a young girl. In her right hand she holds a green tree branch as a symbol of fertility, and in her left hand - a bowl, a symbol of abundance. For her dwelling Tengri created the Earth - the Middle World. On Earth, the goddess Umai is busy preserving and multiplying earthly goods, giving luck, health, wealth and everything necessary for life. From the supreme god Tengri Umai had two sons: Erlik and Ulgen.

Tengri created two more worlds for his sons: to his eldest son Erlik he gave the underworld, the so-called Lower World, where insidious evil spirits and spirits of the dead dwell. Ulgen, the younger son, was entrusted to rule the sky - the Upper World.

Ulgen creates plants, people, stones, mountains, rivers in the Upper World and places them in the Middle World. Erlik takes all the creations created by his brother to his realm of the Lower World in order to make room on earth for Ulgen's new creations.

Ulgen is a kind deity who personifies the sun. He has a long beard and sits on a cloud. In his hands he holds a magical staff of wish fulfillment. He is surrounded by yet unfulfilled dreams of people who are waiting for their realization to descend from the world of the future to the world of the present - to the Middle World of Umai. But not all ideas and events are destined to materialize in the world of Umai. Only those people whose intentions are strong and constant will be able to realize their plans in real life. All other ideas will remain in the world of Ulgen waiting for their time.

Erlik, Ulgen's older brother, the god of the past, the god of the Lower World, destroys what has been created to free the realm of his mother Umai for Ulgen's new creations. Erlik takes the souls of all the people who have left the earth and holds them in his realm until all memory of them is erased. His face is terrifying: long black hair, fangs sticking out of his mouth. Erlik has a snake in one hand and a rosary in the other. With these rosary beads he counts all the sins of man. In his realm neither the sun nor the moon shines. This is the world of the dead, where a man is after death.

Tengri, Ulgen, Umai and Erlik first created the World of Spirits who help them in ruling. Then they created humans and animals. They endowed animals with life force and one soul. Different animals have a soul from different gods, which manifests their qualities. Man was made in such a way that together with the life force the gods gave him five souls.