Khan of Heaven or Tian Kehan, Celestial Kha(ga)n, Heavenly Kha(ga)n, Tengri Kha(ga)n (; Old Turkic: 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃𐰴𐰍𐰣‬) was a title addressed to the Emperor Taizong of Tang by various Turkic nomads. It was first mentioned in accounts on May 20, 630 and again on October 24, 646, shortly after the Eastern Turkic Khaganate and

Xueyantuo The Xueyantuo were an ancient Tiele people, Tiele tribe and khaganate in Northeast Asia who were at one point vassals of the Göktürks, later aligning with the Tang dynasty against the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, Eastern Göktürks. Names Xue ...

were annihilated by the Tang dynasty. The title Tengri Khagan also used to refer other

Turkic Turkic may refer to: * anything related to the country of Turkey * Turkic languages, a language family of at least thirty-five documented languages ** Turkic alphabets (disambiguation) ** Turkish language, the most widely spoken Turkic language * ...

rulers, both known as the Tengri Khagan ( or ) or Täŋridä qaγan () to the Chinese, during the Second Eastern Turkic Khaganate (r. 739–741) and Uyghur Khaganate (r. 759–779) periods. It is uncertain whether the title also applied to the rest of the Tang emperors, or to the Wu Zhou empress regnant Wu Zetian, since the term "Khagan" only referred to male rulers and Empress Wu had started her dominion in the Chinese court after the year AD 665 until the year AD 705, which is after the title's first use by a Chinese emperor. However, two appeal letters from the Turkic hybrid rulers, Ashina Qutluγ Ton Tardu in 727, the Yabgu of

Tokharistan Tokharistan (formed from "Tokhara" and the suffix ''-stan'' meaning "place of" in Persian) is an ancient Early Middle Ages name given to the area which was known as Bactria in Ancient Greek sources. In the 7th and 8th century CE, Tokharistan c ...

, and Yina Tudun Qule in 741, the king of Tashkent, addressed the

Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (; 8 September 685 – 3 May 762), personal name Li Longji, was the seventh emperor of the Tang dynasty in China, reigning from 712 to 756 CE. His reign of 44 years was the longest during the Tang dynasty. In the early ...

as Tian Kehan during the Umayyad expansion. A later letter sent by the Tang court to the Yenisei Kirghiz Qaghan explained that "the peoples of the northwest" had requested Emperor Taizong of Tang to become the "Heavenly Qaghan".

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* Bai, Shouyi et al. (2003). ''A History of Chinese Muslim (Vol. 2)''. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company. . * Liu, Yitang (1997). ''Studies of Chinese Western Regions''. Taipei: Cheng Chung Book Company. . * Xue, Zongzheng (1992). ''A History of Turks''. Beijing: Chinese Social Sciences Press. . {{Inner Asia Chinese royal titles Chinese-language titles + History of Central Asia Emperor Taizong of Tang

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