Asia
1
Asia
Asia
Area
44579000 km2 ( sq mi)
Population
3,879,000,000 (1st)
Pop. density
87/km2 (225/sq mi)
Demonym
Asian
Countries
48 (list of countries)
[1]
[2]
Dependencies
Unrecognized regions
Languages
List of languages
Time Zones
UTC+2 to UTC+12
Internet TLD
.asia
Largest cities
List of metropolitan areas in Asia by population
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It
covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area (or 30% of its land area) and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it
hosts 60% of the world's current human population. During the 20th century Asia's population nearly quadrupled.[3]
Asia is defined according to similar definitions presented by the Encyclopædia Britannica[4] and the National
Geographic Society[5] as 4/5 of the landmass of Eurasia – with the western portion of the latter occupied by Europe
– located to the east of the Suez Canal, east of the Ural Mountains and south of the Caucasus Mountains (or the
Kuma-Manych Depression) 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. It contains one country in the Mediterranean Sea Cyprus. Given its size and diversity, Asia – a toponym dating back to classical antiquity – "is more a cultural
concept" incorporating diverse regions and peoples than a homogeneous physical entity[6] Asia differs very widely
among and within its regions with regard to ethnic groups, cultures, environments, economics, historical ties and
government systems.
Asia
2
Definition and boundaries
Greek three-continent system
The original distinction between Europe and
Asia was made by the ancient Greeks. They
used the Aegean Sea, the Dardanelles, the
Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, the Black
Sea, the Kerch Strait, and the Sea of Azov
as the border between Asia and Europe. The
Nile was often used as the border between
Asia and Africa (then called Libya),
although some Greek geographers suggested
the Red Sea would form a better
boundary.[7] Darius' canal between the Nile
and the Red Sea introduced considerable
variation in opinion. Under the Roman
Empire, the Don River emptying into the
Two-point equidistant projection of Asia and surrounding landmasses.
Black Sea was the western border of Asia. It
was the northernmost navigable point of the
European shore. In the 15th century the Red Sea became established as the boundary between Africa and Asia,
replacing the Nile. As exploration developed, the border between Asia and Europe had to be redefined, as the
borders of the time did not extend to the arctic.[7]
Asia-Europe boundary
The Don River became unsatisfactory to northern Europeans when Peter the Great, king of the Tsardom of Russia,
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. The
major geographical theorist of the empire was actually a former Swedish prisoner-of-war, taken at the Battle of
Poltava in 1709 and assigned to Tobolsk, where he associated with Peter's Siberian official, Vasily Tatishchev, and
was allowed freedom to conduct geographical and anthropological studies in preparation for a future book.
At home in Sweden again, five years after Peter's death, in 1730 von Strahlenberg published a new atlas proposing
the Urals as the border of Asia. The Russians were enthusiastic about the concept, which allowed them to keep their
European identity in geography as well as other cultural heritage. 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.[8] In the maps of the period,
Transcaucasia was counted as Asian. The incorporation of most of that region into the Soviet Union tended to push
views of the border to the south.
Asia-Oceania boundary
The border between Asia and Oceania is placed somewhere in the Malay archipelago. The terms Southeast Asia and
Oceania, devised in the 19th century, have had vastly different geographic meanings since their inception. Oceania
has never been Asia, whatever it may have been defined to be. The chief factor in determining what 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."[7] Currently Malaysia and Indonesia with the western half of New Guinea are in Southeast Asia (although
Asia
3
the New Guinea territory of Indonesia is being disputed by the natives).
Ongoing definition
Geographical Asia is a cultural artifact, an imprecise concept causing
endemic contention about what it means. In contrast to Europe, Asia is
the largest and most culturally diverse of the continents in the
seven-continent system.[9] It does not exactly correspond to the cultural
borders of its various types of constituents.[10]
In addition to its general inherited geographical meaning, to which the
entire literate world subscribes, Asia has any number of
agency-specific meanings organizationally and operationally of use in
more restricted fields of interest. For example, the World University
Service of Canada is a volunteer organization dedicated to bringing
educational, health and other services to nations that need them the
Afro-Eurasia shown in red
most. The regional divisions most convenient to its operations include,
among others, the Middle East and Europe, and South and Southeast
Asia, termed just "Asia."[11] Its administrative Asia is substantially different from the overall geographic and the
same may be said of many hundreds more agencies across the globe that operate in Asia from headquarters
elsewhere. Some of the most innovative and perhaps the most transitory uses of "Asia" have been promulgated by
the news media reporting on current events. Their classifications must be the most suitable for the news and the
sources of it. For example, the BBC News has an Asia-Pacific section, which acquires news from anywhere in
Australasia, Oceania or the Pacific side of the Americas.[12]
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 or is no substantial physical separation between them.[6] For example, Sir Barry
Cunliffe, 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."[13] 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 make up a single continuous landmass (except for 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 Plate and with the easternmost part of Siberia (east of the Cherskiy
Range) on the North American Plate.
