Vattisen Yaly (; ; ) is a contemporary revival of the ethnic religion of the Chuvash people, a Turkic ethnicity of Bulgar and Sabir ancestry mostly settled in the republic of Chuvashia and surrounding federal subjects of Russia.
Vattisen Yaly could be categorised as a particular form of Tengrism, a related revivalist movement of Central Asian traditional religion. However, Vattisen Yaly differs significantly from other forms of Tengrism in that the Chuvash have been heavily influenced by Finno-Ugric and Slavic cultures as well as those of other Indo-European speaking ethnicities. Their religion shows many similarities with Finnic and Slavic Paganisms; moreover, the revival of "Vattisen Yaly" in recent decades has occurred following Neopagan patterns. Today the followers of the Chuvash Traditional Religion are called "the true Chuvash". Their main god is Tura, a deity comparable to the Estonian Taara, the Germanic Thunraz and the pan-Turkic Tengri.
The Chuvash traditional religion boasts an unbroken continuity from pre-Christian times, having been preserved in a few villages of the Chuvash diaspora outside Chuvashia until modern times. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, together with the demise of the Soviet Union, a cultural and national revival blossomed among the Chuvash, and its leaders gradually embraced the idea of a return to indigenous Paganism, as did Chuvash intellectuals. The Chuvash identity movement looked to movements in the Baltic states for inspiration.
The national movement, meanwhile embodied in a Chuvash National Congress, carried on its "national religion" idea during the 1990s. Intellectuals started to recover and codify ancient rituals and started practicing them among the population both in cities and countryside villages, declaring themselves the guardians of tradition and the descendants of elder priests.
Groups In the mid-1990s, the proponents of the movement felt that to fulfill the role of a "national religion" and stand against world religions and cultural assimilation, Vattisen Yaly should be reconstructed and reformulated in institutional forms. A variety of groups emerged dedicated to the goal of reviving the Chuvash religion. A lot of publications on religion appeared, and artists and sculptors joined academic scholars in the creation of models for the construction of ritual-ceremonial complexes. Periodic prayers were introduced in public life by one of the groups, and it gave the religion the name of , which apparently comes from the Chuvash word , meaning "yellow". In Chuvash culture , is an epithet of the Sun.
Arguments emerged among the groups and factions over matters such as theology and the national organisation of the religions. For instance, Iosif Dimitriev (Trer), an artist and enthusiastic follower of the religion and member of the "Chuvash National Religion" group, supports a tritheistic view centered on the god Tura, a mother goddess Ama, and a begotten god who is Tura reborn, and an organisation similar to that of the Catholic Church. V. Stan'ial, another influential intellectual of the same group, stands for a monistic view with god Tura as the main god and other gods as his manifestations, and an organisational model based on a traditional or national religious leader, and an or guardian of the faith in every town.
Another group is (meaning "believer in the god Tura"), started by F. Madurov, which favours a nature religion approach and a pantheistic worldview, asserting that the goal of Chuvash religion is the "unity and harmony of nature, mankind, and Tura". The core of Madurov's position is the concept of the , the world tree, and the myth of Tura reborn in a tree growing from ashes, symbolizing the rebirth of man through nature.
The are also sacred trees and traditional worship sites spread on Chuvash lands. The immediate goals of the Turas group are the creation of spiritual revival complexes on the sites of the , and to turn them into cultural monuments and natural preserves.
Another phenomenon is the spontaneous revival of traditional village festivals (). On these occasions, reconstructed prayers and blessings (, ) are performed along with ritual sacrifices. Such rituals are connected to community and family life, often involving rites of passage such as weddings, births, and anniversaries.
Religion, Faith and Customs Chuvash mythology and their traditional religion englobe the complex views, beliefs and cults of some of the Chuvash people, with many features of mythology and religion among the general Chuvash people being preserved in modern times, including traditional burial rites and a system of holidays and rituals.
The traditional religion among the Chuvash is called the “custom of the ancestors” (vattisen yăli), as well as “tӗne” (world order), and its adherents are called “true Chuvashs” (chăn chăvash). Islam is called tutar tĕni (Tatar worldview), Christianity is called vyrăs tĕni (Russian worldview), and non-believers are called "tĕne kĕmen" (those who did not enter the world). The etymology of the word "Tĕne" relates to the Chinese word 天 (Tian), and the word Tĕncheri Tură (Creator of Heaven) to the Turkic God Tengri ( 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃 *teŋri).
Gods and spirits In Chuvash mythology, according to V.K. Magnitsky, there were more than 210 gods and spirits of different ranks and functions devoted to them. They inhabited heaven, earth and the underworld. D. Meszaros pointed out about Chuvash monotheism, all the rest were only spirits (small creators).
