Vainakh religion

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The Vainakh peoples of the North Caucasus (Chechens and Ingush) were Islamised comparatively late, during the early modern period, and Amjad Jaimoukha (2005) proposes to reconstruct some of the elements of their pre-Islamic religion and mythology, including traces of ancestor worship and funerary cults. [1] The Nakh peoples, like many other peoples of the North Caucasus such as Circassians, practised tree worship, and believed that trees were the abodes of spirits. Vainakh peoples developed many rituals to serve particular kinds of trees. The pear tree held a special place in the faith of Vainakhs. [2]

Contents

Comparative mythology

K. Sikhuralidze proposed that the peoples of the Caucasus region shared a single, regional culture in ancient times. Careful study of the Nakh and Kartvelian mythologies reveals many similarities. [3]

Jaimoukha (2005) adduces comparison with the Circassians, but also more generally with the Iron Age mythology of western Indo-European cultures, especially emphasizing parallels to Celtic polytheism, [4] such as the worship of certain trees (including, notably, a pine tree on the winter solstice, supposedly related to the modern Christmas tree, reconstructed calendar festivals such as Halloween and Beltane, veneration of fire, and certain ghost related superstitions). [4]

Pantheon

Jaimoukha (2005) on page 252 gives a list of reconstructed "Vainakh deities".

Supernatural creatures and heroes

See also

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References

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  2. Jaimoukha, Amjad. The Chechens: A Handbook. Page 113.
  3. Sikharulidze, K. 2000. "The Fragments of Archaic Myths of Theomachy in North Caucasian and Georgian Folklores". Caucasian Messenger
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Sources