Tengrism in the context of Xiongnu

The Tian Shan, also known as the Tengri Tagh or Tengir-Too, is a large system of mountain ranges in Central Asia. The highest peak is Jengish Chokusu at 7,439 metres (24,406 ft) high and located in Kyrgyzstan. Its lowest point is at the Turpan Depression, which is 154 m (505 ft) below sea level.

The Tian Shan is sacred in Tengrism. Its second-highest peak is known as Khan Tengri, which can be translated as "Lord of the Spirits". At the 2013 Conference on World Heritage, the eastern portion of Tian Shan in western China's Xinjiang Region was listed as a World Heritage Site. The western portion in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan was then listed in 2016.

Turkoman, also known as Turcoman (English: /ˈtɜːrkəmən/), was a term for the people of Oghuz Turkic origin, widely used during the Middle Ages. Oghuz Turks were a western Turkic people that, in the 8th century A.D, formed a tribal confederation in an area between the Aral and Caspian seas in Central Asia, and spoke the Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family. Today, much of the populations of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan are direct descendants of Oghuz Turks once called Turkomans.

Turkmen, originally an exonym, dates from the High Middle Ages, along with the ancient and familiar name "Turk" (türk), and tribal names such as "Bayat", "Bayandur", "Afshar", and "Kayi". By the 10th century, Islamic sources were referring to Oghuz Turks as Muslim Turkmens, as opposed to Tengrist or Buddhist Turks. It entered into the usage of the Western world through the Byzantines in the 12th century, since by that time Oghuz Turks were overwhelmingly Muslim. Later, the term "Oghuz" was gradually supplanted by "Turkmen" among Oghuz Turks themselves, thus turning an exonym into an endonym, a process which was completed by the beginning of the 13th century.

The Khazars (/ˈxɑːzɑːrz/) were a semi-nomadic Turkic people who established a major commercial empire in the late 6th century CE spanning modern southeastern Russia, southern Ukraine, and western Kazakhstan. It was the most powerful polity to emerge from the break-up of the Western Turkic Khaganate. Astride a major artery of commerce between Eastern Europe and Southwestern Asia, Khazaria became one of the foremost trading empires of the early medieval world, commanding the western marches of the Silk Road and playing a key commercial role as a crossroad between China, the Middle East, and Kievan Rus'. For some three centuries (c. 650–965), the Khazars dominated the vast area extending from the Volga-Don steppes to the eastern Crimea and the northern Caucasus.

Although they were likely a confederation of different Turkic-speaking peoples, the precise origins and nature of the Khazars are uncertain, since there is no surviving record in the Khazar language and the state was multilingual and polyethnic. Their native religion is thought to have been Tengrism, like that of the North Caucasian Huns and other Turkic peoples, although their multiethnic population seems to have included pagans, Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Although there is evidence that the ruling elite of the Khazars had converted to Rabbinic Judaism in the 8th century, the scope of the conversion to Judaism within the khanate remains uncertain.

The nations which make up Central Asia are five of the former Soviet republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, which have a total population of about 76 million. Afghanistan is not always considered part of the region, but when it is, Central Asia has a total population of about 122 million (2016); Mongolia and Xinjiang (part of China) is also sometimes considered part of Central Asia due to its Central Asian cultural ties and traditions, although geographically it is East Asian. Most central Asians belong to religions which were introduced to the area within the last 1,500 years, such as Sunni Islam, Shia Islam, Ismaili Islam, Tengriism and Syriac Christianity (mostly East Syriac). Buddhism, however, was introduced to Central Asia over 2,200 years ago, and Zoroastrianism, over 2,500 years ago.

The Eastern religions are the religions which originated in East, South and Southeast Asia and thus have dissimilarities with Western and African religions. Eastern religions include:

• Taoic religions or East Asian religions such as Confucianism, Taoism, Tengrism, Korean shamanism, Chinese folk religion, and Shinto
• Dharmic religions or Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism
• Southeast Asian religions such as Kejawen and Vietnamese folk religion

The East-West religious distinction (just like the East-West culture distinction, and the implications that arise from it) is broad and not precise. Furthermore, geographical distinctions have less meaning in the current context of global transculturation.

