Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a
continent
A continent is any of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in area to smallest, these seven ...
in its own right or a
subcontinent
A continent is any of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in area to smallest, these seven ...
of
Eurasia, which shares the continental
landmass
A landmass, or land mass, is a large region or area of land. The term is often used to refer to lands surrounded by an ocean or sea, such as a continent or a large island. In the field of geology, a landmass is a defined section of contine ...
of
Afro-Eurasia
Afro-Eurasia (also Afroeurasia, Eurafrasia or the Old World) is a landmass comprising the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe. The terms are compound words of the names of its constituent parts. Its mainland is the largest and most populo ...
with
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
. Asia covers an area of , about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8.7% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which has long been home to the majority of the
human population, was the site of many of the
first civilizations. Its 4.7 billion people constitute roughly 60% of the world's population.
In general terms, Asia is bounded on the east by the
Pacific Ocean, on the south by the
Indian Ocean, and on the north by the
Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...
. The border of Asia with Europe is a
historical and cultural construct, as there is no clear physical and geographical separation between them. It is somewhat arbitrary and has moved since its first conception in
classical antiquity. The division of Eurasia into two continents reflects
East–West cultural, linguistic, and ethnic differences, some of which vary on a spectrum rather than with a sharp dividing line. A commonly accepted division places Asia to the east of the
Suez Canal separating it from
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
; and to the east of the
Turkish Straits, the
Ural Mountains and
Ural River, and to the south of the
Caucasus Mountains
The Caucasus Mountains,
: pronounced
* hy, Կովկասյան լեռներ,
: pronounced
* az, Qafqaz dağları, pronounced
* rus, Кавка́зские го́ры, Kavkázskiye góry, kɐfˈkasːkʲɪje ˈɡorɨ
* tr, Kafkas Dağla ...
and the
Caspian and
Black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have of ...
seas, separating it from Europe.
[ "Europe" (pp. 68–69); "Asia" (pp. 90–91): "A commonly accepted division between Asia and Europe is formed by the Ural Mountains, Ural River, Caspian Sea, Caucasus Mountains, and the Black Sea with its outlets, the Bosporus and Dardanelles."]
China and
India alternated in being the
largest economies in the world from 1 to 1,800 CE. China was a major economic power and attracted many to the east, and for many the legendary wealth and prosperity of the ancient culture of India personified Asia, attracting European commerce, exploration and colonialism. The accidental discovery of a trans-Atlantic route from Europe to America by Columbus while in search for a route to India demonstrates this deep fascination. The
Silk Road became the main east–west trading route in the Asian hinterlands while the
Straits of Malacca
The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, 500 mi (800 km) long and from 40 to 155 mi (65–250 km) wide, between the Malay Peninsula ( Peninsular Malaysia) to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, co ...
stood as a major sea route. Asia has exhibited economic dynamism (particularly East Asia) as well as robust population growth during the 20th century, but overall population growth has since fallen. Asia was the birthplace of most of the world's mainstream religions including
Hinduism,
Zoroastrianism,
Judaism,
Jainism,
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
,
Confucianism,
Taoism,
Christianity,
Islam,
Sikhism, as well as many other religions.
Given its size and diversity, the concept of Asia—a
name dating back to
classical antiquity—may actually have more to do with
human geography
Human geography or anthropogeography is the branch of geography that studies spatial relationships between human communities, cultures, economies, and their interactions with the environment. It analyzes spatial interdependencies between social i ...
than
physical geography
Physical geography (also known as physiography) is one of the three main branches of geography. Physical geography is the branch of natural science which deals with the processes and patterns in the natural environment such as the atmosphere, ...
. Asia varies greatly across and within
its regions with regard to ethnic groups, cultures, environments, economics, historical ties and government systems. It also has a mix of many different climates ranging from the equatorial south via the hot desert in the
Middle East, temperate areas in the east and the continental centre to vast subarctic and polar areas in
Siberia.
Definition and boundaries
Asia–Africa boundary
The boundary between Asia and Africa is the
Red Sea, the
Gulf of Suez, and the
Suez Canal. This makes
Egypt a
transcontinental country
This is a list of countries with territory that straddles more than one continent, known as transcontinental states or intercontinental states.
Contiguous transcontinental countries are states that have one continuous or immediately-adjacent ...
, with the
Sinai peninsula in Asia and the remainder of the country in Africa.
Asia–Europe boundary
The threefold division of the
Old World
The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by th ...
into Europe, Asia and Africa has been in use since the 6th century BC, due to
Greek geographers
;Pre-Hellenistic Classical Greece
*Homer
*Anaximander
*Hecataeus of Miletus
*Massaliote Periplus
*Scylax of Caryanda (6th century BC)
*Herodotus
;Hellenistic period
*Pytheas (died c. 310 BC)
*''Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax'' (3rd or 4th century BC) ...
such as
Anaximander
Anaximander (; grc-gre, Ἀναξίμανδρος ''Anaximandros''; ) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who lived in Miletus,"Anaximander" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 1, p. 403. a city of Ionia (in mode ...
and
Hecataeus. Anaximander placed the boundary between Asia and Europe along the
Phasis River (the modern Rioni river) in
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
of Caucasus (from its mouth by
Poti
Poti ( ka, ფოთი ; Mingrelian: ფუთი; Laz: ჶაში/Faşi or ფაში/Paşi) is a port city in Georgia, located on the eastern Black Sea coast in the region of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti in the west of the country. Built near ...
on the
Black Sea coast, through the
Surami Pass
The Surami Pass ( ka, სურამის უღელტეხილი) is a mountain pass in the Likhi Range of Georgia with an altitude of .
The pass connects the western and eastern part of Georgia. A railroad (in a tunnel) runs throug ...
and along the
Kura River to the Caspian Sea), a convention still followed by
Herodotus in the 5th century BC. During the
Hellenistic period
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 3 ...
, this convention was revised, and the boundary between Europe and Asia was now considered to be the
Tanais
Tanais ( el, Τάναϊς ''Tánaïs''; russian: Танаис) was an ancient Greek city in the Don river delta, called the Maeotian marshes in classical antiquity. It was a bishopric as Tana and remains a Latin Catholic titular see as Tanai ...
(the modern Don River). This is the convention used by Roman era authors such as
Posidonius,
Strabo and
Ptolemy.
The border between Asia and Europe was historically defined by European academics.
The
Don River
The Don ( rus, Дон, p=don) is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the Byzantine Empire.
Its ...
became unsatisfactory to northern Europeans when
Peter the Great, king of the
Tsardom of Russia
The Tsardom of Russia or Tsardom of Rus' also externally referenced as the Tsardom of Muscovy, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of Tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter I in ...
, defeating rival claims of
Sweden and the
Ottoman Empire to the eastern lands, and armed resistance by the tribes of
Siberia, synthesized a new
Russian Empire extending to the
Ural Mountains and beyond, founded in 1721.
In Sweden, five years after Peter's death, in 1730
Philip Johan von Strahlenberg
Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...
published a new atlas proposing the Ural Mountains as the border of Asia. Tatishchev announced that he had proposed the idea to von Strahlenberg. The latter had suggested the
Emba River as the lower boundary. Over the next century various proposals were made until the
Ural River prevailed in the mid-19th century. The border had been moved perforce from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea into which the Ural River projects. The border between the Black Sea and the Caspian is usually placed along the crest of the
Caucasus Mountains
The Caucasus Mountains,
: pronounced
* hy, Կովկասյան լեռներ,
: pronounced
* az, Qafqaz dağları, pronounced
* rus, Кавка́зские го́ры, Kavkázskiye góry, kɐfˈkasːkʲɪje ˈɡorɨ
* tr, Kafkas Dağla ...
, although it is sometimes placed further north.
