Asia

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For other uses, see Asia (disambiguation).

Image:LocationAsia.png Image:Asia satellite orthographic.jpg Asia is the largest and most populous region or continent depending on the definition. It is traditionally defined as part of the landmass of Africa-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. About 60% of the world's human population lives in Asia.

1 Etymology
2 Definition and boundaries
3 Territories and regions
4 Economy
5 Early history
6 Languages and literature
- 6.1 Haiku
- 6.2 Nobel prizes
7 Mythology, philosophy and religion
- 7.1 Philosophy
- 7.2 Religions
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

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Etymology

The word Asia entered English, via Latin, from Ancient Greek Ασία (Asia; see also List of traditional Greek place names). This name is first attested in Herodotus (about 440 BC), where it refers to Asia Minor; 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 different women's names are used to describe a single 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, son of Hyrtacus, a ruler over several towns, and elsewhere he describes a marsh as ασιος (Iliad 2, 461). The Greek term may be derived from Assuwa, a 14th century BC confederation of states in Western Anatolia. Hittite assu- "good" is probably an element in that name.

Alternatively, the ultimate etymology of the term may be from the Akkadian word (w)aṣû(m), cognate of Hebrew יצא, which means "to go out" 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 Semitic erēbu "to enter" or "set" (of the sun). However, an originally Mesopotamian or Middle Eastern perspective would not explain how the term "Asia" first came to be associated with Anatolia as lying west of the Semitic speaking area.

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Definition and boundaries

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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 with the etymology of the word rooted in the ancient Near and Middle East. The demarcation between Asia and Africa is the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea. The boundary between Asia and Europe is commonly believed 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. However, modern discovery of the extent of Africa and Asia made this definition rather anachronistic, especially in the case of Asia, which would have several regions that would be considered distinct landmasses if these criteria were used (for example, South Asia and East Asia).

Geologists and physical geographers no longer consider Asia and Europe to be separate continents. It is either defined in terms of geological landmasses (physical geography) or tectonic plates (geology). In the former case, Europe is a western peninsula of Eurasia or the Africa-Eurasia landmass. In the latter, Europe and Asia are parts of the Eurasian plate, which excludes the Arabian and Indian tectonic plates.

In human geography, there are two schools of thought. One school follows historical convention and treats Europe and Asia as different continents, categorizing Europe, East Asia (the Orient), South Asia (British India), and the Middle East (Arabia and Persia) as specific regions for more detailed analysis. The other schools equate the word "continent" in terms of geographical region when referring to Europe, and use the term "region" to describe Asia in terms of physical geography. Because 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.

There is much confusion in European languages with the term "Asian". Because a category implies homogenity, the term "Asian" almost always refers to a subcategory of people from Asia rather than referring to "Asian" defined in term of "Asia". The fact that in American English, Asian refers to East Asian (Orientals), while in British English, Asian refers to South Asian reflects this confusion. Sometimes, it is not even clear exactly what "Asia" consists of. Some definitions exclude Turkey, the Middle East, or Russia. The term is sometimes used more strictly in reference to Asia Pacific, which does not include the Middle East or Russia, but does include islands in the Pacific Ocean — a number of which may also be considered part of Australasia or Oceania. Asia contains the Indian subcontinent, Arabian subcontinent, as well as a piece of the North American plate in Siberia. Template:Further Template:Seealso Template:Seealso

