Asia

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Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area (or 29.9% of its land area) and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population. Chiefly in the eastern and northern hemispheres, Asia is traditionally defined as part of the landmass of Eurasia—with the western portion of the latter occupied by Europe—lying east of the Suez Canal, east of the Ural Mountains, and south of the Caucasus Mountains 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. Given its size and diversity, Asia—a toponym dating back to classical antiquity—is more a cultural concept incorporating a number of regions and peoples than a homogeneous physical entity^[2][3] (see Subregions of Asia, Asian people).

Contents 1 Etymology 2 Definition and boundaries 2.1 Physical geography 2.2 Political geography 2.3 "Asian" as a demonym 3 Territories and regions 3.1 Country name changes 4 Economy 4.1 Trade blocks 4.2 Natural resources 4.3 Manufacturing 4.4 Financial and other services 5 Early history 6 Languages and literature 6.1 Nobel prizes 7 Beliefs 7.1 Mythology 7.2 Religions 7.2.1 Abrahamic 7.2.2 Dharmic & Taoist 7.2.3 Other 8 See also 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External links

[edit] Etymology

Look up Asia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The word Asia originated from the Greek word "Ἀσία", first attributed to Herodotus (about 440 B.C.) in reference to Anatolia or, for the purposes of describing the Persian Wars, to the Persian Empire, in contrast to Greece and Egypt. Herodotus comments that he is puzzled as to why three women's names are used to describe one enormous and substantial land mass (Europa, Asia, and Libya, referring to Africa), stating that most Greeks assumed that Asia was named after the wife of Prometheus but that the Lydians say it was named after Asias, son of Cotys who passed the name on to a tribe in Sardis.

Even before Herodotus, Homer knew of a Trojan ally named Asios and elsewhere he describes a marsh as ασιος (Iliad 2, 461). The Greek language term may be derived from Assuwa, a 14th century BCE confederation of states in Western Anatolia. Hittite assu-—"good" is probably an element in that name.

Alternatively, the etymology of the term may be from the Akkadian word (w)aṣû(m), which means "to go outside" or "to ascend", referring to the direction of the sun at sunrise in the Middle East, and also likely connected with the Phoenician word asa meaning east. This may be contrasted to a similar etymology proposed for Europe, as being from Akkadian erēbu(m) "to enter" or "set" (of the sun). However, this etymology is considered doubtful, because it does not explain how the term "Asia" first came to be associated with Anatolia, which is west of the Semitic-speaking areas, unless they refer to the viewpoint of a Phoenician sailor sailing through the straits between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.

It is interesting to note, in Icelandic Saga, ancient Teutons separated Asia from Europe by the river Tanakvisl (or Vanakvisl), which flows into the Black Sea. Eastward across the River (in Asia), so legend tells, was a land known as Asaheim or Asaland, where dwelt Odin, chief god, in his citadel named Asgard.^[4] However, Aesir and all its forms are related to Sanskrit asura and Avestan ahura, the local reflexes of the name of a class of divine beings.

[edit] Definition and boundaries

[edit] Physical geography

See also: Geography of Asia, Countries in both Asia and Europe, Geographic criteria for the definition of Europe

Medieval Europeans considered Asia as a continent – a distinct landmass. The European concept of the three continents in the Old World goes back to Classical Antiquity, but during the Middle Ages was notably due to Isidore of Sevilla (see T and O map). The demarcation between Asia and Africa (to the southwest) is the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea. The boundary between Asia and Europe is conventionally considered to run through the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, the Black Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, the Caspian Sea, the Ural River to its source, and the Ural Mountains to the Kara Sea near Kara, Russia. While this interpretation of tripartite continents (i.e., of Asia, Europe, and Africa) remains common in modernity, discovery of the extent of Africa and Asia have made this definition somewhat anachronistic. This is especially true in the case of Asia, which would have several regions that would be considered distinct landmasses if these criteria were used (for example, Southern Asia and Eastern Asia).