Asia
4
Etymology
Asia was originally a concept of Western
civilization.[14] The place name, "Asia", in
various forms in a large number of modern
languages is of unknown ultimate
provenience. Its etymology and language of
origin are uncertain. It appears to be one of
the most ancient of recorded names. A
number of theories have been published.
English Asia can be traced through the
formation of English literature to Latin
literature, where it has the same form, Asia.
Whether all uses and all forms of the name
derive also from the Latin of the Roman
Empire is much less certain.
Ptolemy's Asia
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, which was in the location of the then Asia. There was an Asia Minor and an Asia Major (Iraq), of
which the name of Minor survived. 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. Roman
civilization Hellenized extensively. Ancient Greek certainly evidences early and rich uses of the name.[15]
The first continental use of Asia is attributed to Herodotus (about 440 BC), not because he innovated it, but because
his Histories are the earliest surviving prose to describe it in any detail. He defines it carefully,[16] 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, Asia, 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.[17] In Greek mythology, "Asia" (Ἀσία) or "Asie"
(Ἀσίη) was the name of a "Nymph or Titan goddess of Lydia."[18]
Herodotus' geographical puzzlement was perhaps only a form of disagreement, as, having read the earlier Greek
poetry along with everyone else literate, he would have known perfectly well why places received female names.
Athens, Mycenae, Thebes and many other locations in fact had them. 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 and the Rivers have youths in their keeping."[19] Many of these are geographic: Doris, Rhodea,
Europa, Asia. Hesiod explains:[20]
"For there are three-thousand neat-ankled daughters of Ocean who are dispersed far and wide, and in
every place alike serve the earth and the deep waters."
The Iliad (attributed by the ancient Greeks to Homer) mentions two Phrygians (the tribe that replaced the Luvians in
Lydia) in the Trojan War named Asios (an adjective meaning "Asian");[21] and also a marsh or lowland containing a
marsh in Lydia as ασιος.[22]
Asia
5
Bronze Age
Before Greek poetry, the Aegean Sea 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 records of the Assyrian Empire, 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 BC by unknown agents although one school of thought assigns the
Dorian invasion to this time. The burning of the palaces baked clay diurnal administrative records written in a Greek
syllabic script called Linear B, 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. A major cache discovered by
Carl Blegen 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."[23] 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.[24] The name is also in the singular, Aswia, which refers both
to the name of a country and to a female of it. There is a masculine form, aswios. This Aswia appears to have been a
remnant of a region known to the Hittites as Assuwa, centered on Lydia, or "Roman Asia."
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).
T.R. Reid supports this alternative etymology, noting that the ancient Greek name must have derived from asu,
meaning 'east' in Assyrian (ereb for Europe meaning 'west').[14] The ideas of Occidental (form Latin Occidens
'setting') and Oriental (from Latin Oriens for 'rising') are also European invention, synonymous with Western and
Eastern.[14] Reid further emphasizes that it explains the Western point of view of placing all the peoples and cultures
of Asia into a single classification, almost as if there were a need for setting the distinction between Western and
Eastern civilizations on the Eurasian continent.[14] Ogura Kazuo and Tenshin Okakura are two outspoken Japanese
figures on the subject.[14]
Also, Assuwa has been suggested as the origin for the name of the continent "Asia".[25] The Assuwa league was a
confederation of states in western Anatolia, defeated by the Hittites under Tudhaliya I around 1400 BC.
Asia
6
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.
1890 map of Asia
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.
[26]
The Silk Road connected many civilizations across Asia
The Islamic Caliphate took over the Middle East and
Central Asia during the Muslim 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.
Asia
7
Geography
Geography in Asia is rather complicated, while Asia is the largest continent on Earth, and Asia is neighboring with
Europe, Africa and Oceania. While neighboring with Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean. It contains 48 countries[27] in
its region, with 2 of them (Russia and Turkey) having part of their land in Europe, and also see Geography of Asia
for further information.
