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 About Asia |
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Asia is the world’s largest and most diverse continent, covering about 30 % of the Earth’s land. Occupying the eastern four fifths of the Eurasian landmass, Asia has the greatest range of land elevation of any continent, including Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world, the Dead Sea, the lowest place on the Earth's land surface, and Lake Baikal, the world's deepest continental trough. In addition, Asia has the world’s longest shoreline, the broadest climatic extremes, and produces the most varied types of vegetation and animal life on Earth. Also, the peoples of Asia have displayed the widest patterns of adaptation seen on the planet.
A precise definition of Asia is difficult to reach. Some advocate that Asia excludes Turkey, the Middle East, and/or Russia. This definition is used in reference to Asia seen more narrowly as Asia Pacific, including islands in the Pacific Ocean.
The origin of the name Asia is not clear. The ancient Greeks used it to designate lands to the east of their home, and the Assyrians used the word asu, meaning east. Another theory is that Asia was originally a local name for the plains of Ephesus, and gradually the name extended to include Anatolia, which is the western extreme of Asia, and the rest of the continent.
Defining Asia as the eastern four-fifths of the Eurasian landmass, the continent is typically divided to East Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and West Asia. |
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Location |
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Asia’s natural borders are the Arctic Ocean on the north, the Pacific Ocean on the east, the Indian Ocean on the south, and the Mediterranean and the Black Seas on the southwest. To the northeast, Asia is separated from North America by the Bering Strait, and to the southeast from Australia by the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The Isthmus of Suez connects Asia to Africa, and it is generally agreed that the Suez Canal forms the border between them. The two narrow straits of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles separate Anatolia, the western extreme of Asia, from Europe.
Asia’s border on the west is a land boundary that is generally agreed upon as a line that runs south from the Arctic Ocean along the eastern slope of the Ural Mountains and then turns southwest along the Zhem River to the northern coast of the Caspian Sea. From here, the border continues west of the Caspian, following the Kuma-Manych Depression to the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait. |
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Population |
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At close to four billion people, the poplulation of Asia is about 60 % of the total number of people on the planet. With a population density at about 325 persons per square mile (125 per sq km) of land area, Asia is the most crowded of all the continents. This population is unevenly distributed, with great concentrations of people in South Asia and eastern China, and sparsely inhabited areas in Central Asia and Siberia.
Strict family planning programs in China have reduced their growth rate to 0.6 %. Indonesia, the third largest country in Asia, has reduced its population growth rate to 1.5 % per year, also through effective family planning. Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan have growth rates well below 2 %.
The majority of the population in Asia is rural. Most people live in small settlements where they are engaged in agriculture, or local services and industries dependent on agriculture. More than 75 % of the people in Nepal, Laos, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Thailand are rural dwellers. In Bhutan, more than 90 % of the population are rural residents.
But urbanization has proceeded rapidly in recent decades. The urban population accounts for a majority in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Jordan, Syria, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. The Philippines and Malaysia also have relatively large urban populations. In total, Asia accounts for more than half the world’s urban population. That proportion is expected to increase because Asian cities are generally growing at about twice the rate of overall populations. |
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Religion |
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The world's major religions, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, all had their beginnings in Asia.
While Christianity spread and developed primarily outside of Asia, Roman Catholic missionaries brought Christianity to the Philippines, and Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries converted sizable groups of people in Korea, Japan, India, and Myanmar. The Russian Orthodox Church has emerged as the major Christian denomination in Russia since the break-up of the Soviet Union.
Buddhism has had a greater impact outside its birthplace in northeast India, and is practiced in various forms in China, Korea, Japan, the Southeast Asian countries, and Sri Lanka. Buddhism was also strong in North Korea before 1948, and in Mongolia before 1929, when Communist governments began partially suppressing religion. Although in 1992 Mongolia adopted a democratic government that allows greater religious freedom, most Mongolians are now either nonreligious or atheists.
Hinduism, one of the world’s oldest religions, is the main religion in India, and on the island of Java in Indonesia. A synthesis of the religion brought into India by the Aryans around 1500 BCE, and indigenous religion, Hinduism is unique among the world religions in that it had no single founder.
Islam spread out of Arabia northward to West Asia, and eastward to South and Southeast Asia. It is the dominant religion in most countries of West Asia, and in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Large minorities of Muslims are also found elsewhere in Asia.
Judaism, with its roots in West Asia, is the main religion today in Israel. Since the creation of the Jewish state in 1848, members of the minority Jewish communities throughout Asia have steadily emigrated. Today only remnants of these communities exist on the continent.
Many groups living in remote areas of the Asia, such as the Karen and Shan in Myanmar, practice religions unique to their cultures. These religions are often complex, typically involving practices of animism, the belief that every object is embodied with a spirit. |
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East Asia |
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East Asia, sometimes referred to as the Far East, covers 15 % of the continent, and includes the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of China (Taiwan), the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), the Republic of Korea (South Korea), Japan, and Mongolia. More than 1.5 billion people, which is about 40% of the population of Asia, and 25 % of the population of the world, live here. East Asia is a crowded region, with a population density that is over five times the world average.