In the far northeast of Asia, Siberia is separated from North America by the Bering Strait. Asia is bounded on the south by the Indian Ocean (specifically, from west to east, the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, and Bay of Bengal); on the east by the waters of the Pacific Ocean (including, counterclockwise, the South China Sea, East China Sea, Yellow Sea, Sea of Japan, Sea of Okhotsk, and Bering Sea); and on the north by the Arctic Ocean. Australia (or Oceania) is to the southeast.

Some geographers do not consider Asia and Europe to be separate continents,^[5] as there is no logical physical separation between them.^[3] For example, Sir Barry Cunliffe, the emeritus professor of European archeology at Oxford, argue that Europe has been geographically and culturally merely “the western excrescence of the continent of Asia.”^[6] Geographically, Asia is the major eastern constituent of the continent of Eurasia – with Europe being a northwestern peninsula of the landmass – or of Afro-Eurasia: geologically, Asia, Europe, and Africa comprise a single continuous landmass (save the Suez Canal) and share a common continental shelf. Almost all of Europe and most of Asia sit atop the Eurasian Plate, adjoined on the south by the Arabian and Indian Plates, and with the easternmost part of Siberia (east of the Cherskiy Range) on the North American Plate.

In geography, there are two schools of thought. One school follows historical convention and treats Europe and Asia as different continents, categorizing subregions within them for more detailed analysis. The other school equates the word "continent" with a geographical region when referring to Europe, and use the term "region" to describe Asia in terms of physiography. Since, in linguistic terms, "continent" implies a distinct landmass, it is becoming increasingly common to substitute the term "region" for "continent" to avoid the problem of disambiguation altogether.

Given the scope and diversity of the landmass, it is sometimes not even clear exactly what "Asia" consists of. Some definitions exclude Turkey, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Russia while only considering the Far East, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent to compose Asia,^[7][8] especially in the United States after World War II.^[9] The term is sometimes used more strictly in reference to the Asia-Pacific region, which does not include the Middle East or Russia,^[10] but does include islands in the Pacific Ocean—a number of which may also be considered part of Australasia or Oceania, although Pacific Islanders are commonly not considered Asian.^[11]

[edit] Political geography

[edit] "Asian" as a demonym

See also: Orientalism.

The demonym "Asian" is often used colloquially to refer to people from a subregion of Asia instead of for anyone from Asia. Thus, in British English, "Asian" can mean South Asian, but may also refer to other Asian groups.^[12] In the United States, "Asian American" can mean East Asian Americans, due to the historical and cultural influences of China and Japan on the U.S. up to the 1960s and in preference to the terms "Oriental" and "Asiatic". However, the term is increasingly taken to include Southeast Asian Americans and South Asian Americans, due to the increasing numbers of immigrants from these regions.^[13]

