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Is there a Mongolian (or Tengrist) ritual of throwing water in front of someone before they set off on a journey? Or is that just a Turkish thing?

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    Interesting question, but why ask it on History SE? – sempaiscuba Aug 16 '17 at 13:50
  • I couldn't figure out a better place to put it. Any suggestions? – Daniel Bensen Aug 16 '17 at 15:19
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    @DanielBensen - I might be able to help but I need clarification on the "throwing water (before a journey)". Can you provide more context/details, i.e. info, link, video, etc? For a start, it would not be from the concept of Tenggeri or Tenggiri, which is the Heavenly Sky, somewhat similar to "Mandate from Heaven", or the resulting shamanistic belief. – J Asia Aug 16 '17 at 16:33
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    @JAsia thank you! Is there a ritual involving water and someone setting out on a journey? In Bulgaria, you throw water in front of someone before they walk away. In Turkey (apparently) you throw water across the hood of someone's car before they drive away. – Daniel Bensen Aug 16 '17 at 18:45
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    @DanielBensen - Not really clear to me that you've described a ritual, looks more like custom. I had in mind a fairly formal Daoist ritual, involving water blessing -- which has a long history in some parts of East Asia, and is related to the Daoist tenet of Wu Wei ( 無爲).. On Mongolian approach to Tengrism, see "Heaven, Earth and Mongols by Rachewiltz" (pdf). Sorry, can't help with more. – J Asia Aug 16 '17 at 20:58
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As a Mongolian, the first thing to come to mind is, spraying milk right after someone special such as a family member leaves. For book sources. I believe it was described by Jack Weatherford in "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" or "The secret history of Mongol Queens". I find this interesting as "suu" means milk in Mongolian and water in Turkish, if I'm not mistaken.

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  • Thank you turoo! That milk-spraying sounds a lot like the Turkish (and Bulgarian) water-splashing. In the end I didn't include it in my story (which you can find in the Tales from Alternate Earths 2 anthology goodreads.com/book/show/41085653-tales-from-alternate-earths-2) I enjoyed both of those Weatherford books. And I believe "su" is Turkish for "water," yes! Thank you for your help – Daniel Bensen Aug 10 '20 at 16:02
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I'm Jewish from Uzbekistan (Samarkand), and in my family growing up, we always threw a cup of water right as the car pulled away for a long drive.

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    Interesting, but can you provide more details? Did you see or hear about others doing this? – Lars Bosteen Oct 3 '20 at 23:57
  • That's exactly what we do in Bulgaria and what (apparently) is done in Turkey! Thank you! – Daniel Bensen Oct 14 '20 at 11:45

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