In the
Altai myth of creation, Tengri (God) Kayra Han is neither male nor female nor even human in form, but a pure-white goose that flies constantly over an endless expanse of water (time), the benign creator of all that is, including the other, lesser gods. Among the
Altai people a dualistic division is most clear (
Ulgen vs.
Erlik), and the highest god is
Tengre Kaira Khan, who is a good power. Before the goddess
Ak Ana appears to urge Kara Han to create, it becomes anxious, and its creation occurs in a context of loneliness, turmoil and fear: The water becomes turbulent, but Kara Han reassures itself that it "need not fear" (the implication of such self-reassurance being that it is indeed afraid). Kara Han is a supreme being in the universe it created, the ruler of the three realms of air, water, and land. It is seated on the seventeenth level of the universe, from which it directs the fate of its creation. Kara Han has three sons:
Ulgan,
Mergen, and
Kyzaghan. After creating the universe Kara Han planted the nine-boughed
tree of life, from the branches of which came the ancestors of humans – the nine races (nine clans) emerged from the tree. A
Tuvinian /
Soyoth legend, goes as follows: : The giant turtle which supported the earth moved, which caused the cosmic ocean to begin flooding the earth. An old man who had guessed something like this would happen, had built a raft. He boarded it with his family, and they were saved from the flooding. When the flood waters receded, the raft was left on a high wooded mountain, where, it is said, it remains today. After the flood Kaira Khan created everything around the world. Among other things, he taught people how to make
arak (anise drink). ==See also==