[edit] Territories and regions

Name of region[14] and territory, with flag	Area (km²)	Population (1 July 2008 est.)	Population density (per km²)	Capital
Central Asia:
Kazakhstan[15]	2,724,927	15,666,533	5.7	Astana
Kyrgyzstan	198,500	5,356,869	24.3	Bishkek
Tajikistan	143,100	7,211,884	47.0	Dushanbe
Turkmenistan	488,100	5,179,573	9.6	Ashgabat
Uzbekistan	447,400	28,268,441	57.1	Tashkent
Eastern Asia:
People's Republic of China[16]	9,584,492	1,322,044,605	134.0	Beijing
Hong Kong[17]	1,092	7,903,334	6,688.0	—
Macau[18]	25	460,823	18,473.3	—
Republic of China (Taiwan)[19]	35,980	22,920,946	626.7	Taipei
Japan	377,835	127,288,628	336.1	Tokyo
North Korea	120,540	23,479,095	184.4	Pyongyang
South Korea	98,480	49,232,844	490.7	Seoul
Mongolia	1,565,000	2,996,082	1.7	Ulan Bator
Northern Asia:
Russia[20]	13,115,200	140,702,092	3.0	Moscow
Southeastern Asia:[21]
Brunei	5,770	381,371	60.8	Bandar Seri Begawan
Cambodia[22]	181,035	13,388,910	74	Phnom Penh
East Timor (Timor-Leste)[23]	15,007	1,108,777	63.5	Dili
Indonesia[24]	1,419,588	237,512,355	159.9	Jakarta
Laos	236,800	6,677,534	24.4	Vientiane
Malaysia	329,847	27,780,000	84.2	Kuala Lumpur
Myanmar (Burma)	678,500	47,758,224	62.3	Naypyidaw[25]
Philippines	300,000	92,681,453	281.8	Manila
Singapore	704	4,608,167	6,369.0	Singapore
Thailand	514,000	65,493,298	121.3	Bangkok
Vietnam	331,690	86,116,559	246.1	Hanoi
Southern Asia:
Afghanistan	647,500	32,738,775	42.9	Kabul
Bangladesh	144,000	153,546,901	926.2	Dhaka
Bhutan	47,000	682,321	14.3	Thimphu
India[26]	3,167,590	1,147,995,226	318.2	New Delhi
Iran	1,648,195	65,875,223	42	Tehran
Maldives	300	379,174	1,067.2	Malé
Nepal	140,800	29,519,114	183.8	Kathmandu
Pakistan	803,940	167,762,049	183.7	Islamabad
Sri Lanka	65,610	21,128,773	298.4	Sri Jayawardenapura-Kotte
Western Asia:
Armenia[27]	29,800	2,968,586	111.7	Yerevan
Azerbaijan[28]	46,870	3,845,127	82.0	Baku
Bahrain	665	718,306	987.1	Manama
Cyprus[29]	9,250	792,604	83.9	Nicosia
Gaza[30]	363	1,537,269	3,315.7	Gaza
Georgia[31]	20,460	4,630,841	99.3	Tbilisi
Iraq	437,072	28,221,181	54.9	Baghdad
Israel	20,770	7,112,359	290.3	Jerusalem[32]
Jordan	92,300	6,198,677	57.5	Amman
Kuwait	17,820	2,596,561	118.5	Kuwait City
Lebanon	10,452	3,971,941	353.6	Beirut
Oman	212,460	3,311,640	12.8	Muscat
Qatar	11,437	928,635	69.4	Doha
Saudi Arabia	1,960,582	23,513,330	12.0	Riyadh
Syria	185,180	19,747,586	92.6	Damascus
Turkey[33]	756,768	71,892,807	76.5	Ankara
United Arab Emirates	82,880	4,621,399	29.5	Abu Dhabi
West Bank[30]	5,860	2,611,904	393.1	Jerusalem
Yemen	527,970	23,013,376	35.4	Sanaá
Total	43,810,582	4,050,404,193	89.07

Note: Part of Egypt (Sinai Peninsula) is geographically in Western Asia

See also: List of Asian countries by population

[edit] Country name changes

Various Asian countries have undergone name changes during the previous century as the result of consolidations, secessions, territories gaining sovereignty, and regime changes.

Previous Name	Year	Current Name
East Pakistan	1971	Bangladesh, People's Republic of
Democratic Kampuchea	1975	Cambodia, Kingdom of
Empire of Great Qing of China	1911 1949	China, Republic of China, People's Republic of
Portuguese Timor	1975	East Timor, Democratic Republic of
Dutch East Indies	1949	Indonesia, Republic of
Persian Empire	1935	Iran, Republic of
Transjordan	1946	Jordan, Kingdom of
Kirghizia (USSR)	1991	Kyrgyzstan, Republic
Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore	1963	Malaysia and Singapore
Burma	1989	Myanmar, Union of
Muscat	1971	Oman, Sultanate of
West Pakistan	1971	Pakistan, Republic of
Hejaz-Nejd, The Kingdom of	1932	Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of
Aden	1970	South Yemen, People's Republic of
Ceylon	1972	Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of
Tajik S.S.R	1991	Tajikistan, Republic of
Siam	1939	Thailand, Kingdom of
Ottoman Empire	1923	Turkey, Republic of
Turkmen SSR (USSR)	1991	Turkmenistan
Trucial Oman & Trucial States	1971	United Arab Emirates
French Indo-China	1949	Vietnam, Socialist Republic of
Yemen, People's Democratic & Southern Yemen	1990	Yemen, Republic of