The Chuvashs have only one main creator of "Tĕncheri Tură" - the Universal God, he is the creator of the world. He has many names and epithets, he is also called: the Supreme God (Şülti Tură), the Great God (Măn Tură), the God of the blue sky (Kăvak Tĕneri Tură), the One God (Pĕr Tĕncheri Tură), the Elder God (Aslă Tură) and Senior Father (Aslachi) and Father (Aşa). Initially, the word Aşa in the Chuvash language meant father heaven, and Ama meant mother earth. After that, everything in the world had a father and a mother, like yin and yang. All other small tură (creators) only serve him and are spirits (shiv turri - the creator of water, syvlash turri - the creator of air). In fact, the Chuvashs do not have the concept of God, as such, rather, it is inherent in other peoples, the Chuvashs have the concept of only spirit creators, according to the Chuvash beliefs, everything that exists on earth and in heaven has its own creator spirits (tură) in the form father and mother, with no way to explain natural and physical phenomena, the occurrence of certain chemical processes, they attributed to this the term "tură" - "creator". For example, "Hĕvel amăshĕ" and "Hĕvel ashshĕ" - the mother and father of the sun, a dualistic term for the emergence of all things was attributed to all things and phenomena. The rest of the characters are borrowed from the folklore of neighboring peoples: Vupăr - from the Russian Upyr (eng. Vampire), Albasta - Tatar "Al bas" (strangler), Shuitan - Arab "Satan" and so on.Kind: Tură - translated Creator (from Turĕ) Tĕncheri Tură (Aslo Aşa) - the Creator of the Universe (world), the highest and most important in the pantheon (he has many epithets). Ama (Kuk amay) - Goddess mother, mother earth, god of fertility, patroness of women and children (Turk. Umai) Kebe - god distributor of fates (sometimes Kawaba - umbilical cord) Pihampar - the god protector (patron), endows people with good qualities, sends prophetic visions; (fig. white wolf - prince of wolves) Pyulekhsche - a savior, a keeper, a seer, gives people an unlucky or happy lot, the god of luck. Surlan - northern lights, childbearing kite, distributes the souls of babies Irih - the spirit of the guardian of the clan, family; the legacy of ancestors Pireshti - good spirit, angel (translated as: faceless, without image) Khertsurt - Warming house, keeper of the hearth. Kherle shyr is a kind spirit living in heaven, on the edge of the earth. Vite husi - the owner of the barnHarmful:Uzal - the spirit of all evil in the world Albasta - an evil creature in the form of a woman with four breasts (from Tat.) Arzyuri - spirit, master of the forest, goblin Vubar - an evil spirit, a ghoul, sent diseases, attacked a sleeping person Woodash - an evil spirit that lives in water (from finno-ugric water) Kele - is an evil spirit. Wupkan - is an evil spirit that sends diseases, invisible or in the form of a dog. Esrel - the spirit of death Shuitan - Satan Sekhmet - is the god of anger, wind, misfortune and misfortune. (Chuvash-Russian Dictionary of Nikolsky p. 170) Tecmele - the name of the spirit Khurachun - the owner of the black soul, darkness, cold and gloom Iye - spirit, brownie, living in baths, mills, abandoned houses, barns, etc.IdolYĕrĕkh - a clay doll, according to the traditional beliefs of the Chuvash, this is the deity guardian of the hearth and family, in translation it means "ancestral heritage". It was presented mainly in a female form, more often as an invisible one. He was given a place to live - Yĕrĕkh pĕrni: a basket hung at a height inaccessible to children in a hut or other buildings, more often in a corner of the hut. The main requirement of the deity is a peaceful life in the family and society, the reproduction of the family and its protection. Typical was the prayer of Yorekh in the ancestral home. It was always given to girls getting married. So the erechs were passed down from generation to generation for centuries, so as not to lose touch with the roots, with the family, so that the ancestors protected the family. He was fed gruel and bread when family members were sick.
In some ethnographic groups, the Chuvash - Yĕrĕha was considered the first son of the god Tĕncheri Tură, from which he was given the following name: Heir. In honor of him, temples were built under the name "Yrsamay", which was later called "Keremet" during the Golden Horde and the Islamic period. It was believed that the son of Tură, whom the Chuvash called Yĕrĕkh, could punish for extra worry. Therefore, in the so-called Yrsamai (Keremet) sanctuaries, it was impossible to make noise, come with dirty thoughts, swear, or disturb for no reason. Instigated by Usal (Evil), people killed him and burned him. In order to hide what they had done from God, the ashes were scattered to the wind, and yrsamay (kiremet) were formed everywhere. Keremet (Arabic word) and Yrsamay (in Chuvash) is only the name of a temple, a prayer place, but in Russian in the source of the monuments that Keremet was a god - which was a mistake.
Yĕrĕkh was originally an image of the Turkic Erlik, one of the creators of the earth, many years later, with the advent of Christianity and the adoption of Orthodoxy by the Chuvash, he was renamed Shuitan (Satan). Christian missionaries considered the Chuvash idols to be pagan demons. After that, the Chuvashs began to get rid of the Yĕrĕhs and float them down a stream or river.
Following the example of Tĕncheri Tură, his son Yĕrĕkh also began to equip the land, to repeat after father, they were the first to create trees and grasses.