Asia–Oceania boundary
The border between Asia and the region of
Oceania is usually placed somewhere in the
Malay Archipelago. The
Maluku Islands
The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located ea ...
in Indonesia are often considered to lie on the border of southeast Asia, with
New Guinea, to the east of the islands, being wholly part of Oceania. The terms Southeast Asia and Oceania, devised in the 19th century, have had several vastly different geographic meanings since their inception. The chief factor in determining which islands of the Malay Archipelago are Asian has been the location of the colonial possessions of the various empires there (not all European). Lewis and Wigen assert, "The narrowing of 'Southeast Asia' to its present boundaries was thus a gradual process."
Ongoing definition
Geographical Asia is a cultural artifact of European conceptions of the world, beginning with the
Ancient Greeks
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
, being imposed onto other cultures, an imprecise concept causing endemic contention about what it means. Asia does not exactly correspond to the cultural borders of its various types of constituents.
From the time of
Herodotus a minority of geographers have rejected the three-continent system (Europe, Africa, Asia) on the grounds that there is no substantial physical separation between them.
For example, Sir
Barry Cunliffe
Sir Barrington Windsor Cunliffe, (born 10 December 1939), known as Barry Cunliffe, is a British archaeologist and academic. He was Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford from 1972 to 2007. Since 2007, he has been an Emerit ...
, the emeritus professor of European archeology at Oxford, argues that Europe has been geographically and culturally merely "the western excrescence of the continent of Asia".
Geographically, Asia is the major eastern constituent of the continent of
Eurasia with Europe being a northwestern
peninsula of the landmass. Asia, Europe and Africa make up a single continuous landmass—
Afro-Eurasia
Afro-Eurasia (also Afroeurasia, Eurafrasia or the Old World) is a landmass comprising the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe. The terms are compound words of the names of its constituent parts. Its mainland is the largest and most populo ...
(except for the Suez Canal)—and share a common
continental shelf. Almost all of Europe and a major part of Asia sit atop the
Eurasian Plate, adjoined on the south by the
Arabian
The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...
and
Indian Plate and with the easternmost part of Siberia (east of the
Chersky Range
The Chersky Range (, ) is a chain of mountains in northeastern Siberia between the Yana River and the Indigirka River. Administratively the area of the range belongs to the Sakha Republic, although a small section in the east is within Magadan O ...
) on the
North American Plate.
Etymology
The idea of a place called "Asia" was originally a concept of
Greek civilization
The culture of Greece has evolved over thousands of years, beginning in Minoan and later in Mycenaean Greece, continuing most notably into Classical Greece, while influencing the Roman Empire and its successor the Byzantine Empire. Other cultu ...
,
[ Reid, T.R. '' Confucius Lives Next Door: What living in the East teaches us about living in the west'' Vintage Books(1999).] though this did not correspond to the entire continent currently known by that name (which was unknown to Greece at the time). The English word comes from
Latin literature, where it has the same form, "Asia". Whether "Asia" in other languages comes from Latin of the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...
is much less certain, and the ultimate source of the Latin word is uncertain, though several theories have been published. One of the first classical writers to use Asia as a name of the whole continent was
Pliny
Pliny may refer to:
People
* Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), ancient Roman nobleman, scientist, historian, and author of ''Naturalis Historia'' (''Pliny's Natural History'')
* Pliny the Younger (died 113), ancient Roman statesman, orator, w ...
. This
metonymical change in meaning is common and can be observed in some other geographical names, such as
Scandinavia (from
Scania).
Bronze Age
Before Greek poetry, the
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans ...
area was in a
Greek Dark Age, at the beginning of which syllabic writing was lost and alphabetic writing had not begun. Prior to then in the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
the records of the
Assyrian Empire
Assyrian may refer to:
* Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia.
* Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire.
** Early Assyrian Period
** Old Assyrian Period
** Middle Assyrian Empire
** Neo-Assyrian Empire
* Assyrian ...
, the
Hittite Empire and the various
Mycenaean states of Greece mention a region undoubtedly Asia, certainly in Anatolia, including if not identical to Lydia. These records are administrative and do not include poetry.
The Mycenaean states were destroyed about 1200 BCE by unknown agents, though one school of thought assigns the
Dorian invasion to this time. The burning of the palaces caused the clay tablets holding the Mycenaean administrative records to be preserved by baking. These tablets were written in a Greek syllabic script called
Linear B. This script was deciphered by a number of interested parties, most notably by a young World War II cryptographer,
Michael Ventris, subsequently assisted by the scholar,
John Chadwick
John Chadwick, (21 May 1920 – 24 November 1998) was an English linguist and classical scholar who was most notable for the decipherment, with Michael Ventris, of Linear B.
Early life, education and wartime service
John Chadwick was born at ...
.
A major cache discovered by
Carl Blegen
Carl William Blegen (January 27, 1887 – August 24, 1971) was an American archaeologist who worked at the site of Pylos in Greece and Troy in modern-day Turkey. He directed the University of Cincinnati excavations of the mound of Hisarlik, the ...
at the site of ancient
Pylos included hundreds of male and female names formed by different methods. Some of these are of women held in servitude (as study of the society implied by the content reveals). They were used in trades, such as cloth-making, and usually came with children. The epithet ''lawiaiai'', "captives", associated with some of them identifies their origin. Some are ethnic names. One in particular, ''aswiai'', identifies "women of Asia". Perhaps they were captured in Asia, but some others, ''Milatiai'', appear to have been of
Miletus, a Greek colony, which would not have been raided for slaves by Greeks. Chadwick suggests that the names record the locations where these foreign women were purchased. The name is also in the singular, ''Aswia'', which refers both to the name of a country and to a female from there. There is a masculine form, . This ''Aswia'' appears to have been a remnant of a region known to the Hittites as Assuwa, centered on
Lydia. This name, ''Assuwa'', has been suggested as the origin for the name of the continent "Asia". The
Assuwa league Assuwa ( hit, 𒀸𒋗𒉿, translit=aš-šu-wa, link=yes; gmy, 𐀀𐀯𐀹𐀊, translit=a-si-wi-ja, link=yes) was a confederation of 22 states in western Anatolia around 1400 BC. The confederation formed to oppose the Hittite Empire, but was def ...
was a confederation of states in western Anatolia, defeated by the
Hittites under
Tudhaliya I Tudhaliya is the name of several Hittite kings:
*Tudhaliya (also Tudhaliya I) is a hypothetic pre-Empire king of the Hittites. He would have reigned in the late 17th century BC ( short chronology). Forlanini (1993) conjectures that this king corres ...
around 1400 BCE.
Classical antiquity
Latin Asia and Greek Ἀσία appear to be the same word. Roman authors translated Ἀσία as Asia. The Romans named a province
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
, located in western Anatolia (in modern-day Turkey). There was an Asia Minor and an Asia Major located in modern-day Iraq. As the earliest evidence of the name is Greek, it is likely circumstantially that Asia came from Ἀσία, but ancient transitions, due to the lack of literary contexts, are difficult to catch in the act. The most likely vehicles were the ancient geographers and historians, such as
Herodotus, who were all Greek.
Ancient Greek certainly evidences early and rich uses of the name.
The first continental use of Asia is attributed to Herodotus (about 440 BCE), not because he innovated it, but because his ''Histories'' are the earliest surviving prose to describe it in any detail. He defines it carefully, mentioning the previous geographers whom he had read, but whose works are now missing. By it he means
Anatolia and the
Persian Empire, in contrast to Greece and Egypt.
Herodotus comments that he is puzzled as to why three women's names were "given to a tract which is in reality one" (
Europa
Europa may refer to:
Places
* Europe
* Europa (Roman province), a province within the Diocese of Thrace
* Europa (Seville Metro), Seville, Spain; a station on the Seville Metro
* Europa City, Paris, France; a planned development
* Europa Clif ...
,
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
, and
Libya, referring to Africa), stating that most Greeks assumed that Asia was named after the wife of
Prometheus (i.e.
Hesione), but that the
Lydians say it was named after Asies, son of Cotys, who passed the name on to a tribe at
Sardis
Sardis () or Sardes (; Lydian: 𐤳𐤱𐤠𐤭𐤣 ''Sfard''; el, Σάρδεις ''Sardeis''; peo, Sparda; hbo, ספרד ''Sfarad'') was an ancient city at the location of modern ''Sart'' (Sartmahmut before 19 October 2005), near Salihli, ...