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Territories and regions

Image:Location-Asia-UNsubregions.png Image:Asia-map.png

Name of region<ref> Continental regions as per UN categorisations (map). Depending on definitions, various territories cited below (notes 2, 7-10, 12-14, 16-18) may be in one or both of Asia and Europe, Africa, or Oceania. </ref> and territory, with flag	Area (km²)	Population (1 July 2002 est.)	Population density (per km²)	Capital
Central Asia:
Template:Flagicon Kazakhstan<ref> Kazakhstan is sometimes considered a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe; population and area figures are for Asian portion only. </ref>	2,346,927	13,472,593	5.7	Astana
Template:Flagicon Kyrgyzstan	198,500	4,822,166	24.3	Bishkek
Template:Flagicon Tajikistan	143,100	6,719,567	47.0	Dushanbe
Template:Flagicon Turkmenistan	488,100	4,688,963	9.6	Ashgabat
Template:Flagicon Uzbekistan	447,400	25,563,441	57.1	Tashkent
Eastern Asia:
Template:Flagicon People's Republic of China<ref> The current state is formally known as the People's Republic of China (PRC), which is subsumed by the titular entity and civilisation. Figures given are for mainland China only, and do not include Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. </ref>	9,584,492	1,284,303,705	134.0	Beijing
Template:Flagicon Hong Kong (PRC)<ref> Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the PRC. </ref>	1,092	7,303,334	6,688.0	—
Template:Flagicon Japan	377,835	126,974,628	336.1	Tokyo
Template:Flagicon Macau (PRC)<ref> Macau is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the PRC. </ref>	25	461,833	18,473.3	—
Template:Flagicon Mongolia	1,565,000	2,694,432	1.7	Ulaanbaatar
Template:Flagicon North Korea	120,540	22,224,195	184.4	Pyongyang
Template:Flagicon South Korea	98,480	48,324,000	490.7	Seoul
Template:Flagicon Taiwan (Republic of China)<ref> Figures are for the area under the de facto control of the ROC government. Claimed in whole by the PRC; see political status of Taiwan. </ref>	35,980	22,548,009	626.7	Taipei
Eastern Europe:
Template:Flagicon Russia<ref> Russia is generally considered a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia; population and area figures are for Asian portion only. </ref>	13,115,200	39,129,729	3.0	Moscow
Northern Africa:
Template:Flagicon Egypt<ref> Egypt is generally considered a transcontinental country in Northern Africa and Western Asia; population and area figures are for Asian portion only, east of the Suez Canal (Sinai Peninsula). </ref>	63,556	1,378,159	21.7	Cairo
Southeastern Asia:
Template:Flagicon Brunei	5,770	350,898	60.8	Bandar Seri Begawan
Template:Flagicon Cambodia	181,040	12,775,324	70.6	Phnom Penh
Template:Flagicon Indonesia<ref> Indonesia is often considered a transcontinental country in Southeastern Asia and Oceania. </ref>	1,919,440	231,328,092	120.5	Jakarta
Template:Flagicon Laos	236,800	5,777,180	24.4	Vientiane
Template:Flagicon Malaysia	329,750	22,662,365	68.7	Kuala Lumpur
Template:Flagicon Myanmar (Burma)	678,500	42,238,224	62.3	Yangon (Rangoon)
Template:Flagicon Philippines	300,000	84,525,639	281.8	Manila
Template:Flagicon Singapore	693	4,452,732	6,425.3	Singapore
Template:Flagicon Thailand	514,000	62,354,402	121.3	Bangkok
Template:Flagicon Timor-Leste (East Timor)<ref> Timor-Leste is often considered a transcontinental country in Southeastern Asia and Oceania. </ref>	15,007	952,618	63.5	Dili
Template:Flagicon Vietnam	329,560	81,098,416	246.1	Hanoi
Southern Asia:
Template:Flagicon Afghanistan	647,500	27,755,775	42.9	Kabul
Template:Flagicon Bangladesh	144,000	133,376,684	926.2	Dhaka
Template:Flagicon Bhutan	47,000	2,094,176	44.6	Thimphu
Template:Flagicon India<ref> Includes Jammu and Kashmir, a contested territory among India, Pakistan, and the PRC. </ref>	3,287,134	1,045,845,226	318.2	New Delhi
Template:Flagicon Iran	1,648,000	66,622,704	40.4	Tehran
Template:Flagicon Maldives	300	320,165	1,067.2	Malé
Template:Flagicon Nepal	140,800	25,873,917	183.8	Kathmandu
Template:Flagicon Pakistan	803,940	147,663,429	183.7	Islamabad
Template:Flagicon Sri Lanka	65,610	19,576,783	298.4	Colombo
Western Asia:
Template:Flagicon Armenia<ref> Armenia is sometimes considered a transcontinental country: geographically in Western Asia, it has historical and sociopolitical connections with Europe. </ref>	29,800	3,330,099	111.7	Yerevan
Template:Flagicon Azerbaijan<ref> Azerbaijan is often considered a transcontinental country in Western Asia and Eastern Europe; population and area figures are for Asian portion only. Naxçivan is an autonomous exclave of Azerbaijan bordered by Armenia, Iran, and Turkey. </ref>	41,370	3,479,127	84.1	Baku
Template:Flagicon Bahrain	665	656,397	987.1	Manama
Template:Flagicon Cyprus<ref> The island of Cyprus is sometimes considered a transcontinental territory: in the Eastern Basin of the Mediterranean Sea south of Turkey, it has historical and sociopolitical connections with Europe. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), distinct from the de jure Republic of Cyprus in the south (with a predominantly Greek population), is recognised only by Turkey. </ref>	9,250	775,927	83.9	Nicosia (Lefkoşa)
Template:Flagicon Gaza<ref> Gaza and West Bank, collectively referred to as the "Occupied Palestinian Territory" by the UN, are territories partially occupied by Israel but under de facto administration of the Palestinian National Authority. </ref>	363	1,203,591	3,315.7	Gaza
Template:Flagicon Georgia<ref> Georgia is often considered a transcontinental country in Western Asia and Eastern Europe; population and area figures are for Asian portion only. </ref>	20,460	2,032,004	99.3	Tbilisi
Template:Flagicon Iraq	437,072	24,001,816	54.9	Baghdad
Template:Flagicon Israel	20,770	6,029,529	290.3	Jerusalem
Template:Flagicon Jordan	92,300	5,307,470	57.5	Amman
Template:Flagicon Kuwait	17,820	2,111,561	118.5	Kuwait City
Image:Flag of Lebanon.PNG Lebanon	10,400	3,677,780	353.6	Beirut
Image:Az-nakh1.gif Naxçivan (Azerbaijan)<ref> Azerbaijan is often considered a transcontinental country in Western Asia and Eastern Europe; population and area figures are for Asian portion only. Naxçivan is an autonomous exclave of Azerbaijan bordered by Armenia, Iran, and Turkey. </ref>	5,500	365,000	66.4	Naxçivan
Template:Flagicon Oman	212,460	2,713,462	12.8	Muscat
Template:Flagicon Qatar	11,437	793,341	69.4	Doha
Template:Flagicon Saudi Arabia	1,960,582	23,513,330	12.0	Riyadh
Template:Flagicon Syria	185,180	17,155,814	92.6	Damascus
Template:Flagicon Turkey<ref> Turkey is generally considered a transcontinental country in Western Asia and Southern Europe; population and area figures are for Asian portion only, excluding all of Istanbul.</small> </ref>	756,768	57,855,068	76.5	Ankara
Template:Flagicon United Arab Emirates	82,880	2,445,989	29.5	Abu Dhabi
Template:Flagicon West Bank<ref> West Bank and Gaza, collectively referred to as the "Occupied Palestinian Territory" by the UN, are territories occupied by Israel but under de facto administration of the Palestinian National Authority. </ref>	5,860	2,303,660	393.1	—
Template:Flagicon Yemen	527,970	18,701,257	35.4	Sanaá
Total	44,309,978	3,816,775,642	86.1

