Erlig Khan

deity · Mongolia · Central Asia

Erlig Khan (Erlik, Erleg) is the lord of death and judge of the underworld in Mongolian and Turkic belief: he reigns in the copper palace of Tamag, weighs the souls of the dead, and looses sickness upon the living. Powerful and implacable yet bound by cosmic law, he is equated with Yama and, among Mongols, called Erleg or Yerleg.

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