"The scholar Sergei Filatov has stated: “Shamanism was the basic form of religiosity among Yakuts before 1917… According to ancient beliefs, the first Yakuts Sakha Saaryn Toon and Saby Vaai Khotun— were gods who had come down to Earth from the Highest Heaven with the great mission to create the Sakha nation. The Yakuts also had several beliefs which contemporary neopagans have interpreted as monotheism, including the belief in a supreme god, the Sun (fire), Aiyy (Tengri), which has its roots in Pan-Turkic religious myth. However, in everyday religious practice little attention was paid to this supreme god.”"