. In
Greek mythology, "Asia" (''Ἀσία'') or "Asie" (''Ἀσίη'') was the name of a "
Nymph
A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are typ ...
or
Titan
Titan most often refers to:
* Titan (moon), the largest moon of Saturn
* Titans, a race of deities in Greek mythology
Titan or Titans may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Fictional entities
Fictional locations
* Titan in fiction, fictiona ...
goddess of Lydia".
In ancient Greek religion, places were under the care of female divinities, parallel to guardian angels. The poets detailed their doings and generations in allegoric language salted with entertaining stories, which subsequently playwrights transformed into classical Greek drama and became "Greek mythology". For example,
Hesiod mentions the daughters of
Tethys and
Ocean, among whom are a "holy company", "who with the Lord
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
and the Rivers have youths in their keeping". Many of these are geographic: Doris, Rhodea, Europa, Asia. Hesiod explains:
The
Iliad (attributed by the ancient Greeks to
Homer) mentions two Phrygians (the tribe that replaced the
Luvians
The Luwians were a group of Anatolian peoples who lived in central, western, and southern Anatolia, in present-day Turkey, during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. They spoke the Luwian language, an Indo-European language of the Anatolian sub-fa ...
in Lydia) in the
Trojan War named
Asios (an adjective meaning "Asian"); and also a marsh or lowland containing a marsh in Lydia as . According to many Muslims, the term came from
Ancient Egypt's Queen
Asiya
Asiya bint Muzahim ( ar, آسِيَة بِنْت مُزَاحِم, Āsiya bint Muzāḥim) was, according to the Qur'an and Islamic tradition, the wife of the Pharaoh of the Exodus and adoptive mother of Moses, identified as Bithiah in the Jewis ...
, the adoptive mother of
Moses.
[Muhmmad al-Bukhari. Sahih Al-Bukhari Translated into English Prose by Muhammad Muhsin Khan. Hadith 7.329]
History
The history of Asia can be seen as the distinct histories of several peripheral coastal regions: East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, linked by the interior mass of the Central Asian
steppes.
The coastal periphery was home to some of the world's earliest known civilizations, each of them developing around fertile river valleys. The civilizations in
Mesopotamia, the
Indus Valley and the
Yellow River shared many similarities. These civilizations may well have exchanged technologies and ideas such as
mathematics and the
wheel. Other innovations, such as writing, seem to have been developed individually in each area. Cities, states and empires developed in these lowlands.
The central steppe region had long been inhabited by horse-mounted nomads who could reach all areas of Asia from the
steppes. The earliest postulated expansion out of the steppe is that of the
Indo-Europeans, who spread their languages into the Middle East, South Asia, and the borders of China, where the
Tocharians resided. The northernmost part of Asia, including much of
Siberia, was largely inaccessible to the steppe nomads, owing to the dense forests, climate and
tundra. These areas remained very sparsely populated.
The center and the peripheries were mostly kept separated by mountains and deserts. The
Caucasus and
Himalaya mountains and the
Karakum Karakum may refer to:
*Karakum Desert, a desert in Central Asia
* ''Karakum'' (film), a 1994 Turkmen film
*Karakum Canal, Turkmenistan
* Karakum District, Turkmenistan
See also
* Karakoram, a large mountain range spanning the borders of India, Pak ...
and
Gobi deserts formed barriers that the steppe horsemen could cross only with difficulty. While the urban city dwellers were more advanced technologically and socially, in many cases they could do little in a military aspect to defend against the mounted hordes of the steppe. However, the lowlands did not have enough open grasslands to support a large horsebound force; for this and other reasons, the
nomads who conquered states in China, India, and the Middle East often found themselves adapting to the local, more affluent societies.
The Islamic
Caliphate
A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
's defeats of the Byzantine and Persian empires led to West Asia and southern parts of Central Asia and western parts of South Asia under its control during
its conquests of the 7th century. The
Mongol Empire conquered a large part of Asia in the 13th century, an area extending from China to Europe. Before the Mongol invasion,
Song dynasty reportedly had approximately 120 million citizens; the 1300 census which followed the invasion reported roughly 60 million people.
The
Black Death
The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causing ...
, one of the most devastating
pandemics in human history, is thought to have originated in the arid plains of central Asia, where it then travelled along the
Silk Road.
The
Russian Empire began to expand into Asia from the 17th century, and would eventually take control of all of Siberia and most of Central Asia by the end of the 19th century. The
Ottoman Empire controlled Anatolia, most of the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans from the mid 16th century onwards. In the 17th century, the
Manchu
The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...
conquered China and established the
Qing dynasty. The Islamic
Mughal Empire and the Hindu
Maratha Empire controlled much of India in the 16th and 18th centuries respectively. The
Empire of Japan controlled most of East Asia and much of Southeast Asia, New Guinea and the Pacific islands until the end of
World War II.
File:Anaximander world map-en.svg, The threefold division of the Old World
The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by th ...
into Europe, Asia and Africa has been in use since the 6th century BC, due to Greek geographers
;Pre-Hellenistic Classical Greece
*Homer
*Anaximander
*Hecataeus of Miletus
*Massaliote Periplus
*Scylax of Caryanda (6th century BC)
*Herodotus
;Hellenistic period
*Pytheas (died c. 310 BC)
*''Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax'' (3rd or 4th century BC) ...
such as Anaximander
Anaximander (; grc-gre, Ἀναξίμανδρος ''Anaximandros''; ) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who lived in Miletus,"Anaximander" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 1, p. 403. a city of Ionia (in mode ...
and Hecataeus.
File:A new universal atlas of the world.Asia.jpg, 1825 map of Asia by Sidney Edwards Morse
Sidney Edwards Morse (7 February 1794 Charlestown, Massachusetts – 24 December 1871 New York City) was an American inventor, geographer and journalist. He was the brother of telegraphy pioneer and painter Samuel F. B. Morse.
Biography
Morse wa ...
.
File:A Map of the Countries between Constantinople and Calcutta- Including Turkey in Asia, Persia, Afghanistan and Turkestan WDL11753.png, Map of western, southern, and central Asia in 1885
File:Modern Asia (1796).tif, The map of Asia in 1796, which also included the continent of Australia (then known as New Holland).
File:Asien Bd1.jpg, 1890 map of Asia
Geography and climate
Asia is the largest continent on Earth. It covers 9% of the Earth's total surface area (or 30% of its land area), and has the longest coastline, at . Asia is generally defined as comprising the eastern four-fifths of
Eurasia. It is located to the east of the
Suez Canal and the
Ural Mountains, and south of the
Caucasus Mountains
The Caucasus Mountains,
: pronounced
* hy, Կովկասյան լեռներ,
: pronounced
* az, Qafqaz dağları, pronounced
* rus, Кавка́зские го́ры, Kavkázskiye góry, kɐfˈkasːkʲɪje ˈɡorɨ
* tr, Kafkas Dağla ...
(or the
Kuma–Manych Depression
The Kuma–Manych depression ( rus, Кумо–Манычская впадина, Kumo–Manychskaya vpadina), is a geological depression in southwestern Russia that separates the Russian Plain to the north from Ciscaucasia
The North C ...
) and the
Caspian and
Black Seas.
It is bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean and on the north by the Arctic Ocean. Asia is subdivided into 49 countries, five of them (
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
,
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eight ...
,
Kazakhstan and
Turkey) are
transcontinental countries lying partly in Europe. Geographically, Russia is partly in Asia, but is considered a
European nation, both
culturally
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tylo ...
and politically.
The
Gobi Desert is in
Mongolia and the
Arabian Desert stretches across much of the Middle East. The
Yangtze River in China is the longest river in the continent. The
Himalayas between
Nepal and China is the tallest mountain range in the world. Tropical rainforests stretch across much of southern Asia and coniferous and deciduous forests lie farther north.
