The god of the sky of the Ewenki

The Ewenki think that the sky is inhabited by a multitude of deities to which they designate with the generic name of Daike. Between them the most important is Enduli Daike, the God of the Sky, whom they imagine like a kind father of supernatural force and knowledge, which governing the forces of the nature provides to the people peace and calmness. The protective function of Enduli Daike centers fundamentally on the control of the drought and the moisture, basic for the survival of the Ewenki that depend on his cattle and a primitive agriculture. Enduli is represented by a sword to the belt.

Enduli receives the most important ceremonies, which nevertheless defer enough between the evenki who inhabit different areas. The Ewenki that live in Aoluguya, to honor to the sky construct an altar in a forest near to his houses, to which they take two reindeers, male and female. While the shaman perfectly decked with his sacred clothes, touches the drum, a young one kills to the reindeers, spraying with his blood the sacred drum, and placing his heads and hoofs on the altar, it is offered to the God of the Sky asking him there to protect the house and cattle of the people.

In the autonomous district Ewenki the ceremony is different. Generally they choose a more distant place to his residence, where they choose two birches between which they hang three ropes, on which they hang in turn three cloths of red, yellow and blue color. Before them they sacrifice a goat, which blood the shaman also will intersperse for his drum. Then the shaman says the god of the sky asking him to protect the people.

The cult to the sky also is present in a lot of activities of his everyday life. When relatives and friends meet, for some holiday or fair, generally they celebrate a small banquet to be entertained. First of all they offer wine to the high thing for the God of the Sky, asking him to protect them and they of fortune. Then they can already begin eating and drink. The ceremonies in honor to the sky please to do them on top of the mountain or a forest in the mountain, because they think that it is closer to the sky or can that up to bulletin with the sky, what facilitates that the god sees them and listens to his prayers.

Curiously between the Ewenki this is one of the few ones gods of the nature of masculine character. His name, on the other hand, is that of the masculine deity that replaced the big creative goddess Abuka Hehe between the manchúes when his society happened of being matrilineal to patrilineal. Does a similar change reflect his name in the society ewenki?

The legend of Abuka Hehe and other legends of Chinese goddesses are translated in the work of Pedro Ceinos Arcones Leyendas of the Goddess Mother (and other myths of goddesses and women of the peoples of China).

Copyright © 2004 www.wuhancom.net