Asena-She Wolf

The Chinese people believed that the term Asena means wolf, while the Turks believed that it is a name fitted for a she wolf.  The legend of Asena is a part of the Turkic lore but the story began in China.

It started around the 7th Century in a region in China wherein a shepherd boy who was 10 years of age was caught in crossfire.  He witnessed how the men around him died one by one.  He already knew back then that when the enemy found his hiding place, he too would suffer the same fate.

The enemy’s soldier eventually found him, but seeing that he was just a child, the soldier decided not to slay him and just leave him bleed to death.  There were also stories saying that the soldier dismembered his joints.  But in any case, the shepherd boy thought that he was already dead back then.

When the night arrives, the shepherd boy witness the unseen as a spirit of a blue wolf presented itself to him.  The shepherd boy was of course scared; he thought that this might be a punishment for a shepherd boy because part of his task is to keep away the wolves from the sheep.

The wolf speaks and told him that her name was Asena.  She took the bleeding shepherd boy into her cave and she realized that the only way that the boy can survive is if she bites him.  Seeing that there is no other way to save him, Asena bit him.  Eventually the shepherd boy was able to regain his strength.  Every full moon, the shepherd boy would visit Asena in her cave.

It is said that the shepherd boy and Asena had 10 kids which inherited the blue wolf curse.  One of those ten kids is believed to be Genghis Khan.