File:Tundra in Siberia.jpg, Siberian tundra
File:Kerala Backwaters, India.JPG, Kerala backwaters
The Kerala backwaters are a network of brackish lagoons and canals lying parallel to the Arabian Sea of the Malabar coast of Kerala state in south-western India. It also includes interconnected lakes, rivers, and inlets, a labyrinthine system ...
File:Naadam rider 2.jpg, Mongolian steppe
File:1 li jiang guilin yangshuo 2011.jpg, South China Karst
The South China Karst (), a UNESCO World Heritage Site since June 2007, spans the provinces of Chongqing, Guangxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan. It is noted for its karst features and landscapes as well as rich biodiversity. The site comprises seven clust ...
File:Taman Negara, Malaysia, Panoramic view.jpg, Taman Negara
Taman Negara is a national park in Peninsular Malaysia. It was established in 1938/1939 as the King George V National Park after Theodore Hubback lobbied the sultans of Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan to set aside a piece of land that covers the ...
, Peninsular Malaysia
File:Akkem Valley 2011.jpg, Altai Mountains
The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob have their headwaters. The massif merges with the ...
File:Hunza Valley from Eagle Point.jpg, Hunza Valley
File:Baa atoll islands.JPG, Atolls of the Maldives
The Maldives are formed by 20 natural atolls, along with a few islands and isolated reefs today which form a pattern stretching from 7 degrees 10′ North to 0 degrees 45′ South. The largest of these atolls is Boduthiladhunmathi, while the ...
File:Red sand of the Wadi Rum desert.jpg, Wadi Rum
Wadi Rum ( ar, وادي رم ''Wādī Ramm'', also ''Wādī al-Ramm''), known also as the Valley of the Moon ( ar, وادي القمر ''Wādī al-Qamar''), is a valley cut into the sandstone and granite rock in southern Jordan, about to the east ...
in Jordan
Main regions
There are various approaches to the regional division of Asia. The following subdivision into regions is used, among others, by the UN statistics agency
UNSD
The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), formerly the United Nations Statistical Office, serves under the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) as the central mechanism within the Secretariat of the United Nations t ...
. This division of Asia into regions by the United Nations is done solely for statistical reasons and does not imply any assumption about political or other affiliations of countries and territories.
*
North Asia
North Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographical terms and is coextensive with the Asian part of Russia, and consists of three Russian regions east of the Ural Mountains: ...
(
Siberia)
*
Central Asia (
The 'stans)
*
Western Asia
Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Ana ...
(The
Middle East or
Near East and the
Caucasus)
*
South Asia (
Indian subcontinent)
*
East Asia (
Far East)
*
Southeast Asia (
East Indies
The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around t ...
and
Indochina)
Climate
Asia has extremely diverse climate features. Climates range from arctic and subarctic in Siberia to tropical in southern India and Southeast Asia. It is moist across southeast sections, and dry across much of the interior. Some of the largest daily temperature ranges on Earth occur in western sections of Asia. The monsoon circulation dominates across southern and eastern sections, due to the presence of the Himalayas forcing the formation of a thermal low which draws in moisture during the summer. Southwestern sections of the continent are hot. Siberia is one of the coldest places in the Northern Hemisphere, and can act as a source of arctic air masses for North America. The most active place on Earth for tropical cyclone activity lies northeast of the
Philippines and south of Japan.
A survey carried out in 2010 by global risk analysis farm
Maplecroft identified 16 countries that are extremely
vulnerable to climate change. Each nation's vulnerability was calculated using 42 socio, economic and environmental indicators, which identified the likely climate change impacts during the next 30 years. The Asian countries of
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
,
India, the Philippines,
Vietnam,
Thailand,
Pakistan,
China and
Sri Lanka were among the 16 countries facing extreme risk from climate change. Some shifts are already occurring. For example, in tropical parts of India with a
semi-arid climate, the temperature increased by 0.4 °C between 1901 and 2003.
A 2013 study by the
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) aimed to find science-based, pro-poor approaches and techniques that would enable Asia's agricultural systems to cope with climate change, while benefitting poor and vulnerable farmers. The study's recommendations ranged from improving the use of climate information in local planning and strengthening weather-based agro-advisory services, to stimulating diversification of rural household incomes and providing incentives to farmers to adopt natural resource conservation measures to enhance forest cover, replenish groundwater and use
renewable energy.
The ten countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – Brunei,
Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand ...
,
Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Myanmar,
the Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, Singapore,
Thailand, and
Vietnam – are among the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change in the world, however, ASEAN's climate mitigation efforts are not commensurate with the climate threats and risks it faces.
Economy
Asia has the largest continental economy by both
GDP
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...
Nominal
Nominal may refer to:
Linguistics and grammar
* Nominal (linguistics), one of the parts of speech
* Nominal, the adjectival form of "noun", as in "nominal agreement" (= "noun agreement")
* Nominal sentence, a sentence without a finite verb
* Nou ...
and
PPP in the world, and is the fastest growing economic region. , the largest economies in Asia are China, Japan, India, South Korea, Indonesia and Turkey based on GDP in both nominal and PPP. Based on Global Office Locations 2011, Asia dominated the office locations with 4 of the top 5 being in Asia: Hong Kong, Singapore,
Tokyo and
Seoul. Around 68 percent of international firms have an office in Hong Kong.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the economies of China and India grew rapidly, both with an average annual growth rate of more than 8%. Other recent very-high-growth nations in Asia include Israel, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines, and mineral-rich nations such as Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Brunei, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman.
According to
economic historian Angus Maddison
Angus Maddison (6 December 1926 – 24 April 2010) was a distinguished British economist specialising in quantitative macro economic history, including the measurement and analysis of economic growth and development.
Maddison lectured at sev ...
in his book ''The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective'', India had the world's largest economy during 0 BCE and 1000 BCE. Historically, India was the largest economy in the world for most of the two millennia from the 1st until 19th century, contributing 25% of the world's industrial output. China was the
largest and most advanced economy on earth for much of recorded history and shared the mantle with India. For several decades in the late twentieth century Japan was the largest economy in Asia and second-largest of any single nation in the world, after surpassing the
Soviet Union (measured in net material product) in 1990 and Germany in 1968. (NB: A number of supernational economies are larger, such as the
European Union (EU), the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or
APEC). This ended in 2010 when China overtook Japan to become the world's second largest economy.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Japan's GDP was almost as large (current exchange rate method) as that of the rest of Asia combined. In 1995, Japan's economy nearly equaled that of the US as the largest economy in the world for a day, after the Japanese currency reached a record high of 79
yen
The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar (US$) and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the e ...
/US$. Economic growth in Asia since World War II to the 1990s had been concentrated in Japan as well as the four regions of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore located in the
Pacific Rim, known as the
Asian tigers, which have now all received developed country status, having the highest
GDP per capita in Asia.
It is forecasted that India will overtake Japan in terms of nominal GDP by 2025. By 2027, according to
Goldman Sachs, China will have the largest economy in the world. Several trade blocs exist, with the most developed being the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations
ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military ...
.
Asia is the largest continent in the world by a considerable margin, and it is rich in natural resources, such as petroleum, forests, fish, water, rice, copper and silver. Manufacturing in Asia has traditionally been strongest in East and Southeast Asia, particularly in China,
Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, India, the Philippines, and Singapore. Japan and South Korea continue to dominate in the area of
multinational corporations, but increasingly the PRC and India are making significant inroads. Many companies from Europe, North America, South Korea and Japan have operations in Asia's developing countries to take advantage of its abundant supply of cheap labour and relatively developed infrastructure.
According to
Citigroup
Citigroup Inc. or Citi ( stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomera ...
9 of 11
Global Growth Generators countries came from Asia driven by population and income growth. They are
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
, China, India, Indonesia,
Iraq, Mongolia, the
Philippines,
Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Asia has three main financial centers: Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore.
Call center
A call centre ( Commonwealth spelling) or call center ( American spelling; see spelling differences) is a managed capability that can be centralised or remote that is used for receiving or transmitting a large volume of enquiries by telephone ...
s and
business process outsourcing
Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...
