A2A World · Field Guide 04 of the World’s Mythologies
Монгол · Сибирь
Mongolia, Siberia and the North Asian steppe
Names, attributes, and narratives from the steppe and the northern forests — sky father and earth mother, ancestral animals, epic heroes and shamanic journeys — organised so each entry can be used as a search target in deliberate pareidolia practice.
Across North Asia, the bear, the wolf, the eagle and the sacred tree are not only story figures but ancestors and guides. These are among the oldest shared images of the northern world.
© A2A World LLC 2026
Context
The peoples of Mongolia and Siberia — among them Mongols, Buryats, Yakuts (Sakha), Evenks, Khanty and Altai peoples — share a broad tradition in which the Eternal Blue Sky and the Earth are honoured together, and shamans travel between upper, middle and lower worlds along a world tree. Buddhism later became central in Mongolia and Buryatia, blending with older belief.
Principal Sources
The Secret History of the Mongols (13th century) opens with the origin of Chinggis Khan’s line from the Blue Wolf and the Fallow Doe. The Geser epic exists in many oral and written versions across Tibet, Mongolia and Buryatia. The Olonkho heroic epics of the Sakha are recognised by UNESCO. Much else survives in oral tradition and ethnographic records.
A North Asian precedent
Steppe peoples have long named hills, rocks and mountains for the animals and ancestors they resemble, and honour high places with ovoo — cairns of stones and blue silk scarves — where the spirits of the land are greeted. The landscape is read as inhabited and storied.
The two best first targets
1. The Blue Wolf (Börte Chino) — ancestral wolf of the Mongols. 2. The bear — honoured across Siberia as an ancestor and kin to humans. Strong alternates: the world tree, the eagle, and the shaman’s drum.
I · Creation & Founding
The making of the world and the animal ancestors of peoples.
Siberian creation
Key Attributes
A widespread northern creation story.
Story
Before land existed, a bird or a helper dives to the bottom of the primeval sea and brings up a little mud, which the creator spreads to form the earth.
Look For in the Land
A diving bird; a small island growing in open water.
Бөртэ Чоно · Гоо Марал
Key Attributes
The Blue-Grey Wolf and the Fallow Doe; ancestors of the Mongols.
Story
According to the Secret History, they cross a great lake and settle at the source of the Onon River near Mount Burkhan Khaldun, beginning the line of Chinggis Khan.
Look For in the Land
A wolf and a deer side by side near a lake and mountain.
Алан гоо
Key Attributes
Ancestral mother of the Mongols.
Story
She gives her five sons five arrows: each arrow alone breaks easily, but bound together they cannot be broken — a lesson in unity.
Look For in the Land
A bundle of arrows; a woman with five figures.
Buryat
Key Attributes
Swan maiden, mother of Buryat clans.
Story
A hunter hides the feather robe of a swan maiden bathing in a lake; she becomes his wife and bears eleven sons, then recovers her robe and flies away through the smoke hole of the yurt.
Look For in the Land
A swan rising from a lake.
Siberian bear tradition
Key Attributes
The bear as kin and ancestor.
Story
Among many Siberian peoples the bear is addressed with respectful names such as ‘grandfather’ rather than its own, and honoured in bear ceremonies.
Look For in the Land
A seated or walking bear.
II · Gods & Spirits
The powers above, below and in the land.
Мөнх Хөх Тэнгэр
Key Attributes
The Eternal Blue Sky; supreme sky deity.
Story
Source of order and fortune. Chinggis Khan invoked the Eternal Blue Sky as the source of his authority.
Look For in the Land
A vast dome; a figure with raised arms beneath the sky.
Этүгэн эх
Key Attributes
Mother Earth.
Story
Honoured alongside Tengri as the feminine earth that sustains life.
Look For in the Land
A reclining female figure across the steppe.
Умай
Key Attributes
Goddess of fertility, children and the hearth among Turkic peoples.
Story
Protects women in childbirth and infants; she is said to have sixty golden tresses like rays of the sun.
Look For in the Land
A woman with radiating hair.
Эрлэг хан
Key Attributes
Ruler of the underworld.
Story
In Altai tradition the first being made by the creator Ülgen; he grows proud, is cast down, and rules the dead below.
Look For in the Land
A heavy figure beneath the ground; a cave mouth.
Үлгөн
Key Attributes
Creator and benevolent sky god of the Altai.
Story
Lives in the upper heavens; the shaman’s highest journey climbs the notches of a birch tree to reach him.
Look For in the Land
A tree with notches climbing toward a figure above.
III · Creatures & Guardians
Strong silhouettes that recur across the northern world.
Siberian world tree
Key Attributes
Axis joining the upper, middle and lower worlds.
Story
Roots in the underworld, branches in the heavens; souls are said to rest in its branches as birds before birth.
Look For in the Land
A single great tree; birds in its crown.
Бүргэд
Key Attributes
First shaman in Buryat legend.
Story
Sent by the gods to help humans against sickness, the eagle gives shamanic power to the first human shaman.
Look For in the Land
A bird with outstretched wings.
Siberian lore
Key Attributes
Giant creature living beneath the earth.
Story
In some Siberian traditions, mammoth remains found in riverbanks belong to a great beast that burrows under the ground and dies if it sees daylight.
Look For in the Land
A huge tusked beast emerging from a riverbank.
Хэц
Key Attributes
The shaman’s mount and boat.
Story
The drum carries the shaman between worlds; its skin often bears painted maps of the cosmos.
Look For in the Land
A round or oval frame; a figure riding it.
Овоо
Key Attributes
Sacred cairn on passes and summits.
Story
Travellers circle it clockwise three times and add a stone to greet the spirits of the place.
Look For in the Land
A conical mound on a high point.
IV · Heroes and Odd Tales
Heroes of the great oral epics and memorable tales.
Гэсэр
Key Attributes
Epic hero sent from heaven.
Story
Born on earth in humble form, he grows into a king who defeats demons and restores order; his epic is sung across Tibet, Mongolia and Buryatia.
Look For in the Land
A mounted warrior; a figure on a winged horse.
Ньургун Боотур
Key Attributes
Hero of the Sakha Olonkho epic.
Story
Sent down from the upper world to protect the middle world’s people from the monsters of the lower world.
Look For in the Land
A striding warrior between two realms.
Морин хуур
Key Attributes
The horsehead fiddle.
Story
A herdsman’s beloved winged horse dies; from its bones and hair he makes the first fiddle, and its music carries the horse’s spirit.
Look For in the Land
A horse’s head atop a long neck.
Lake Baikal lore
Key Attributes
The lake and his runaway daughter.
Story
Old Baikal has 336 rivers flowing into him but one daughter, Angara, who flees to her beloved Yenisei. Baikal hurls a rock after her — the Shaman Rock at the river’s source.
Look For in the Land
A long lake with a single river running out; a lone rock at its mouth.
Evenk tradition
Key Attributes
A chase across the night sky.
Story
Among Evenk and Khanty peoples, a great hunter chases a cosmic elk across the sky — a story told of the stars of the Big Dipper.
Look For in the Land
An elk with a pursuing figure.
A Note on Names, Versions and Respect
These are living traditions of many distinct peoples. Spellings vary by language; shamanic practice is sacred to its communities. Confirm the version and appropriate context with a member of the relevant community before public use.
© A2A World LLC 2026 · a2aworld.ai/field-guides/mongolian-siberian