[edit] Economy

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Economy of Asia
During 2003 unless otherwise stated

Population:	3,958,768,100 (2006 Estimate)
GDP (PPP):	US$18.077 trillion
GDP (Currency):	$8.782 trillion
GDP/capita (PPP):	$4,518
GDP/capita (Currency):	$2,143
Millionaires:	2.0 million (0.05%)
Most numbers are from the UNDP from 2002, some numbers exclude certain countries for lack of information.
See also: Economy of the world - Economy of Africa - Economy of Asia - Economy of Europe - Economy of North America - Economy of Oceania - Economy of South America

Main article: Economy of Asia

Asia has the third largest nominal GDP of all continents, after North America and Europe, but the largest when measured in PPP. As of 2007, the largest national economy within Asia, in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), is that of China followed by that of India, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia. However, in nominal (exchange value) terms, they rank as follows: Japan, China, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Indonesia. Since the 1960s, South Korea had maintained the highest economic growth rate in Asia, nicknamed as an Asian tiger, becoming a newly industrialized country in the 1980s and a developed country by the 21st century. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the economies of the PRC^[34] and India have been growing rapidly, both with an average annual growth rate of more than 8%. Other recent very high growth nations in Asia include the Philippines, Pakistan, Vietnam, Mongolia, Uzbekistan and mineral-rich nations such as Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Oman.

Historically, Japan has had 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 1986 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). 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 equalled that of the USA to tie as the largest economy in the world for a day, after the Japanese currency reached a record high of 79 yen/dollar. Economic growth in Asia since World War II to the 1990s had been concentrated in 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 forecast that the People's Republic of China will surpass Japan to have the largest nominal and PPP-adjusted GDP in Asia within a decade. India is also forecast to overtake Japan in terms of Nominal GDP by 2020.^[35] In terms of GDP per capita, both nominal and PPP-adjusted, South Korea will become the second wealthiest country in Asia by 2025, overtaking Germany, the United Kingdom and France. By 2050, according to a 2006 report by Price Waterhouse Cooper, China will have the largest economy in the world (43% greater than the United States when PPP adjusted, although perhaps smaller than the United States in nominal terms).^[36]

[edit] Trade blocks

• Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
• Asia-Europe Economic Meeting
• Association of Southeast Asian Nations
• Gulf Cooperation Council
• Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement
• Commonwealth of Independent States
• South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation

[edit] Natural resources

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, and metal.

[edit] Manufacturing

Manufacturing in Asia has traditionally been strongest in East and Southeast Asia, particularly in mainland China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, India and Singapore. Japan and South Korea continue to dominate in the area of multinational corporations, but increasingly mainland China, 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.

[edit] Financial and other services

Asia has four main financial centres: Mumbai, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo. Dubai is growing fast as a financial hub for West Asia. Call centres and business process outsourcing (BPOs) are becoming major employers in India, Pakistan 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 People's Republic of China as financial centres. Due to its large and extremely competitive information technology industry, India has become a major hub for outsourcing.

[edit] Early history

Main article: History of Asia

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 Huanghe 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 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.

[edit] Languages and literature

Main article: Languages of Asia

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 415 languages spoken in India, and more than 100 are spoken in the Philippines. The People's Republic of China has many languages and dialects in different provinces.

[edit] Nobel prizes

The polymath Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali poet, dramatist, and writer from Santiniketan, 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 and India.

Tagore is said to have named another Bengali Indian Nobel prize winner, the 1998 laureate in Economics, Amartya Sen. Sen's work has centered around global issues including famine, welfare, and third-world development. Amartya Sen was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge University, UK, from 1998-2004, becoming the first Asian to head an 'Oxbridge' College.

Other Asian writers who won Nobel Prizes include Yasunari Kawabata (Japan, 1966), Kenzaburo Oe (Japan, 1994), Gao Xingjian (People's Republic of China, 2000) and Orhan Pamuk (Turkey, 2006).

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 from Burma 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 and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

Other Asian Nobel Prize winners include Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Venkata Raman, Abdus Salam, Shmuel Yosef Agnon,