(BPOs) are becoming major employers in India and the Philippines due to the availability of a large pool of highly skilled, English-speaking workers. The increased use of outsourcing has assisted the rise of India and the China as financial centers. Due to its large and extremely competitive information technology industry, India has become a major hub for outsourcing.
Trade between Asian countries and countries on other continents is largely carried out on the sea routes that are important for Asia. Individual main routes have emerged from this. The main route leads from the Chinese coast south via Hanoi to Jakarta, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur through the
Strait of Malacca via the Sri Lankan Colombo to the southern tip of India via Malé to East Africa
Mombasa, from there to
Djibouti
Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red S ...
, then through the Red Sea over the
Suez Canal into Mediterranean, there via Haifa, Istanbul and
Athens to the upper Adriatic to the northern Italian hub of
Trieste with its rail connections to Central and Eastern Europe or further to
Barcelona and around Spain and France to the European northern ports. A far smaller part of the goods traffic runs via South Africa to Europe. A particularly significant part of the Asian goods traffic is carried out across the Pacific towards
Los Angeles and
Long Beach
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California.
Incorporat ...
. In contrast to the sea routes, the Silk Road via the land route to Europe is on the one hand still under construction and on the other hand is much smaller in terms of scope. Intra-Asian trade, including sea trade, is growing rapidly.
In 2010, Asia had 3.3 million millionaires (people with net worth over US$1 million excluding their homes), slightly below North America with 3.4 million millionaires. Last year Asia had toppled Europe.
Citigroup in The Wealth Report 2012 stated that Asian centa-millionaire overtook North America's wealth for the first time as the world's "economic center of gravity" continued moving east. At the end of 2011, there were 18,000 Asian people mainly in Southeast Asia, China and Japan who have at least $100 million in disposable assets, while North America with 17,000 people and Western Europe with 14,000 people.
Tourism
With growing Regional Tourism with domination of Chinese visitors,
MasterCard has released Global Destination Cities Index 2013 with 10 of 20 are dominated by Asia and Pacific Region Cities and also for the first time a city of a country from Asia (
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populatio ...
) set in the top-ranked with 15.98 million international visitors.
Demographics
East Asia had by far the strongest overall
Human Development Index
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators, w ...
(HDI) improvement of any region in the world, nearly doubling average HDI attainment over the past 40 years, according to the report's analysis of health, education and income data. China, the second highest achiever in the world in terms of HDI improvement since
1970, is the only country on the "Top 10 Movers" list due to income rather than health or education achievements. Its per capita income increased a stunning 21-fold over the last four decades, also lifting hundreds of millions out of income poverty. Yet it was not among the region's top performers in improving school enrollment and life expectancy.
Nepal, a South Asian country, emerges as one of the world's fastest movers since 1970 mainly due to health and education achievements. Its present
life expectancy
Life expectancy is a statistical measure of the average time an organism is expected to live, based on the year of its birth, current age, and other demographic factors like sex. The most commonly used measure is life expectancy at birth ...
is 25 years longer than in the 1970s. More than four of every five children of school age in Nepal now attend primary school, compared to just one in five 40 years ago.
Hong Kong ranked highest among the countries grouped on the HDI (number 7 in the world, which is in the "very high human development" category), followed by Singapore (9), Japan (19) and South Korea (22).
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
(155) ranked lowest amongst Asian countries out of the 169 countries assessed.
Languages
Asia is home to several
language families and many
language isolates. Most Asian countries have more than one language that is natively spoken. For instance, according to
Ethnologue, more than 600 languages are spoken in Indonesia, more than 800 languages spoken in India, and more than 100 are spoken in the Philippines. China has many languages and dialects in different provinces.
Religions
Many of the world's
major religions have their origins in Asia, including the five most practiced in the world (excluding
irreligion), which are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Chinese folk religion (classified as Confucianism and Taoism), and Buddhism respectively. Asian mythology is complex and diverse. The story of the
Great Flood
A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primaeval ...
for example, as presented to Jews in the
Hebrew Bible in the narrative of
Noah—and later to Christians in the
Old Testament, and to
Muslims in the
Quran—is earliest found in
Mesopotamian mythology
Mesopotamian mythology refers to the myths, religious texts, and other literature that comes from the region of ancient Mesopotamia which is a historical region of Western Asia, situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system that occupi ...
, in the
Enûma Eliš and ''
Epic of Gilgamesh''.
Hindu mythology similarly tells about an
avatar
Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...
of
Vishnu in the form of a
fish who warned
Manu
Manu may refer to:
Geography
*Manú Province, a province of Peru, in the Madre de Dios Region
**Manú National Park, Peru
**Manú River, in southeastern Peru
*Manu River (Tripura), which originates in India and flows into Bangladesh
* Manu Templ ...
of a terrible flood. Ancient
Chinese mythology
Chinese mythology () is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature in the geographic area now known as Greater China. Chinese mythology includes many varied myths from regional and cultural traditions.
Much of t ...
also tells of a
Great Flood
A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primaeval ...
spanning generations, one that required the combined efforts of emperors and divinities to control.
Abrahamic
The
Abrahamic religions
The Abrahamic religions are a group of religions centered around worship of the God of Abraham. Abraham, a Hebrew patriarch, is extensively mentioned throughout Abrahamic religious scriptures such as the Bible and the Quran.
Jewish traditio ...
including
Judaism,
Christianity,
Islam,
Druze faith
The Druze (; ar, دَرْزِيٌّ, ' or ', , ') are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from Western Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings of H ...
,
and
Baháʼí Faith
The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people. Established by Baháʼu'lláh in the 19th century, it initially developed in Iran and parts of the ...
originated in West Asia.
Judaism, the oldest of the Abrahamic faiths, is practiced primarily in
Israel, the
indigenous homeland and historical birthplace of the
Hebrew nation
The terms ''Hebrews'' (Hebrew: / , Modern: ' / ', Tiberian: ' / '; ISO 259-3: ' / ') and ''Hebrew people'' are mostly considered synonymous with the Semitic-speaking Israelites, especially in the pre-monarchic period when they were still ...
: which today consists both of those
Jews who remained in
the Middle East and those who returned from
diaspora
A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews afte ...
in
Europe,
North America, and other regions; though various diaspora communities persist worldwide. Jews are the predominant ethnic group in
Israel (75.6%) numbering at about 6.1 million, although the levels of adherence to Jewish religion vary. Outside of Israel there are small ancient Jewish communities in
Turkey (17,400),
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...
(9,100),
Iran (8,756),
[ See Persian Jews#Iran] India (5,000) and
Uzbekistan (4,000), among many other places. In total, there are 14.4–17.5 million (2016, est.) Jews alive in the world today, making them one of the smallest Asian minorities, at roughly 0.3 to 0.4 percent of the total population of the continent.
Christianity is a widespread religion in Asia with more than 286 million adherents according to
Pew Research Center in 2010, and nearly 364 million according to
Britannica Book of the Year 2014. Constituting around 12.6% of the total population of Asia. In the Philippines and
East Timor,
Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion;
it was introduced by the Spaniards and the Portuguese, respectively. In
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...
and Georgia,
Eastern Orthodoxy
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical" ...
is the predominant religion.
In the Middle East, such as in the
Levant,
Anatolia and
Fars,
Syriac Christianity (
Church of the East
The Church of the East ( syc, ܥܕܬܐ ܕܡܕܢܚܐ, ''ʿĒḏtā d-Maḏenḥā'') or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church or the Nestorian C ...
) and
Oriental Orthodoxy are prevalent minority denominations,
which are both
Eastern Christian sects mainly adhered to
Assyrian people or Syriac Christians. Vibrant indigenous minorities in
Western Asia
Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Ana ...
are adhering to the
Eastern Catholic Churches
The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also called the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous (''sui iuris'') particular churches of th ...
and
Eastern Orthodoxy
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical" ...
.
