Editing World tree (section)

====Turkic cultures====
=====''Bai-Terek''=====
The ''Bai-Terek'' (also known as ''bayterek'', ''beyterek'', ''beğterek'', ''begterek'', ''begtereg''),<ref name=Dochu2017>{{cite journal|last1=Dochu|first1=Alina|title=Turkic etymological background of the English bird name terek ' Tringa cinereus '|journal=Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae|date=December 2017|volume=70|issue=4|pages=479–483|doi=10.1556/062.2017.70.4.6|s2cid=134741505|url=http://real.mtak.hu/71283/1/062.2017.70.4.6.pdf}}</ref> found, for instance, in the Altai ''Maadai Kara'' epos, can be translated as "Golden [[Populus|Poplar]]".<ref name="himalayanresearch.org">Zhernosenko, I. A.; Rogozina, I. V. "[http://www.himalayanresearch.org/pdf/Vol18%20Nos3-4.pdf WORLDVIEW AND MENTALITY OF ALTAI'S INDIGENOUS INHABITANTS]". In: ''Himalayan and Central Asian Studies''; New Delhi Vol. 18, Ed. 3/4 (Jul–Dec 2014): 111.</ref> Like the mythological description, each part of tree (top, trunk and root) corresponds to the three layers of reality: heavenly, earthly and underground. In one description, it is considered the ''axis mundi''. It holds at the top "a nest of a double-headed eagle that watches over the different parts of the world" and, in the form of a snake, [[Erlik]], deity of the underworld, tries to slither up the tree to steal an egg from the nest.<ref name=Dochu2017/> In another, the tree holds two gold cuckoos at the topmost branches and two golden eagles just below. At the roots there are two dogs that guard the passage between the underworld and the world of the living.<ref name="himalayanresearch.org"/>

=====''Aal Luuk Mas''=====

Among the [[Yakut people|Yakuts]], the world tree (or sacred tree) is called ''Ál Lúk Mas'' (Aal Luuk Mas) and is attested in their ''[[Olonkho]]'' epic narratives. Furthermore, this sacred tree is described to "connect the three worlds  (Upper, Middle and Lower)", the branches to the sky and the roots to the underworld.<ref name=Pavlova2018/> Further studies show that this sacred tree also shows many alternate names and descriptions in different regional traditions.<ref name=Pavlova2018/> According to scholarship, the prevalent animal at the top of the tree in the Olonkho is the [[eagle]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Satanar|first1=Marianna T.|title=К семиотической интерпретации мифологического образа древа Аал Луук мас в эпосе олонхо|journal=Oriental Studies|date=25 December 2020|volume=13|issue=4|pages=1135–1154|doi=10.22162/2619-0990-2020-50-4-1135-1154|s2cid=241597729|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Researcher Galina Popova emphasizes that the motif of the world tree offers a binary opposition between two different realms (the Upper Realm and the Underworld), and Aal Luuk Mas functions as a link between both.<ref name="ПОПОВА 2019">{{cite journal|last1=ПОПОВА|first1=Г. С.|title=ДРЕВО МИРА ААЛ ЛУУК МАС В СОВРЕМЕННОЙ КУЛЬТУРЕ ЯКУТОВ САХА|date=2019|doi=10.24411/2071-6427-2019-00039}}</ref> A spirit or goddess of the earth, named Aan Alahchin Hotun, is also said to inhabit or live in the trunk of Aal Luuk Mas.<ref name="ПОПОВА 2019"/>

=====Bashkir=====
According to scholarship, in the [[Bashkirs|Bashkir]] epic ''[[Ural-batyr]]'', deity Samrau is described as a celestial being married to female deities of the Sun and the Moon. He is also "The King of the Birds" and is opposed by the "dark forces" of the universe, which live in the underworld. A similarly named creature, the bird Samrigush, appears in Bashkir folktales living atop the tallest tree in the world and its enemy is a snake named Azhdakha.<ref name="cyberleninka.ru">{{cite journal|last1=Хисамитдинова|first1=Ф.г.|title=Божества верхнего мира в мифологии башкир|journal=Oriental Studies|date=2014|issue=4|pages=146–154|url=https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/bozhestva-verhnego-mira-v-mifologii-bashkir}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Батыршин|first1=Ш.ф.|title=Образы мифических животных в русской, башкирской и китайской лингвокультурах|journal=Мир науки, культуры, образования|date=2019|volume=2|issue=75|pages=470–472|url=https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/obrazy-mificheskih-zhivotnyh-v-russkoy-bashkirskoy-i-kitayskoy-lingvokulturah}}</ref> After the human hero kills the serpent Azhdakha, the grateful Samrigush agrees to carry him back to the world of light.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Равиловна|first1=Хусаинова Гульнур|title=Отражение мифологических воззрений в башкирской волшебной сказке|journal=Вестник Челябинского государственного университета|date=2012|volume=32|issue=286|pages=126–129|url=https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/otrazhenie-mifologicheskih-vozzreniy-v-bashkirskoy-volshebnoy-skazke}}</ref>

=====Kazakh=====
Scholarship points to the existence of a bird named Samurik (Samruk) that, according to [[Kazakhs|Kazakh]] myth, lives atop the World Tree ''Baiterek''. Likewise, in Kazakh folktales, it is also the hero's carrier out of the underworld, after he defeats a dragon named Aydakhara or Aydarhana.<ref name="cyberleninka.ru"/> In the same vein, Kazakh literary critic and folklorist {{ill|Seyt Kaskabasov|ru|Каскабасов, Сеит Аскарович}} described that the Samruk bird travels between the three spheres of the universe, nests atop the "cosmic tree" (bәyterek) and helps the hero out of the underworld.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Kaskabasov|first1=Seit|title=Iranian Folk Motifs And Religious Images In Kazakh Literature And Folklore|journal=Astra Salvensis|date=2018|volume=VI|issue=Sup. 1|pages=423–432|url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=647524}}</ref>

=====Other representations=====
An early 20th-century report on Altaian shamanism by researcher Karunovskaia describes a shamanistic journey, information provided by one Kondratii Tanashev (or Merej Tanas). However, A. A. Znamenski believes this material is not universal to all Altaian peoples, but pertains to the specific worldview of Tanashev's Tangdy clan. Regardless, the material showed a belief in a tripartite division of the world in sky (heavenly sphere), middle world and underworld; in the central part of the world, a mountain (''Ak toson altaj sip''') is located. Upon this mountain there is "a navel of the earth and water  ... which also serves as the root of the 'wonderful tree with golden branches and wide leaves' (''Altyn byrly bai terek'')". Like the iconic imagery, the tree branches out to reach the heavenly sphere.<ref>{{cite book|doi=10.1007/978-94-017-0277-5_3|chapter=Siberian Shamanism in Soviet Imagination|title=Shamanism in Siberia|year=2003|last1=Znamenski|first1=Andrei A.|pages=131–278|isbn=978-90-481-6484-4}}</ref>