Observations placeholder
Mircea Eliade - Tunguses, Yakut and the concepts of Good and Evil
Identifier
022003
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
The concept of God as the Father is uniquely Biblical and especially Christian in its origins. Very large numbers of indigenous peoples, recognise the existence of a Supreme Being, but attribute no fatherly characteristics to this ultimate Intelligence at all. In all of these beliefs, the ultimate Intelligence is never involved in what we do and neither punishes nor praises. Most indigenous tribes appear to take far more responsibility for their own actions than many cultures based on the Biblical traditions. There is no concept for example of 'God wills it' of passing the buck as it were to anyone except man himself.
A description of the experience
Mircea Eliade – Patterns in Comparative religion
For some Siberian and Central Asiatic peoples, the sky god is so distant that he takes no interest in what men do. And for the Tunguses, Buga ('sky', 'world') knows everything but does not meddle in the affairs of mankind, nor punish evildoers. Uran ajy tojon or aibyt aga (Aga, 'Father') of the Yakuts dwells in the seventh heaven on a white marble throne and governs all things, but does only good – in other words does not punish