Saint Thomas Christians in India trace their origins to the evangelistic activity of
Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. Significant Christian communities also found in
Central Asia,
South Asia,
Southeast Asia and
East Asia.
Islam, which originated in the
Hejaz located in modern-day Saudi Arabia, is the second largest and most widely-spread religion in Asia with at least 1 billion Muslims constituting around 23.8% of the total population of Asia. With 12.7% of the world Muslim population, the country currently with the largest Muslim population in the world is Indonesia, followed by Pakistan (11.5%), India (10%),
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
, Iran and Turkey.
Mecca,
Medina and
Jerusalem are the three holiest cities for Islam in all the world. The
Hajj
The Hajj (; ar, حَجّ '; sometimes also spelled Hadj, Hadji or Haj in English) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried o ...
and
Umrah attract large numbers of Muslim devotees from all over the world to Mecca and Medina. Iran is the largest
Shi'a country.
The
Druze Faith or Druzism originated in Western Asia, is a monotheistic religion based on the teachings of figures like
Hamza ibn-'Ali ibn-Ahmad
Hamza ibn ‘Alī ibn Aḥmad ( ar, حمزة بن علي بن أحمد; 985 – c. 1021) was an 11th-century Ismaili missionary and founding leader of the Druze. He was born in Zozan in Greater Khorasan in Samanid-ruled Persia (modern Khaf, Ra ...
and
Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah
Abū ʿAlī Manṣūr (13 August 985 – 13 February 1021), better known by his regnal name al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh ( ar, الحاكم بأمر الله, lit=The Ruler by the Order of God), was the sixth Fatimid caliph and 16th Ismaili imam ...
, and Greek
philosophers such as
Plato and
Aristotle. The number of
Druze people worldwide is around one million, with about 45% to 50% live in
Syria, 35% to 40% live in
Lebanon, and less than 10% live in
Israel, with recently there has been a growing Druze diaspora.
The
Baháʼí Faith
The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people. Established by Baháʼu'lláh in the 19th century, it initially developed in Iran and parts of the ...
originated in Asia, in Iran (Persia), and spread from there to the Ottoman Empire, Central Asia, India, and Burma during the lifetime of Bahá'u'lláh. Since the middle of the 20th century, growth has particularly occurred in other Asian countries, because Baháʼí activities in many Muslim countries has been
severely suppressed by authorities.
Lotus Temple
The Lotus Temple, located in Delhi, India, is a Baháʼí House of Worship that was dedicated in December 1986. Notable for its flowerlike shape, it has become a prominent attraction in the city. Like all other Bahá’í Houses of Worship, ...
is a big Baháʼí Temple in India.
Indian and East Asian religions
Almost all Asian religions have philosophical character and Asian philosophical traditions cover a large spectrum of philosophical thoughts and writings.
Indian philosophy includes
Hindu philosophy
Hindu philosophy encompasses the philosophies, world views and teachings of Hinduism that emerged in Ancient India which include six systems ('' shad-darśana'') – Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa and Vedanta.Andrew Nicholson (2 ...
and
Buddhist philosophy. They include elements of nonmaterial pursuits, whereas another school of thought from India,
Cārvāka
Charvaka ( sa, चार्वाक; IAST: ''Cārvāka''), also known as ''Lokāyata'', is an ancient school of Indian materialism. Charvaka holds direct perception, empiricism, and conditional inference as proper sources of knowledge, embra ...
, preached the enjoyment of the material world. The religions of
Hinduism,
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
,
Jainism and
Sikhism originated in India, South Asia. In East Asia, particularly in China and Japan,
Confucianism,
Taoism and
Zen
Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and l ...
Buddhism took shape.
, Hinduism has around 1.1 billion adherents. The faith represents around 25% of Asia's population and is the largest religion in Asia. However, it is mostly concentrated in South Asia. Over 80% of the populations of both India and Nepal adhere to Hinduism, alongside significant communities in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and
Bali
Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and N ...
, Indonesia. Many overseas Indians in countries such as Burma, Singapore and Malaysia also adhere to Hinduism.
Buddhism has a great following in mainland Southeast Asia and East Asia. Buddhism is the religion of the majority of the populations of
Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand ...
(96%),
Thailand (95%),
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
(80–89%), Japan (36–96%),
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...
(75–84%),
Sri Lanka (70%),
Laos (60–67%) and
Mongolia (53–93%).
Taiwan (35–93%), South Korea (23–50%),
Malaysia (19–21%),
Nepal (9–11%),
Vietnam (10–75%), China (20–50%),
North Korea (2–14%), and small communities in India and
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
. The Communist-governed countries of China, Vietnam and North Korea are officially atheist, thus the number of Buddhists and other religious adherents may be under-reported.
Jainism is found mainly in India and in overseas Indian communities such as the United States and Malaysia.
Sikhism is found in Northern India and amongst overseas Indian communities in other parts of Asia, especially Southeast Asia.
Confucianism is found predominantly in Mainland China, South Korea, Taiwan and in overseas Chinese populations.
Taoism is found mainly in Mainland China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. In many Chinese communities, Taoism is easily syncretized with
Mahayana Buddhism
''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing br ...
, thus exact religious statistics are difficult to obtain and may be understated or overstated.
File:Traditional wedding at Meji-jingu 72570539 f30636e2ef o.jpg, Japanese wedding
Marriage in Japan is a legal and social institution at the center of the household (). Couples are legally married once they have made the change in status on their family registration sheets, without the need for a ceremony. Most weddings ar ...
at the Meiji Shrine
, is a Shinto shrine in Shibuya, Tokyo, that is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken. The shrine does not contain the emperor's grave, which is located at Fushimi-momoyama, south of Kyoto.
History
...
File:A day of devotion – Thaipusam in Singapore (4316108409).jpg, Hindu festival celebrated by Singapore's Tamil community
File:Bar Mitzvah Western Wall.jpg, Bar mitzvah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem
File:Black Nazarene procession.jpg, Catholic procession of the Black Nazarene
The Black Nazarene ( es, El Nazareno Negro, Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno; fil, Poóng Itím na Nazareno, Hesus Nazareno) is a life-sized image of a dark-skinned, kneeling Jesus Christ carrying the Cross enshrined in the Minor Basilica of the ...
in Manila
File:Flickr - Government Press Office (GPO) - Nebi Shueib Festival.jpg, Druze dignitaries celebrating the Ziyarat al-Nabi Shu'ayb festival at the tomb of the prophet in Hittin
Hittin ( ar, حطّين, transliterated ''Ḥiṭṭīn'' ( ar, حِـطِّـيْـن) or ''Ḥaṭṭīn'' ( ar, حَـطِّـيْـن)) was a Palestinian village located west of Tiberias before it was occupied by Israel during the 1948 Arab ...
File:Echmiadzin Cathedral, Armenia (5047080550).jpg, Christian Armenians praying at the Etchmiadzin Cathedral in Vagharshapat
Vagharshapat ( hy, Վաղարշապատ ) is the 4th-largest city in Armenia and the most populous municipal community of Armavir Province, located about west of the capital Yerevan, and north of the closed Turkish-Armenian border. It is co ...
File:İstanbul 4258.jpg, Muslim men praying at the Ortaköy Mosque
Ortaköy Mosque ( tr, Ortaköy Camii) or Büyük Mecidiye Camii () in Beşiktaş, Istanbul, Turkey, is a mosque situated at the waterside of the Ortaköy pier square, one of the most popular locations on the Bosphorus. It was commissioned by the ...
in Istanbul
File:Buddhist Monks performing traditional Sand mandala made from coloured sand.jpg, Buddhist Monks performing traditional Sand mandala made from coloured sand
Modern conflicts
Some of the events pivotal in the Asia territory related to the relationship with the outside world in the post-
Second World War were:
* The
Partition of India
The Partition of British India in 1947 was the change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: India and Pakistan. T ...
* The
Chinese Civil War
* The
Kashmir conflict
* The
Balochistan Conflict
The Insurgency in Balochistan is an insurgency or revolt by Baloch nationalists against the governments of Pakistan and Iran in the Balochistan region, which covers the Balochistan Province in southwestern Pakistan, Sistan and Baluchestan Pro ...