Notes:
<references />

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Economy

**Economy of Asia**
During 2003 unless otherwise stated
Population:	3,862,000,000 (2004)
GDP (PPP):	US$18.077 trillion
GDP (Currency):	$8.782 trillion
GDP/capita (PPP):	$4,518
GDP/capita (Currency):	$2,195
Annual growth of per capita GDP:
Income of top 10%:
Millionaires:	2.0 million (0.05%)
Unemployment
Estimated female income
Most numbers are from the UNDP from 2002, some numbers exclude certain countries for lack of information.
Template:World economy infobox footer

Template:Main In terms of gross domestic product (PPP), the largest national economy within Asia is that of the PRC (People's Republic of China). Over the last decade, China's and India's economies have been growing rapidly, both with an average annual growth rate above 7%. PRC is the world's second largest economy after the US, followed by Japan and India as the world's third and fourth largest economies respectively (then followed by the European nations: Germany, UK, France and Italy).

In terms of exchange rates (nominal GDP) however, Japan has 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 EU, NAFTA or APEC). Economic growth in Asia since World War II to the 1990's had been concentrated in few countries of the Pacific Rim, and has spread more recently to other regions. In the late 80's and early 90's Japan's economy was almost as large as that of the rest of the continent combined. In 1995, Japan's economy nearly equalled the USA to tie the largest economy in the world for a day, after the Japanese currency reached a record high of 79 yen. However, since then Japan's currency has corrected and China has grown to be the second largest Asian economy, followed by India in terms of exchange rates. It is expected that China will surpass Japan in currency terms to have the largest nominal GDP in Asia within a decade or two.

Trade blocs:

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Natural resources

Asia is by a considerable margin the largest continent in the world, and is rich in natural resources, such as Petroleum and iron.

