Mongolian (All Terms)

Authors: ASE Tech Team

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Mongolian constellations and cosmogony were inherited from the occidental civilisation notably by the contact with Alexander the Great and was largely influenced by Chinese civilisation and Buddhist religion, resulting in numerous myths and beliefs linked with what surrounds them. The local wild and fauna are the main themes of this skyculture. The wealth of Mongolian cosmogony is probably to link with the observation conditions for whom they benefit even now. In the past, the necessity for them to move and to get one's bearing even during the night and at different seasons, by searching the weather's mildness, is probably one of the element which developed their imagination facing the sky.

Solar System Names

Originally, Tibeto-Mongolian astrology calculates the positions of each of the planets visible with the naked eye. Because planets beyond Saturn are not visible without telescope (the instrument which appeared long time after the creation of their astrology), the Mongolians have attributed one of the five planets for each day of the week, completing with the Sun (Nar) for Sunday and the Moon (Sar) for Monday. The names of the Solar System's planets and Pluto have some peculiarities in Mongolian. Mercury is named Bud (associated with Wednesday), Venus, Sugar (associated with Friday), the Earth, Delkhii, Mars, Angarag (associated with Tuesday), Jupiter, Barhasbadi (associated with Thursday), Saturn, Sanchir (associated with Saturday), Uranus, Tengeriin-van, Neptune, Dalai-van and at last Pluto, Dalkhii-van. We can see that the three last, invisible to the naked eye and discovered long time after the others, have the characteristic to have the particle -van at the end of the name, indicating the princely status in Mongolian. Earth and Pluto are named similarly, except that this last one has this particle. It is possible to translate from Mongolian Pluto like "The princely ground" (ground and not Earth because it means here the surface on which we walk, not the Earth. Uranus, Tengeriin-van, could be translated as "princely sky", and Neptune, Dalai-van, as the "princely ocean". Nevertheless, this particle has no real equivalent in English, and translations above are presented to give an idea of the planet name's meaning. However, the names of the celestial bodies specified here come from Sanskrit (language spoken in India) and are largely used in the current language in Mongolia but in an unofficial way.

It is also very interesting to see the tight link between terms designating other celestial bodies and their beliefs: indeed, Tengeriin Zadas appoints the Milky Way. We could literally translate this as the "Sky Line" (Tengeriin for the sky, which also means the god of the sky, and Zadas for the line). Well known in Mongolian star lore concerns Alcor, the star located above Mizar in the Greater Bear. It symbolises the recover and protection star. It was placed here by Tengeriin (god of heaven) to protect Mizar. To become an archer for Genghis Khan (13th century), it seemed that one had to be able to discern these two stars with the naked eye.

From a historic point of view, this excellent knowledge of the sky goes back to Ulug Beg (AD1394-1449; Taraghay by his real name), astronomer, mathematician and viceroy in Samarkand whose empire spread as far as Central Asia. Turning away from his royal obligations, he examined celestial bodies and astronomical questions of his time. He is the first to extremely precisely measure Saturn's revolution period (Sanchir) with a sextant of 40 meters radius.

Mongolian	English	commentary
Nar	Sun
Sar	Moon
Bud	Mercury
Sugar	Venus
Delkhii	Earth
Angarag	Mars
Barhasbadi	Jupiter
Sanchir	Saturn
Tengeriin-van	Uranus
Dalai-van	Neptune

List of terms (asterism names)

Mongolian term	Designation	Comment
Dalkhii-van	Pluto
Altan Hadaas	HIP 11767	Golden Nail
Num Sum		The Bow and the Arrow
Hun Tavan Od	Cassiopeia	The Five Stars Woman; The constellation's five stars represent unity of the five children of Genghis Khan's wife, Oulin
Doloon Burkhan	Ursa Major	The Seven Buddhas
Gurvan Maral Od		The Three Stags
	Shooting stars	symbolizes somebody who just died

Generally, stars represent animals turning around the North Star which is symbolized by the Golden Nail (Altan Hadaas). Almost all Mongolian asterisms are similar to those that we know. However some have other names like Num Sum (The Bow and the Arrow) for the constellation Swan, or Doloon Burkhan for the seven stars of the Big Dipper. The summer triangle made up of Vega, Deneb and Altair stars refers to three stags (Gurvan Maral Od in Mongolian). And Cassiopeia represents, in the Mongolian imagination, the Five Stars Woman (Hun Tavan Od).

References

• References (general)