Economy
Asia has the second largest nominal GDP of all
continents, after Europe, but the largest when measured
in purchasing power parity. As of 2010, the largest
economies in Asia are China, Japan, India, South Korea
and Indonesia. Based on Global Office Locations 2011,
Asia dominated the office locations with 4 of top 5
were in Asia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, London
and Shanghai. Around 68 percent of international firms
have office in Hong Kong.[28]
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the economies of the
PRC[29] and India have been growing rapidly, both
with an average annual growth rate of more than 8%.
Singapore has one of the busiest ports in the world and is the world's
Other recent very high growth nations in Asia include
fourth largest foreign exchange trading centre.
Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Thailand, Vietnam,
Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Cyprus and the Philippines, and mineral-rich nations such as Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran,
Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman.
According to economic historian Angus Maddison in his book The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective, India
had the world's largest economy from the first to the 18th century, with a 32.9% share of world GDP in the 1st
century to 28.9% in 1000 AD, and in 1700 AD with 24.4%.[30] [31] China was the largest and most advanced
economy on earth for much of recorded history,[32] [33] [34] [35] until the British Empire (excluding India) overtook it
in the mid 19th century. 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 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). 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 USA as the largest economy in the world for
a day, after the Japanese currency reached a record high of 79 yen/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.[36]
Asia
8
It is forecasted that India will overtake Japan
in terms of nominal GDP by 2020.[37] 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. According to IMF statistics for the
year 2010, Taiwan PPP-adjusted GDP per
capita, at USD 34,743, is already higher than
that of Finland, France, or Japan. By 2027,
Mumbai is one of the most populous cities on the continent, is a hub for
infrastructure & tourism and plays a crucial role in the Economy of India
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.
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 the People's Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, India,
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 9 of 11 Global Growth Generators countries came from Asia driven by population and
income growth. They are Bangladesh, the People's Republic of China, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Mongolia, Philippines,
Sri Lanka and Vietnam.[38] Asia has four main financial centres: Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai. Call
centres and business process outsourcing (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 centres. Due to its large and extremely competitive information
technology industry, India has become a major hub for outsourcing.
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.[39]
Demographics
Historical populations
Year
Pop.
±%
1500
243000000
—
1700
436000000
+79.4%
1900
947000000
+117.2%
1950
1402000000
+48.0%
1999
3634000000
+159.2%
Source: "UN report 2004 data" (PDF).
[40]
East Asia had by far the strongest overall Human Development Index (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. The People's Republic of China, the second highest achiever in the world in terms of
Asia
9
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
enrolment and life expectancy.[41]
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 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.[41]
Japan and South Korea ranked highest among the countries grouped on the HDI (number 11 and 12 in the world,
which are in the “very high human development” category), followed by Hong Kong (SAR)(21) and Singapore (27).
Afghanistan (155) ranked lowest amongst Asian countries out of the 169 countries assessed.[41]
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
Asian mythology is complex and diverse. The story of the Great Flood
for example, as presented to Christians in the Old Testament, is first
found in Mesopotamian mythology, in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Hindu
mythology tells about an Avatar of the 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 Nüwa who literally fixed the broken sky
through which huge rains were pouring.
Buddhist monks in Thailand.
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 and Buddhist philosophy. They include elements of nonmaterial pursuits, whereas another school
of thought from India, Cārvāka, preached the enjoyment of material world. Christianity is also present in most Asian
countries.
Abrahamic
The Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Baha'i
Faith originated in West Asia. Judaism, the oldest of the Abrahamic
faiths, is practiced primarily in Israel (which has the world's largest
Jewish population),[42] though small communities exist in other
countries, such as the Bene Israel in India. In the Philippines and East
Timor, Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion; it was
introduced by the Spaniards and the Portuguese, respectively. In
Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia and Russia, Eastern Orthodoxy is the
predominant religion. Various Christian denominations have adherents
in portions of the Middle East, as well as China and India. The world's
Pilgrims in the annual Hajj at the Kaabah in
Mecca.
Asia
10
largest Muslim community (within the bounds of one nation) is in Indonesia. South Asia (mainly Pakistan, India and
Bangladesh) holds 30% of Muslims. There are also significant Muslim populations in China, Iran, Malaysia,
southern Philippines (Mindanao), Russia and most of West Asia and Central Asia. The Bahá'í Faith 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 the Bahá'í Faith's activities in many Muslim countries has been severely suppressed by
authorities.