High productivity in agriculture, especially of rice, allows high population density of countries in the warm and humid area. Other main agricultural products include wheat and chicken.

Forestry is extensive throughout Asia except Southwest and Central Asia. Fishing is a major source of food in Asia, particularly in Japan.

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Manufacturing

Manufacturing in Asia has traditionally been strongest in East and Southeast Asia, particularly in mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. The industry varies from manufacturing cheap goods such as toys to high-tech goods such as computers and cars. Many companies from Europe, North America, and Japan have significant operations in the developing Asia to take advantage of its abundant supply of cheap labor.

One of the major employers in manufacturing in Asia is the textile industry. Much of the world's supply of clothing and footwear now originates in Southeast Asia.

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Financial and other services

Asia has three main financial centers. They are in Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo. Call centers are becoming major employers in India and the Philippines, due to the availablity of many well-educated English speakers. The rise of the business process outsourcing industry has seen the rise of India and China as the other financial centers.

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Early history

Template:Main Image:Asia 1892 amer ency brit.jpg The history of Asia can be seen as the distinct histories of several peripheral coastal regions East Asia, South 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 Yangtze shared many similarities, and may well have exchanged technologies and ideas such as mathematics and the wheel. Other innovations, such as that of 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, and from the steppes they could reach all areas of Asia. The earliest postulated expansion out of the steppe is that of the Indo-Europeans, who spread their languages into the Middle East, India, and in the Tocharians, to the borders of China. The northernmost part of Asia, including much of Siberia, was largely inaccessible to the steppe nomads, owing to the dense forests, the climate, and the 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 technologically and socially, the urban city dwellers were more advanced, 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.

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Languages and literature

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, and more than 100 are spoken in the Philippines. But Korea is home to only one language.

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Haiku

Early-Modern Japanese literature (17th–19th centuries) developed innovations such as haiku, a form of Japanese poetry that evolved from the ancient hokku (Japanese language: 発句) mode. Haiku consists of three lines: the first and third lines each have five morae (the rough phonological equivalent of syllables), while the second has seven. Original haiku masters included such figures as Edo period poet Matsuo Bashō (松尾芭蕉); others influenced by Bashō include Kobayashi Issa and Masaoka Shiki.

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Nobel prizes

Image:Tagore3.jpg The polymath Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali poet, dramatist, and writer who was an Indian, 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 also wrote the Indian anthem

Other Asian writers who won Nobel Prizes include Yasunari Kawabata (Japan, 1966), and Kenzaburo Oe (Japan, 1994).

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Mythology, philosophy and religion

The story of Great Floods find reference in most of the regions of Asia. The Hindu mythology tells about an avatar of God Vishnu in the form of a fish who warned Manu of a terrible flood. In ancient Chinese mythology Shan Hai Jing, the Chinese ruler Da Yu had to spend 10 years to control a deluge which swept out most of ancient China and was aided by the goddess Nuwa who "fixed" the "broken" sky through which huge rains were pouring.

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Philosophy

Template:Main

Asian philosophical traditions originated in India and China and cover a large spectrum of philosophical thoughts and writings. Indian philosophy includes Hindu philosophy and Buddhist philosophy. They include elements of nonmaterial pursuits, whereas another school of thought from India, Carvaka, preached the enjoyment of material world.

During the 20th century, in the two most populous countries of Asia, two dramatically different political philosophies took shape. Gandhi gave a new meaning to Ahimsa, and redefined the concepts of nonviolence and nonresistance. During the same period, Mao Zedong’s communist philosophy was crystallized.

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Religions

Image:Buddha image - white stone.jpg Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated in India, a country of South Asia. In East Asia, particularly in China and Japan, Confucianism, Taoism, Zen Buddhism and Shinto took shape. Other religions of Asia include Bahá'í Faith, Shamanism practiced in Siberia and Animism, practiced in the eastern parts of the Indian subcontinent.

Today 30% of Muslims live in the South Asian region of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. The world's largest single Muslim community (within the bounds of one nation) is in Indonesia. There are also significant Muslim populations in the Philippines, China, Central Asia, Iran, and Russia.

In the Philippines and East Timor, Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion; it was introduced by the Spaniards and the Portuguese, respectively. In Armenia, Eastern Orthodoxy is the predominant religion. Various Christian sects have adherents in portions of the Middle East.

A large majority of people in the world who practice a religious faith practice one founded in Asia.

Religions founded in Asia and with a majority of their contemporary adherents in Asia include: