Morning Myth - Time - Kala

So I started in Siberia but ended up in Java... long road. It began with the Yukaghir deity associated with time and the keeping of time, Kini'je. There was not much information on Kini'je other than an association with time. The internet did not have the information, I am sure its in a library somewhere. So I was left to infer aspects of the deity; death, the underworld, destruction, cyclical nature of life etc.

The inference is not without some basic understanding of mythologies. As is often the case, time is associated with death or destruction. More precisely, the passage of time is associated with destruction and death. It is also, coincidentally, associated with rebirth - at least in many mythologies found to the east of the Urals and into the Indian subcontinent. 

The 'K' sounded familiar so I dug around a bit. A Hindu deity, Kala, is associated with time. Now Hindu mythology is complex and I have no real understanding of its complexities. But one thing I find fascinating are the morphing of deities together and then splitting them up. Kala is believed to perhaps be one aspect of Vishnu (who has four aspects I believe more or less plus or minus). Kali is also associated with Kala. They are very close and Kali is death incarnate. Kala has four arms as does Kali. 

Then, I found out that there is a deity named Kala in Java. Interestingly, this deity has no antecedent in Javanese mythology but plays a massive role in day to day Javanese mythology. The appearance of Kala probably occurred during the expansion of the various Empires coming out of the Indian subcontinent 1000 years ago. This would have extended to Java. 

A bust of Kala is found above the entry to many temples, palaces, and other sacred structures throughout Java. What Kala represents is the not so much the god of death per se, rather the death of the self. When one enters a temple one ceases to be, is spiritually destroyed only to be reborn by the time one leaves. Kala is the destruction and creation of the self as well as other things but also the avenue for rebirth - through the passage of time.

It should be noted that the eastern religious experience is not dominated death and an end, rather by cycles of death and rebirth. To make a broad point, in the west there is death and the end either in a heaven or hell where in the east there is reincarnation, a repetitive cycle. That is a broad stroke. 

All the way back to Kini'je then, we probably have a deity representing that cycle of death and rebirth (the 'k' is not out of character) destruction and creation, etc. Basically ensuring time passes. And thence we roll back to the shamans who ascend and descend the tree of life, take on different forms and come back reborn - often with magical powers but minimally with knowledge.