* The
Naxalite–Maoist insurgency
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Naxalite–Maoist insurgency
, image = Naxal Left-wing violence or activity affected districts of India 2018.svg
, image_size = 300px
, caption = Naxalite active z ...
in India
* The
Korean War
* The
French-Indochina War
* The
Vietnam War
* The
Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation
* The
1959 Tibetan uprising
The 1959 Tibetan uprising (also known by other names) began on 10 March 1959, when a revolt erupted in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, which had been under the effective control of the People's Republic of China since the Seventeen Point Agreemen ...
* The
Sino-Vietnamese War
The Sino-Vietnamese War (also known by other names) was a border war fought between China and Vietnam in early 1979. China launched an offensive in response to Vietnam's actions against the Khmer Rouge in 1978, which ended the rule of the C ...
* The
Bangladesh Liberation War
The Bangladesh Liberation War ( bn, মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, , also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh) was a revolution and War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Benga ...
* The
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab state ...
* The
Xinjiang conflict
* The
Iranian Revolution
* The
Soviet–Afghan War
* The
Iran–Iraq War
* The
Cambodian Killing Fields
The Killing Fields ( km, វាលពិឃាត, ) are a number of sites in Cambodia where collectively more than one million people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime (the Communist Party of Kampuchea) during its rule of t ...
* The
Insurgency in Laos
The insurgency in Laos is an ongoing low-intensity conflict between the Laotian government on one side and former members of the " Secret Army", Laotian royalists, and rebels from the Hmong and lowland Lao ethnic minorities on the other. The ...
* The
Lebanese Civil War
* The
Sri Lankan Civil War
* The
1988 Maldives coup d'état
File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicentenn ...
* The
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
* The
Gulf War
* The
Nepalese Civil War
The Nepalese Civil War was a protracted armed conflict that took place in the former Kingdom of Nepal from 1996 to 2006. It saw fighting between the Nepalese royal government and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) throughout the country. ...
* The
Indo-Pakistani wars and conflicts
* The
West Papua conflict
* The
First Nagorno-Karabakh War
* The
1989 Tiananmen Square protests
The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourt ...
* The
Indonesian occupation of East Timor
* The
1999 Pakistani coup d'état
The 1999 military takeover in Pakistan was a bloodless ''coup d'état'' initiated by the military staff at the Joint Staff HQ working under Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Pervez Musharraf. The instigators seized ...
* The
War in Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to:
*Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC)
* Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (637–709)
*Conquest of Afghanistan by the Mongol Empire (13th century), see al ...
* The
Iraq War
* The
South Thailand insurgency
The South Thailand insurgency ( th, ความไม่สงบในชายแดนภาคใต้ของประเทศไทย; ms, Pemberontakan di Thailand Selatan) is an ongoing conflict centered in southern Thailand. It ...
* The
2006 Thai coup d'état
* The
Burmese Civil War
Insurgencies have been ongoing in Myanmar since 1948, the year the country, then known as Burma, gained independence from the United Kingdom. The conflict has largely been ethnic-based, with several ethnic armed groups fighting Myanmar's ...
* The
Saffron Revolution
* The
Kurdish-Turkish conflict
* The
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and econom ...
* The
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Israelis ( he, יִשְׂרָאֵלִים, translit=Yīśrāʾēlīm; ar, الإسرائيليين, translit=al-ʾIsrāʾīliyyin) are the Israeli citizenship law, citizens and nationals of the Israel, State of Israel. The country's popul ...
* The
Arab–Israeli conflict
The Arab–Israeli conflict is an ongoing intercommunal phenomenon involving political tension, military conflicts, and other disputes between Arab countries and Israel, which escalated during the 20th century, but had mostly faded out by th ...
* The
Syrian Civil War
* The
Sino-Indian War
* The
2014 Thai coup d'état
On 22 May 2014, the Royal Thai Armed Forces, led by General Prayut Chan-o-cha, Commander of the Royal Thai Army (RTA), launched a coup d'état, the 12th since the country's first coup in 1932, against the caretaker government of Thailand, fo ...
* The
Moro conflict in the Philippines
* The
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ' ...
* The
Turkish invasion of Syria
* The
Rohingya crisis in Myanmar
* The
Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen Saudi may refer to:
* Saudi Arabia
* Saudis, people from Saudi Arabia
* Saudi culture, the culture of Saudi Arabia
* House of Saud
The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is ...
* The
Hong Kong protests
* The
2020 China–India skirmishes
* The
1969 inter-ethnic violence in Kuala Lumpur
Culture
Nobel prizes
The
polymath Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...
, a
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
poet, dramatist, and writer from
Santiniketan
Santiniketan is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, approximately 152 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, and later expanded by hi ...
, now in
West Bengal, India, became in 1913 the first Asian
Nobel laureate. He won his
Nobel Prize in Literature for notable impact his prose works and poetic thought had on English, French, and other national literatures of Europe and the Americas. He is also the writer of the national anthems of
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
and India.
Other Asian writers who won Nobel Prize for literature include
Yasunari Kawabata (Japan, 1968),
Kenzaburō Ōe (Japan, 1994),
Gao Xingjian (China, 2000),
Orhan Pamuk
Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born 7 June 1952) is a Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic, and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists, his work has sold over thirteen million books in sixty-three lan ...
(Turkey, 2006), and
Mo Yan
Guan Moye (; born 17 February 1955), better known by the pen name Mo Yan (, ), is a Chinese novelist and short story writer. Donald Morrison of U.S. news magazine ''TIME'' referred to him as "one of the most famous, oft-banned and widely pirate ...
(China, 2012). Some may consider the American writer,
Pearl S. Buck
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973) was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for '' The Good Earth'' a bestselling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, Buc ...
, an honorary Asian Nobel laureate, having spent considerable time in China as the daughter of missionaries, and based many of her novels, namely ''
The Good Earth
''The Good Earth'' is a historical fiction novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 that dramatizes family life in a Chinese village in the early 20th century. It is the first book in her ''House of Earth'' trilogy, continued in ''Sons'' (1932 ...
'' (1931) and ''
The Mother'' (1933), as well as the biographies of her parents for their time in China, ''
The Exile
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
'' and ''
Fighting Angel'', all of which earned her the Literature prize in 1938.
Also,
Mother Teresa of India and
Shirin Ebadi of Iran were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially for the rights of women and children. Ebadi is the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to receive the prize. Another Nobel Peace Prize winner is
Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2 ...
from
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
for her peaceful and non-violent struggle under a military dictatorship in Burma. She is a nonviolent pro-democracy activist and leader of the National League for Democracy in Burma (Myanmar) and a noted prisoner of conscience. She is a
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. Chinese dissident
Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China" on 8 October 2010. He is the first Chinese citizen to be awarded a Nobel Prize of any kind while residing in China. In 2014,
Kailash Satyarthi
Kailash Satyarthi (born 11 January 1954) is an Indian social reformer who campaigned against child labor in India and advocated the universal right to education. In 2014, he was the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Malala Yo ...
from India and
Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education".
Sir
C.V. Raman is the first Asian to get a Nobel prize in Sciences. He won the
Nobel Prize in Physics
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...
"for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the
effect named after him".
Japan has won the most Nobel Prizes of any Asian nation with 24 followed by India which has won 13.
Amartya Sen, (born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and
social choice theory
Social choice theory or social choice is a theoretical framework for analysis of combining individual opinions, preferences, interests, or welfares to reach a ''collective decision'' or ''social welfare'' in some sense.Amartya Sen (2008). "Soci ...
, and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members.
Other Asian Nobel Prize winners include
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (; ) (19 October 1910 – 21 August 1995) was an Indian-American theoretical physicist who spent his professional life in the United States. He shared the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics with William A. Fowler for " ...
,
Abdus Salam
Mohammad Abdus Salam Salam adopted the forename "Mohammad" in 1974 in response to the anti-Ahmadiyya decrees in Pakistan, similarly he grew his beard. (; ; 29 January 192621 November 1996) was a Punjabis, Punjabi Pakistani theoretical physici ...
