Editing Sakha Republic (section)

===Religion===
{{Bar box
|title=Religion in Sakha Republic as of 2012 (Sreda Arena Atlas)<ref name="2012ArenaAtlas">[http://sreda.org/en/arena "Arena: Atlas of Religions and Nationalities in Russia"]. Sreda, 2012.</ref><ref name="2012Arena-religion-maps">[http://c2.kommersant.ru/ISSUES.PHOTO/OGONIOK/2012/034/ogcyhjk2.jpg 2012 Arena Atlas Religion Maps]. "Ogonek", No. 34 (5243), 27/08/2012. Retrieved 21/04/2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20170421154615/http://c2.kommersant.ru/ISSUES.PHOTO/OGONIOK/2012/034/ogcyhjk2.jpg Archived].</ref>
|float=right
|bars=
{{Bar percent|[[Russian Orthodox Church|Russian Orthodoxy]]|DarkOrchid|37.8}}
{{Bar percent|[[Protestantism in Russia|Protestantism]]|Navy|0.8}}
{{Bar percent|Other [[Christianity in Russia|Christians]]|DeepSkyBlue|0.8}}
{{Bar percent|[[Islam in Russia|Islam]]|Green|2}}
{{Bar percent|[[Tengrism]] and other native faiths|Red|13}}
{{Bar percent|[[Spiritual but not religious]]|DarkSlateGray|16.6}}
{{Bar percent|[[Atheism]] and [[irreligion]]|Black|25.6}}
{{Bar percent|Other and undeclared|Gray|4}}
}}

Before the arrival of the Russian Empire, the majority of the local population was [[Tengrist]], similar to the other Turkic people of Central Asia, or in Paleoasian indigenous [[shamanism]] with both 'light' (community leading) and 'dark' (healing through spirit journey) shamans. Under the Russians, the local population was converted to the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] and required to take Orthodox Christian names, but in practice generally continued to follow traditional religions. During the Soviet era, most or all of the shamans died without successors.
In the 1990s, a neopagan shamanist movement called ''aiyy yeurekhé'' was founded by the controversial journalist Ivan Ukhkhan and a philologist calling himself Téris.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/rss/28-1_113.pdf|title=Yakutia (Sakha) Faces a Religious Choice: Shamanism or Christianity}}</ref> This group and others cooperated to build a shaman temple in downtown Yakutsk in 2002.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/rss/33-1_057.pdf|title=Whose Steeple is Higher? Religious Competition in Siberia}}</ref>

[[File:Преображенская церковь ночью - panoramio.jpg|thumb|Transfiguration of Jesus Christ Cathedral in Yakutsk]]

Currently,{{when|date=March 2023}} while Orthodox Christianity maintains a following (however, with very few priests willing to be stationed outside of Yakutsk), there is interest and activity toward renewing the traditional religions. As of 2008, Orthodox leaders described the worldview of the republic's indigenous population (or, rather, those among the population who are not completely indifferent to religion) as ''dvoyeverie'' (dual belief system), or a "tendency toward [[syncretism]]", as evidenced by the locals sometimes first inviting a shaman, and then an Orthodox priest to carry out their rites in connection with some event in their life.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.taday.ru/text/135461.html
|title =В Якутии господствует двоеверие (Ч. 1) (Yakutia is dominated by a dual belief system)|author=Елена Дятлова (Yelena Dyatlova)
|date=October 1, 2008
|quote=Во многих случаях нам говорили, что при совершении тех или иных обрядов или просто действий приглашают сначала шамана, потом священника. Правда, именно в таком порядке, признавая христианство чем-то высшим по отношению к местной магической языческой традиции, но это соединяя. Даже среди тех представителей якутской интеллигенции, с которыми мы общались, это стремление к синкретизму было отчетливо приметно.
}} (An interview with Maxim Kozlov, a Moscow priest who had recently returned from a missionary trip down the Lena along with the Bishop of Yakutsk.)</ref>

According to the Information Center under the President of Sakha Republic (Информационный центр при Президенте РС(Я)), the religious demography of the republic was as follows:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.religare.ru/2_43720.html |title=РЕЛИГАРЕ – Современная религиозная ситуация в Республике Саха (Якутия): проблемы и перспективы |publisher=Religare.ru |access-date=February 25, 2014}}</ref> Orthodoxy: 44.9%, Shamanism: 26.2%, Non-religious: 23.0%, New religious movements: 2.4%, Islam: 1.2%, Buddhism: 1.0%, Protestantism: 0.9%, Catholicism: 0.4%.

According to a 2012 survey,<ref name="2012ArenaAtlas"/> 37.8% of the population of Sakha adheres to the [[Russian Orthodox Church]], 13% to [[Tengrism]] or Sakha [[Siberian shamanism|shamanism]], 2% to [[Islam]], 1% are unaffiliated [[Christians]], 1% to forms of [[Protestantism]], and 0.4% to [[Tibetan Buddhism]]. In addition, 26% of the population deems itself [[atheism|atheist]], 17% is "spiritual but not religious", and 1.8% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question.<ref name="2012ArenaAtlas"/>