Culturally, East Asia is heavily influenced by the Classical Chinese language and its traditional script, Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism, Mahayana Buddhism, and Daoism. Confucianism, which is more a social and moral code than a religion, developed in China but was largely suppressed by the Communist government. Since the beginning of the economic reforms in the 1980s, there has been an increase in religious and Confucian practice in China.
Japan’s native religion is called Shinto. Fused with many practices of Buddhism, Shinto centers on the worship of ancestors and natural spirits. The religion formerly revered the Japanese emperor as divine, but this aspect of Shinto was abandoned after the Japanese defeat in World War II. |
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Central Asia |
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A vast landlocked region of Asia, Central Asia may be defined as including the “stans” of the former Soviet Union, which are Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, and also Mongolia, western China (including Tibet), northeast Iran, north Afghanistan, western Pakistan, central-east Russia south of the Taiga, and northern India. Central Asia is sometimes called Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and has also been known as Turkestan.
While there is disagreement on a singular definition of Central Asia, there is agreement that two common historical factors of the region were its nomadic peoples and the fabled Silk Road. These two factors contributed to Central Asia serving as a crossroads for the movement of people, goods, and ideas between Europe and Asia.
The geography of Central Asia is varied, including high plateaus and mountains, vast deserts, and treeless, grassy steppes. The major bodies of water are the Aral Sea and Lake Balkhash, both of which are part of the huge basin that includes the Caspian Sea. Due to the diversion of water for irrigation and industrial purposes from tributary rivers, the size of the Aral Sea and Lake Balkhash has been significantly diminished in recent decades.
Islam is the religion most common in the former Soviet Central Asian Repulics, Afghanistan, and western China. Most Central Asian Muslims are Sunni. Tibetan Buddhism is most common in Tibet and Mongolia. Han Chinese migration to western China, especially since the establishment of the PRC, has brought Confucianism and other beliefs into the region. In Kazakhstan, there are sizable members of the Russian Orthodox Church. |
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South Asia |
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This approximate region is also known as the Indian Subcontinent. The countries of South Asia are southern Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The average per capita income for the region is $430, and over 500 million people here live on less than $1 per day. Four countries in the region, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, are classified by the UN as Least-Developed Countries.
South Asia was the home of the Indus Valley civilization, one of the four civilizations of the ancient world. The major cities of this civilization, such as Harappa and Mohenjo Daro, represent some of the largest human habitations of the ancient world, and date back to around 3000 BCE.
With a population of 1.33 billion, the growing size of South Asia’s population is a concern. India’s growth rate declined during the 1990s, but its population projection is for 1.36 billion people by 2025. Pakistan and Bangladesh are also expected to experience considerable growth. Even with continued family planning outreach, the combined population of the three countries is projected at 1.80 billion by 2025. This figure will account for nearly one-quarter of the world’s total projected population.
Efforts for regional cooperation in South Asia began in 1985, with the establishment of SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation), in which all countries of the region, with the exception of Afghanistan, take part. |
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Southeast Asia |
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This region includes the Malay Peninsula, Indochina, and islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Brunei Darussalam, Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam are the countries that comprise Southeast Asia. The region has a population of 512 million, and an average per capita income of $1,020. Three countries in the region, Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos, are classified as Least-Developed Countries by the UN.
Southeast Asia is home to about 240 million Muslims, mostly in Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Buddhism, with about 170 million adherents, is the main religion on mainland Southeast Asia.
There are numerous regional cooperation authorities in Southeast Asia. ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) was established in 1967. More recently, ASEAN initiated the Free Trade Area (AFTA), Investment Area (AIA) and Initiative for Integration (IAI). The declaration of the Bali Concord II in 2003 was another significant step towards the creation of ASEAN Economic, Security and Social Cultural Communities. |
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West Asia |
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The term West Asia is a geographical term that covers the southwestern extreme of Asia. The term refers to the region more popularly known by the traditional European name as the Middle East. But West Asia is the term preferred by international organizations, and by African and Asian countries such as India, that perceive a certain Eurocentrism behind the historical term "Middle East."
West Asia is usually considered to be Armenia, Bahrain, Cyprus, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai of Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the Anatolian part of Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the West Bank, and Yemen. Sometimes, the region is extended to include Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Gerogia, all of Egypt, and parts of Central and South Asia.
The first civilizations of West Asia, which grew in the fertile valleys of the Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates rivers, are among the oldest in the world. Alphabets, law codes, and cities all began here, as well as the world’s three great monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In West Asia, the vast majority of the people adhere to Islam.
West Asia is a region of frequent conflict, largely due to recent political developments rather than age-old hostilities. Islamic militancy, which has produced deadly results in Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, and Lebanon, is a consequence of these late 20th-century developments.
Oil is the main export in West Asia. The region contains about 65 % of the world’s oil reserves, primarily in the states bordering the Persian Gulf. While some West Asian countries are vastly rich because of their oil reserves, others, like Yemen, without significant oil resources, are quite poor. |
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