Dharmic and Taoist
The religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated
in India, South Asia. In East Asia, particularly in China and Japan,
Confucianism, Taoism and Zen Buddhism took shape.
Over 80% of the populations of both India and Nepal adhere to
Hinduism, alongside significant communities in Bangladesh, Pakistan,
Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Bali. 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
Hindus believe that taking a dip in the holy water
of the Ganges removes all past sins.
Cambodia (98%),[43] Thailand (95%),[44] Burma (89%),[45] Japan
(84–96%),[46] Bhutan (75%),[47] Sri Lanka (69%),[48] Laos
[49]
[50]
(67%–98%)
and Mongolia (50%).
Large Buddhist populations also exist in Singapore (42.5%),[51] Taiwan
(35.1%–93%),[52] [53] [54] [55] South Korea (23.2%),[56] Malaysia(19.2%),[57] Nepal (10.7%),[58] Vietnam
(9.3–80%),[59] People's Republic of China(8–80%),[60] North Korea (4.5%–60%),[61] [62] [63] Indonesia (<2%);[64]
and small communities in India and Bangladesh. In many Chinese communities, Mahayana Buddhism is easily
syncretized with Taoism, thus exact religious statistics is difficult to obtain and may be understated or overstated.
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 oversea Indian communities such as India 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. Taoism is easily
syncretized with Mahayana Buddhism for many Chinese, thus exact religious statistics is difficult to obtain and may
be understated or overstated.
Asia
11
Culture
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.
Other Asian writers who won Nobel Prizes include Yasunari Kawabata (Japan,
1966), Kenzaburō Ōe (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
Bengali polymath Rabindranath
rights, especially for the rights of women and children. Ebadi is the first Iranian
Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize
and the first Muslim woman to receive the prize. Another Nobel Peace Prize
for Literature in 1913, and became
winner is Aung San Suu Kyi from Burma for her peaceful and non-violent
Asia's first Nobel laureate
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. Most recently, Chinese dissident
Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights
in China." He is the first Chinese citizen to be awarded a Nobel Prize of any kind while residing in China.
Sir C. V. Raman is the first Asian to get a Nobel prize in Sciences. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his work
on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him".
Other Asian Nobel Prize winners include Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Abdus Salam, Shmuel Yosef Agnon,
Robert Aumann, Menachem Begin, Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko, Daniel Kahneman, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak
Rabin, Ada Yonath, Yaser Arafat, Jose Ramos Horta and Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo of Timor Leste, Kim
Dae-jung, and 13 Japanese scientists. Most of the said awardees are from Japan and Israel except for Chandrasekhar
and Raman (India), Salam (Pakistan), Arafat (Palestinian Territories) Kim (South Korea), Horta and Belo (Timor
Leste).
In 2006, Dr. Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the establishment of Grameen
Bank, 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.[65] 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.
Asia
12
References
[1] National Geographic Family Reference Atlas of the World. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society (U.S.). 2006. p. 264.
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Bibliography
• Lewis, Martin W.; Wigen, Kären (1997). The myth of continents: a critique of metageography. Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-20743-2.
• Ventris, Michael; Chadwick, John (1973). Documents in Mycenaean Greek (2nd ed.). Cambridge: University
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Further reading
• 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, ISBN 978-81-87412-08-3
• Kapadia, Feroz, and Mandira Mukherjee. Encyclopaedia of Asian Culture and Society. New Delhi: Anmol
Publications, 1999.
• Levinson, David, and Karen Christensen. Encyclopedia of Modern Asia. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,
2002.
External links
• "Display Maps" (http://eusoils.jrc.ec.europa.eu/esdb_archive/EuDASM/asia/indexes/idx_country.htm).
The Soil Maps of Asia. European Digital Archive of Soil Maps – EuDASM. Retrieved 26 July 2011.
• "Asia Maps" (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/asia.html). Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection.
University of Texas Libraries. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
• "Asia" (http://maps.bpl.org/search_advanced/?mtid=786). Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston
Public Library. Retrieved 26 July 2011.
• Bowring, Philp (12 February 1987). "What is Asia?" (http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/geography/geo_whatis.
html). Eastern Economic Review (Columbia University Asia For Educators) 135 (7).
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