Buga (deity)

Last updated

Buga is a creator god and omnipotent highest power in the mythology of the Tungusic peoples.

Contents

Etymology and Ethnography

For the Tungus the term buga (also buya, boya, boga) refers to the greatest, omnipotent, eternal being. [1] The same word also means either "sky", "universe", and may also refer to terms corresponding to "world" or "locality". The word is not taboo and is used in common speech. [1] According to Shirokogoroff the term is an old one, and was not introduced by Christian missionaries. [2]

For the eastern Tungus buga is a remote figure whom they have no description of, and nor do their shamans connect with it/him. [3] [1] The buga forms an exception in that it is one spirit than cannot be mastered by a shaman. [4] Shirokogoroff states that all Tungus know how to pray/make sacrifices to buga and that activity is done without the intercession of shaman. [5]

Furthermore, bugady are a tribe's sacred places. [6] Equivalent names for a supreme deity are Es (Ket language), Nga (Enets language), and Turum or Torym (Khanty language). [3]

The Tungus term 'buga' is similar to the Mongolian term bogdo (holy), Old Persian language baga (god), and the Kassite language bugas (god). [7] [8]

The Even language term for the highest deity (the creator) is/was Nalban Omgo Ogyn Buga, the proper name in the same language is Hovky-Sovky; in the Evenk language the god's name is Shavaky-Savaky. The "upper" and "lower" worlds in those people's shamanic worldview are also referred to as Dulyn Buga and Harpy Buga. [9]

Tungusic creation myth

In a Tungusic creation myth Buga creates both the earth (using fire to create it within a watery void), as well as creating man and woman from fire, earth, iron, and water. [10] [11] In the myth he is opposed by Buninka, a devil figure, who becomes responsible for evil persons after death. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Creation myth</span> Symbolic narrative of how the world began

A creation myth or cosmogonic myth is a type of cosmogony, a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it. While in popular usage the term myth often refers to false or fanciful stories, members of cultures often ascribe varying degrees of truth to their creation myths. In the society in which it is told, a creation myth is usually regarded as conveying profound truths – metaphorically, symbolically, historically, or literally. They are commonly, although not always, considered cosmogonical myths – that is, they describe the ordering of the cosmos from a state of chaos or amorphousness.

A creator deity or creator god is a deity responsible for the creation of the Earth, world, and universe in human religion and mythology. In monotheism, the single God is often also the creator. A number of monolatristic traditions separate a secondary creator from a primary transcendent being, identified as a primary creator.

Huracan, often referred to as U Kʼux Kaj, the "Heart of Sky", is a Kʼicheʼ Maya god of wind, storm, fire and one of the creator deities who participated in all three attempts at creating humanity. He also caused the Great Flood after the second generation of humans angered the gods. He supposedly lived in the windy mists above the floodwaters and repeatedly invoked "earth" until land came up from the seas.

Finnish mythology commonly refers of the folklore of Finnish paganism, of which a modern revival is practiced by a small percentage of the Finnish people. It has many shared features with Estonian and other Finnic mythologies, but also with neighbouring Baltic, Slavic and, to a lesser extent, Norse mythologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Korean mythology</span>

Korean mythology is the group of myths told by historical and modern Koreans. There are two types: the written, literary mythology in traditional histories, mostly about the founding monarchs of various historical kingdoms, and the much larger and more diverse oral mythology, mostly narratives sung by shamans or priestesses (mansin) in rituals invoking the gods and which are still considered sacred today.

In Kapampangan mythology, Mayari is the goddess of the moon and ruler of the world during nighttime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sámi shamanism</span>

Traditional Sámi spiritual practices and beliefs are based on a type of animism, polytheism, and what anthropologists may consider shamanism. The religious traditions can vary considerably from region to region within Sápmi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tengri</span> Chief deity of Turko-Mongolic religion

Tengri is the all-encompassing God of Heaven in the traditional Turkic, Yeniseian, Mongolic, and various other nomadic Altaic religious beliefs. Tengri is not considered a deity in the usual sense, but a personification of the universe. However, some qualities associated with Tengri as the judge and source of life, and being eternal and supreme, led European and Muslim writers to identify Tengri as a deity of Turkic and Mongolic peoples. According to Mongolian belief, Tengri's will (jayayan) may break its own usual laws and intervene by sending a chosen person to earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rainbows in mythology</span>

The rainbow has been a favorite component of mythology throughout history among many cultures around the world. Abrahamic traditions see it as a covenant with God to preserve the world from a second flood. Whether as a bridge to the heavens, messenger, archer's bow, or serpent, the rainbow has served as a symbol for millennia. There are myriad beliefs in a complex diversity with several repeated themes.

