Religion in Asia

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:
Baha’i Faith (slightly more than half of all adherents are in Asia)
Buddhism (Japan,Sri Lanka, Korea, Singapore, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, India)
Hinduism (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, Bali)
Islam (Central, South, and Southwest Asia, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia)
Jainism (India)
Shinto (Japan)
Sikhism (India, Malaysia, Hong Kong)
Taoism (China, Vietnam, Singapore, and Taiwan)
Zoroastrianism (Iran, India, Pakistan)
Shamanism (Siberia)
Animism (Eastern India)

Religions founded in Asia that have the majority of their contemporary adherents in other regions include:
Christianity (Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Armenia, Georgia, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, East Timor, India and the Philippines)
Judaism (slightly fewer than half of its adherents reside in Asia; Israel, Iran, India, Syria.)

History of Asia

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 steppe.

The coastal periphery was home to some of the world’s earliest known civilizations, with each of the three regions developing early civilizations around fertile river valleys. The civilizations in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and the Yangtze shared many similarities and likely exchanged technologies and ideas such as mathematics and the wheel. Other notions such as that of writing likely developed individually in each area. Cities, states and empires developed in these lowlands.

The steppe region had long been inhabited by mounted nomads, and from the central steppes they could reach all areas of Asia. The earliest known such central 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 northern part of Asia, covering much of Siberia, was inaccessible to the steppe nomads, due to the dense forests and the tundra. These areas were very sparsely populated.

The centre and periphery were kept separate by mountains and deserts. The Caucasus, Himalaya, Karakum Desert and Gobi Desert formed barriers that the steppe horsemen could only cross with difficulty. While technologically and culturally, the urban city dwellers were more advanced, they could do little militarily to defend against the mounted hordes of the steppe. However, the lowlands did not have enough open grasslands to support a large horsebound force. Thus the nomads who conquered states in China, India, and the Middle East were soon forced to adapt to the local societies.

Economy of Asia

The economy of Asia comprises more than 4 billion people (60% of the world population), living in 46 different states. In addition to this there are six further states that lie partly in Asia, but are considered to belong to another region economically and politically.

As in all world regions, the wealth of Asia differs widely between, and within, states. This is due to its vast size, meaning a huge range of differing cultures, environments, historical ties and government systems. The largest economy in Asia in terms of nominal GDP is Japan, the smallest East Timor (although there is currently no reliable data for either Iraq or North Korea).

This demonstrates the huge disparity in wealth in Asia, with Japan being the world’s second largest economy, and North Korea being one of the poorest. In terms of Purchasing Power Parity however, the People’s Republic of China has the largest economy in Asia and the second largest in the world, followed by Japan and India as the world’s third and fourth largest economies respectively. South Korea is also one of the largest economies in Asia.

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 over 6%. 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, U.K., 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 either India or South Korea at third (depending on the source of information) 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:
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
Asia-Europe Economic Meeting
Association of Southeast Asian Nations
Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement
Commonwealth of Independent States
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
South Asia Free Trade Agreement (proposed)

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.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing in Asia has traditionally been strongest in East and Southeast Asia, particularly in PRC, 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 avantage 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.

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.

Economic development

to be completed - dates taken from European version, need to be changed to reflect major economic changes in Asia

Geography of Asia

Asia is the central and eastern part of Eurasia, comprising approximately fifty countries. It has an area, including islands, of roughly 49,694,700 km². Asia is joined to Africa by the Isthmus of Suez and to Europe by a long border generally following the Ural Mountains.

Main Geographical Features

The mean elevation of the continent is 950 m (3,117 ft.), the largest of any in the world. The plateau and mountainous areas broadly sweep SW-NW across Asia, climaxing in the high Tibetan Plateau, rising to the highest peaks in the world in the Himalaya. To the north west lie plains, while to the south lie the geologically distinct areas of the Arabian peninsula, Indian subcontinent and Malay peninsula. Large numbers of islands lie south east of the continent.

The following table gives the approximate altitudes of the chief mountains and lakes of the continent:

National Parks and Game Reserves
List of National Parks in Asia

The Hydrographic Systems

Basins and rivers

Islands

Besides its mainland, Asia includes a large number of islands, including some of the world’s largest islands, such as Borneo and Sumatra, and some of the world’s most populated islands, such as Java and Honshu.

Other famous islands include Bali, Madura and Sulawesi of Indonesia; Hokkaido, Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa of Japan; Luzon, Cebu and Mindanao of the Philippines; Ko Pha Ngan and Ko Samui of Thailand; as well as Sri Lanka, Cyprus, Singapore, Hong Kong island and Sakhalin.

The Asian nations of Indonesia, Brunei, East Timor, Singapore, Japan, Philippines, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Cyprus are solely made up of one or more islands, and have no territory on the mainland.

For a comprehensive list of Asian islands, see List of islands of Asia.

This is a list of the extreme points of Asia, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location on the continent.

Asia
Northernmost Point - Fligeli Point, Rudolfi Island, Franz Josef Land, Russia (81°52′N)– can’ be right, Franz Josef land is geographically and politically attached to Europe.
Southernmost Point - Pulau Dana, Indonesia ¹
Westernmost Point - Cape Baba, Turkey (26°4′E) ²
Easternmost Point - Big Diomede, Russia ³

Asia (mainland)
Northernmost Point - Cape Chelyuskin, Russia (77°43′N)
Southernmost Point - Cape Piai, Malaysia (1°16′N)
Westernmost Point - Cape Baba, Turkey (26°4′E)
Easternmost Point - Cape Dezhnev (East Cape), Russia (169°40′W) ³

If the Cocos (Keeling) Islands are included as part of Asia, then South Island (12°04′S) is the southernmost point.

The Turkish islands in the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas are considered part of Europe.

According to the International Date Line.

Introducation of Aisa

Asia is the largest and most populous of the Earth’s continents. It is traditionally defined as part of the landmass of Africa-Eurasia lying east of the Suez Canal, east of the Ural Mountains, and southeast of the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian and Black Seas.

About 60% of the world’s human population lives in Asia, of whom only 2% live in the northern and interior half (Siberia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, western Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan); the other 98% live in the remaining half.

Continents are concepts of human geography (i.e., landscapes and landforms as interpreted by humans), not of geology or physical geography, and definitions may vary. The concept of the three continents of the Old World goes back to classical antiquity with the etymology of the word also having roots 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 via the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, through 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.

It is sometimes unclear what Asia precisely consists of. In some definitions, it may exclude Turkey, the Middle East and/or Russia. Asia is sometimes used more strictly in reference to Asia Pacific, which does not include the Middle East or Russia, and does include islands in the Pacific Ocean - a number of which may also be considered part of Australasia and/or Oceania. Asia contains the Indian subcontinent, Arabian subcontinent, and a piece of the North American plate in Siberia.