The Altai-Sayan region is an area of Inner Asia proximate to the Altai Mountains and the Sayan Mountains, near to where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together. This region is one of the world centers of temperate plant diversity. Its biological, landscape, historical, cultural and religious diversity is unique. 3,726 species of vascular plants are registered in the region including 700 threatened or rare species, 317 of which are endemic; fauna consists of 680 species, 6% of which are endemic. Its ecosystem is comparatively unchanged since the last ice age, and it is the host of endangered species that include the saiga, nerpa, and snow leopard. It is the focus of ongoing international and regional environmental conservation initiatives.

The area is culturally diverse, with four extant language groups (Mongolic, Turkic, Sinitic and Slavic, and formerly Samoyedic and Yeniseian), and more than 20 indigenous ethnic groups practicing traditional land use systems. There are also a variety of religions including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Tengrism and Shamanism. The region covers more than one million square kilometers, and has a population of between 5 and 6 million inhabitants.

Modern Kazakh culture is mainly characterized as a synthesis of Tengrian nomadic and Islamic and European elements. Nomadic elements derived from predecessors, such as the Huns, First Turkic Khaganate, Golden Horde and Kazakh Khanate. Nomadism largely shaped its peculiar music, clothing, jewelry and oral literature. Kazakh culture also seems to be strongly influenced by the nomadic Scythians.

Because animal husbandry was central to the Kazakhs' traditional lifestyle, most of their nomadic practices and customs relate in some way to livestock. Traditional curses and blessings invoked disease or fertility among animals, and good manners required that a person ask first about the health of a man's livestock when greeting him and only afterward inquire about the human aspects of his life.

Ötüken or Otuken (Old Turkic: 𐰇𐱅𐰜𐰤:𐰖𐰃𐱁, romanized: Ötüken yïš, lit. 'Ötüken forest' or 𐰵𐱅𐰜𐰤:𐰘𐰼, romanized: Ötüken jer, lit. 'land of Ötüken'; Old Uighur: 𐰵𐱅𐰜𐰤:𐰘𐰃𐱁, romanized: Ötüken yïš; Chinese: 於都斤) was the capital of the First Turkic Khaganate, the Second Turkic Khaganate and the Uyghur Khaganate. It has an important place in Turkic mythology and Tengrism.

Ötüken is located within the borders of the Arkhangai Province and Övörkhangai Province of present-day Mongolia.

The Mongol invasions of India were numerous invasions that the Mongol Empire launched into the Indian subcontinent from 1221 to 1327, with many of the later raids made by the Qara'unas of Mongol origin. The Mongols occupied parts of the subcontinent for decades. As the Mongols progressed into the Indian hinterland and reached the outskirts of Delhi, the Delhi Sultanate of India led a campaign against them in which the Mongol army suffered serious defeats.

Delhi Sultanate officials viewed war with the Mongols as one of the sultan's primary duties. While the sultanate's chroniclers described the conflicts between the Tengrist Mongols and Muslim community in binary terms, with the Delhi Sultanate being an island of Islamic civilization surrounded by Hindus and Buddhist to its north and south, it ignored the fact that a large number of the sultanate's elites and monarchs were of Turkic/Mongol ethnicity or had previously served in their armed contingents.

Turkic mythology refers to myths and legends told by the Turkic people. It features Tengrist and Shamanist strata of belief along with many other social and cultural constructs related to the nomadic and warrior way of life of Turkic and Mongol peoples in ancient times. Turkic mythology shares numerous ideas and practices with Mongol mythology. Turkic mythology has also influenced other local Asiatic and Eurasian mythologies. For example, in Tatar mythology elements of Finnic and Indo-European mythologies co-exist. Beings from Tatar mythology include Äbädä, Alara, Şüräle, Şekä, Pitsen, Tulpar, and Zilant.

The ancient Turks apparently practised all the then-current major religions in Inner Asia, such as Tibetan Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, Judaism, and Manichaeism, before the majority's conversion to Islam through the mediation of Persian and Central Asian culture, as well as through the preaching of Sufi Muslim wandering ascetics and mystics (fakirs and dervishes). Often these other religions were assimilated and integrated through syncretism into their prevailing native mythological tradition, way of life, and worldview. Irk Bitig, a 10th-century manuscript found in Dunhuang, is one of the most important sources for the recovery and study of Turkic mythology and religion. The book is written in Old Turkic alphabet like the Orkhon inscriptions.