creator god of Turkic mythology

Kayra

Kayra (also Kaira or Kayra Han) is the creator god in Turkic mythology, described as both father and mother. According to tradition, they planted the tree of life, from which the ancestors of humankind emerged.

The myth

In the Altai creation myth, Tengri Kayra Han has neither a male nor a female form nor a human one: it is a pure-white goose flying endlessly over a boundless sea, a symbol of time. Before creating, the being is restless and afraid amid the churning waters, until the goddess Ak Ana urges Kara Han to make the universe.

Kayra is the child of the sky deity Tengri and sits on the seventeenth level of heaven, from where they direct the fate of creation. After making the world, they planted the nine-branched tree of life, from which the nine clans of humanity emerged. Some versions identify them with Kara Han, a son of Tengri who went down to the underworld; the name means "black king" or "ruler of the land," through the double meaning of kara. Kara Han has three sons: Ulgan, Mergen and Kyzaghan.

In a Tuvan and Soyot legend, a giant turtle supporting the earth moved, and the cosmic ocean flooded it. An old man who had foreseen this had built a raft, on which he and his family survived. When the waters receded, the raft was left on a wooded mountain, where it is said to remain today. After the flood, Kayra created everything else in the world and taught people to make arak, an anise drink.