,
Malala Yousafzai,
Robert Aumann,
Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin ( ''Menaḥem Begin'' (); pl, Menachem Begin (Polish documents, 1931–1937); ''Menakhem Volfovich Begin''; 16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was an Israeli politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of Israel. B ...
,
Aaron Ciechanover
Aaron Ciechanover ( ; he, אהרן צ'חנובר; born October 1, 1947) is an Israeli biologist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for characterizing the method that cells use to degrade and recycle proteins using ubiquitin.
Biography
Early ...
,
Avram Hershko
Avram Hershko ( he, אברהם הרשקו, Avraham Hershko, hu, Herskó Ferenc Ábrahám; born December 31, 1937) is a Hungarian-Israeli biochemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004.
Biography
He was born Herskó Ferenc in Karc ...
,
Daniel Kahneman
Daniel Kahneman (; he, דניאל כהנמן; born March 5, 1934) is an Israeli-American psychologist and economist notable for his work on the psychology of judgment and decision-making, as well as behavioral economics, for which he was award ...
,
Shimon Peres,
Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin (; he, יִצְחָק רַבִּין, ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77, and from 1992 until h ...
,
Ada Yonath
Ada E. Yonath ( he, עדה יונת, ; born 22 June 1939) is an Israeli crystallographer best known for her pioneering work on the structure of ribosomes. She is the current director of the Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular ...
,
Yasser Arafat,
José Ramos-Horta
José Manuel Ramos-Horta (; born 26 December 1949) is an East Timorese politician currently serving as president of East Timor since May 2022. He previously served as president from 20 May 2007 to 20 May 2012. Previously he was Ministry of Fore ...
and Bishop
Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo
Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo SDB, commonly known as Carlos Belo or Ximenes Belo (born 3 February 1948) is an East Timorese prelate of the Catholic Church. He became a bishop in 1988 and served as the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of ...
of
Timor Leste
East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-west ...
,
Kim Dae-jung, and 13 Japanese scientists. Most of the said awardees are from Japan and
Israel except for Chandrasekhar and Raman (India), Abdus Salam and Malala Yousafzai, (Pakistan), Arafat (Palestinian Territories), Kim (South Korea), and Horta and Belo (Timor Leste).
In 2006, Dr.
Muhammad Yunus
Muhammad Yunus (born 28 June 1940) is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist and civil society leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinan ...
of
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the establishment of
Grameen Bank
Grameen Bank ( bn, গ্রামীণ ব্যাংক) is a microfinance organisation and community development bank founded in Bangladesh. It makes small loans (known as microcredit or "grameencredit") to the impoverished without requiri ...
, a community development bank that lends money to poor people, especially women in Bangladesh. Dr. Yunus received his PhD in economics from Vanderbilt University, United States. He is internationally known for the concept of micro credit which allows poor and destitute people with little or no collateral to borrow money. The borrowers typically pay back money within the specified period and the incidence of default is very low.
The Dalai Lama has received approximately eighty-four awards over his spiritual and political career.
On 22 June 2006, he became one of only four people ever to be recognized with Honorary Citizenship by the Governor General of Canada. On 28 May 2005, he received the Christmas Humphreys Award from the Buddhist Society in the United Kingdom. Most notable was the Nobel Peace Prize, presented in
Oslo,
Norway on 10 December 1989.
Political geography
Within the above-mentioned states are several partially recognized countries with
limited to no international recognition. None of them are members of the UN:
See also
References to articles:
*
Subregions of Asia
Special topics:
*
Asian Century
The Asian Century is the projected 21st-century dominance of Asian politics and culture, assuming certain demographic and economic trends persist. The concept of Asian Century parallels the characterisation of the 19th century as Britain's Imp ...
*
Asian cuisine
Asian cuisine includes several major regional cuisines: Central Asian, East Asian, North Asian, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and West Asian. A cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, usually associated with a sp ...
*
Asian furniture
The term Asian furniture, or sometimes Oriental furniture, refers to a type of furniture that originated in the continent of Asia. Sometimes people also think of Asian furniture as a style of furniture that has Asian accents. With assimilation w ...
*
Asian Games
The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...
*
Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the part of the world near the western Pacific Ocean. The Asia-Pacific region varies in area depending on context, but it generally includes East Asia, Russian Far East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and Pacific Isl ...
*
Asian Para Games
The Asian Para Games also known as Para Asiad is a multi-sport event regulated by the Asian Paralympic Committee that's held every four years after every Asian Games for athletes with physical disabilities. Both events had adopted the strateg ...
*
Asian Monetary Unit
The Asian Monetary Unit (AMU) is a basket of currencies proposed by the Japanese government's Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI). It is similar to and modeled on the European Currency Unit (ECU), predecessor to the euro.
...
*
Asian people
Asian people (or Asians, sometimes referred to as Asiatic people)United States National Library of Medicine. Medical Subject Headings. 2004. November 17, 200Nlm.nih.gov: ''Asian Continental Ancestry Group'' is also used for categorical purpos ...
*
Eastern world
The Eastern world, also known as the East or historically the Orient, is an umbrella term for various cultures or social structures, nations and philosophical systems, which vary depending on the context. It most often includes at least pa ...
*
Eurasia
*
Far East
*
East Asia
*
Southeast Asia
*
South Asia
*
Central Asia
*
Western Asia
Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Ana ...
*
North Asia
North Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographical terms and is coextensive with the Asian part of Russia, and consists of three Russian regions east of the Ural Mountains: ...
*
Fauna of Asia
All of the animals living in Asia and its surrounding seas and islands are considered the fauna of Asia. Since there is no natural biogeographic boundary in the west between Europe and Asia. The term "fauna of Asia" is somewhat elusive. Temperate ...
*
Flags of Asia
This is a gallery of international and national flags used in Asia.
Supranational and international flags
An incomplete list of flags representing intra-Asian international and supranational organisations, which omits intercontinental organisatio ...
*
Middle East
**
Eastern Mediterranean
Eastern Mediterranean is a loose definition of the eastern approximate half, or third, of the Mediterranean Sea, often defined as the countries around the Levantine Sea.
It typically embraces all of that sea's coastal zones, referring to commun ...
**
Levant
**
Near East
*
Pan-Asianism
Satellite photograph of Asia in orthographic projection.
Pan-Asianism (''also known as Asianism or Greater Asianism'') is an ideology aimed at creating a political and economic unity among Asian peoples. Various theories and movements of Pan-Asi ...
Lists:
*
List of cities in Asia
This is a list of cities in Asia by country.
*List of cities in Afghanistan
* List of cities in Armenia
*List of cities in Azerbaijan
* List of cities in Bahrain
*List of cities and towns in Bangladesh
* List of cities in Bhutan
* List of cities ...
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List of metropolitan areas in Asia by population
The Asian continent is one of the fastest-growing continents in the World, with increasing urbanisation and a high growth rate for cities. Tokyo in Japan is the world's largest metropolitan area by population.
The population of the given cities ar ...
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List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Asia
Projects
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Asian Highway Network
The Asian Highway Network (AH), also known as the Great Asian Highway, is a cooperative project among countries in Asia and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) to improve their connectivity via hig ...
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Trans-Asian Railway
Notes
References
Bibliography
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Further reading
* Embree, Ainslie T., ed. ''Encyclopedia of Asian history'' (1988)
vol. 1 onlinevol 2 onlinevol 3 onlinevol 4 online* Higham, Charles. ''Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations''. Facts on File library of world history. New York: Facts On File, 2004.
* Kamal, Niraj. "Arise Asia: Respond to White Peril". New Delhi: Wordsmith, 2002,
* Kapadia, Feroz, and Mandira Mukherjee. ''Encyclopaedia of Asian Culture and Society.'' New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1999.
* Levinson, David, and Karen Christensen, eds. ''Encyclopedia of Modern Asia''. (6 vol. Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002).
External links
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Continents