Georgian mythology refers to the mythology of pre-Christian Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group native to Georgia and the South Caucasus. The mythology of the Kartvelian peoples is believed by many scholars to have formed part of the religions of the kingdoms of Diauehi, Colchis and Iberia.

Chukwu is the supreme being of Igbo spirituality. In the Igbo pantheon, Chukwu is the source of all other Igbo deities and is responsible for assigning them their different tasks. The Igbo people believe that all things come from Chukwu (Chiukwu), who brings the rain necessary for plants to grow and controls everything on Earth and the spiritual world. They believe Chukwu to be an undefinable omnipotent and omnipresent supreme deity that encompasses everything in space and space itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tungusic peoples</span> Ethnolinguistic group

Tungusic peoples are an ethnolinguistic group formed by the speakers of Tungusic languages. They are native to Siberia, China, and Mongolia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mongol mythology</span>

The Mongol mythology is the traditional religion of the Mongols.

Malagasy mythology is rooted in oral history and has been transmitted by storytelling, notably the Andriambahoaka epic, including the Ibonia cycle. At least 6% of Madagascar are adherents of the religion, which is known as Fomba Gasy, and surveys show it is likely at least half practice some aspects of it. Adherence to Fomba Gasy is high amongst the Sakalava people, as they are reluctant to convert to faiths of foreign origin.

The Tungusic creation myths are traditional stories of the creation of the world belonging to the Tungusic peoples of Siberia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manchu shamanism</span> Folk religion of the Manchu people

Manchu folk religion or Manchu traditional religion is the ethnic religion practiced by most of the Manchu people, the major Tungusic group in China. It can also be called Manchu shamanism because the word "shaman" being originally from Tungusic šamán, later applied by Western scholars to similar religious practices in other cultures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deity</span> Supernatural being

A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over the universe, nature or human life. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater than those of ordinary humans, but who interacts with humans, positively or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new levels of consciousness, beyond the grounded preoccupations of ordinary life".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wufang Shangdi</span> Traditional Chinese fivefold deity

The Wǔfāng Shàngdì, or simply Wǔdì or Wǔshén are, in Chinese canonical texts and common Chinese religion, the fivefold manifestation of the supreme God of Heaven. This theology dates back at least to the Shang dynasty. Described as the "five changeable faces of Heaven", they represent Heaven's cosmic activity which shapes worlds as tán 壇, "altars", imitating its order which is visible in the starry vault, the north celestial pole and its spinning constellations. The Five Deities themselves represent these constellations. In accordance with the Three Powers they have a celestial, a terrestrial and a chthonic form. The Han Chinese identify themselves as the descendants of the Red and Yellow Deities.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Shirokogoroff 1935, 39. Buga.
  2. ↑ Shirokogoroff 193539. Buga, quote : "The inference which can be made from these facts is that the conception of «highest being» and the term for it buga (with modifications), are very old and they are accepted by the Tungus groups who are not at present under a very strong alien influence."
  3. 1 2 Bonnefoy 1993, p. 345.
  4. ↑ Shirokogoroff 1935, 52. General Characteristics Of These Spirits.
  5. ↑ Shirokogoroff 1935, 100. Hypothesis: Shamanism Stimulated By Buddhism.
  6. ↑ Bonnefoy 1993, p. 349.
  7. ↑ Stutley, Margeret (2003), Shamanism : An Introduction, p. 64
  8. ↑ Shirokogoroff 1935, 40. Construction Of The World.
  9. ↑ Alexaeyeva, Sardana A.; Alexeyev, Anatoliy A. (Winter 2000), "Shamanic Cosmology Among the Tungus People of Eastern Siberia, Russia", The Northern Review (22): 95–96
  10. 1 2 Y.Z. 1824, p. 595.
  11. ↑ Holmberg 1964, p. 371.

Sources


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.