Tradition: Buryat mythology, Mongolian mythology
Alternative Names: Demons of Atai Ulaan, Evil Spirits of Atai Ulaan
Category: Demon
The Myth
The demons and monsters of Atai Ulaan were supernatural beings that arose from the severed pieces of the body of Atai Ulaan Tenger after he was defeated and dismembered. Han Hormasta Tenger cut Atai Ulaan’s body into seven pieces and cast them down toward the earth.
As the pieces of his body lay scattered across the earth, they began to decay and rot. Their corruption spread through the world: their effluvia became poisonous mists rising toward heaven, while on earth they spread disease. From the ruined pieces of Atai Ulaan’s body, demons and monsters developed.
These beings became sources of suffering for humans and animals. The land was afflicted by death and disease, while people and animals suffered from hunger, thirst, anthrax, plague, and other calamities. The demons born from Atai Ulaan’s remains joined together in hostility and made war upon the living world.
The head of Atai Ulaan became the particularly powerful demon Arhan Hara Shutger, but the other fragments of his body also produced evil beings. The demons born from these remains became part of the continuing conflict between the eastern and western tenger and were among the supernatural enemies that the hero Abai Geser was destined to fight.
In the mythology, the destruction of Atai Ulaan therefore did not completely end his threat. His shattered body itself became a source of new demons, transforming the remains of the defeated tenger into supernatural forces of disease, destruction, and suffering.
Sources
“Geser—Halaa 3: The Third Branch — Arhan Hara Shutger.” Buryat-Mongol.com. Archived by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, June 29, 2007.
https://web.archive.org/web/20070629041744/http://www.buryatmongol.com/halaa3.html