The largest and most populous contienent or region is asia, depending on
the definition. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area, or 29.4% of its
land area, and it contains more than 60% of the world's human
population.(india, china are most populus country of worls which are also on
asia)
Asia 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 .
Asia is land of himalayas Mount evrest (tallest 3 himalaya are
also loacated here) , Buddhisam, longest bridge
Akasi kaiyo bridge.
Economy
In terms of gross domestic product (PPP), the largest national economy
within Asia is that of the People's Republic of China. In the late 1990s and
early 2000s, the economies of China and India have been growing rapidly,
both with an average annual growth rate of more than 7%. China has the
world's second-largest economy after the United States, followed by Japan
and India.
However, in terms of exchange rates (nominal GDP), 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 1990s had been concentrated in few countries of the Pacific
Rim, and has spread more recently to other regions.
Natural recources
Asia is the largest continent in the world by a considerable margin, and it 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 in Southwest and Central Asia.
Fishing is a major source of food in Asia, particularly in Japan.
Financial and other services
Asia has three main financial centres: in Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo.
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 workforce. The rise of the business
process outsourcing industry has seen the rise of India and China as other
financial centres.
Early history
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. 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, India, 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 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
Language and litreature
Asia is home to several language families and thousands 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 Philippinesand Nepal. Korea, however, is home to only
one language.
Nobel prize
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.
Other Asian writers who won Nobel Prizes include Yasunari Kawabata
(Japan, 1966), and Kenzaburo Oe (Japan, 1994).
Philoshophy
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.
Taoism was founded by Chinese philosopher Lao Zi, who lived 605-520
B.C. Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama, who lived 563-483
B.C.
During the 20th century, in the two most populous countries of Asia, two
dramatically different political philosophies took shape. Gandhi and B.P
Koirala 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.
1. Mahatmah gandhi
2. Jawarlal Nehru
3. B.P Koirala
4. The Dalai Lama
5. Mohamed Ali Jinah
6. Lika Shing
7. Dind Xioping
8. Shalman Rushdie
9. Mother Teresa
10.
Jerry Yang
This great freedom fighters fought for democracy,
humanity, freedom of expression and civil liberties
among 60 years. (From time Magazine of 13-11-006)
Religion
The Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Bahá'í Faith
originated in weat asia. The Dharmic religions of Hinduism,
Buddhism(religion on nepal by gautam buddha, kapilvastu lumbini), Jainism
and Sikhism originated in South Asia. In East Asia, particularly in China and
Japan, Confucianism, Taoism, Zen Buddhism and Shinto took shape. Other
religions of Asia include the Zoroastrianism, Shamanism practiced in
Siberia, and Animism practiced in the eastern parts of the Indian
subcontinent and in Southeast Asia.
Today 30% of Muslims live in the South Asian regions 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 China, Iran, Malaysia, the Philippines, Russia, and most of
West Asia and Central 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, Eastern Orthodoxy is the predominant religion.
Various Christian sects have adherents in portions of the Middle East, as
well as China and India.
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:
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Animism: Eastern India, Japan, Philippines,
Bahá'í Faith: slightly more than half of all
adherents are in Asia
Bön: Tibet
Buddhism: Bhutan, Cambodia, China,
Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia,
Myanmar,Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka,
Thailand, Vietnam, parts of northern,
eastern, and western India, and parts of
central and eastern Russia (Siberia).
o Mahayana Buddhism: Bhutan, China,
Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore,
Vietnam, parts of the Philippines.
o Theravada Buddhism: Cambodia,
parts of China, Chittagong Hill
Tracts, West Bengal, Laos, mainly
northern parts of Malaysia, Myanmar,
Sri Lanka, Thailand, as well as parts
of Vietnam.
o Vajrayana Buddhism: Parts of China,
Mongolia, Tibet, parts of northern
and eastern India, parts of central,
eastern Russia and Siberia.
Daoism: China, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan,
Vietnam.
Hinduism: Bangladesh, Bali, India,
Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka,
Singapore.
Islam: Central Asia, South Asia, and
Southwest Asia, Maritime Southeast Asia
o Shia Islam: largely to specific Iran,
Azerbaijan, parts of Iraq, Bahrain,
parts of Afghanistan, parts of India,
parts of Pakistan.
o Sunni Islam: dominant in the rest of
the regions mentioned above.
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Jainism: India
Kejawen: Indonesia
Qadiani: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan.
Shamanism: Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar,
Thailand, Siberia.
Shinto: Japan
Sikhism: India, Malaysia, Hong Kong.
Yezidi : Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey.
Zikri: Pakistan, Iran.
Zoroastrianism: Iran, India, Pakistan.
Religions founded in Asia that have the majority of their contemporary
adherents in other regions include:


Christianity: Armenia, East Timor, Georgia,
India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Malaysia,
Pakistan, Palestinian territories, Philippines,
Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Syria.
Judaism: slightly fewer than half of its
adherents reside in Asia; Israel, India, Iran,
Russia, Syria.
Population
(1 July 2002
est.)
Name of region6] and Area
territory, with flag (km²)
Population
density
(per km²)
Capital
Central Asia:
Kazakhstan[7]
2,346,927
13,472,593
5.7 Astana
Kyrgyzstan
198,500
4,822,166
24.3 Bishkek
Tajikistan
143,100
6,719,567
47.0 Dushanbe
Turkmenistan
488,100
4,688,963
9.6 Ashgabat
Uzbekistan
447,400
25,563,441
57.1 Tashkent
People's Republic of
China[8]
9,584,492
1,384,303,705
Hong Kong (PRC)[9]
1,092
7,303,334
377,835
126,974,628
25
461,833
1,565,000
2,694,432
North Korea
120,540
22,224,195
184.4 Pyongyang
South Korea
98,480
48,324,000
490.7 Seoul
35,980
22,548,009
626.7 Taipei
63,556
1,378,159
21.7 Cairo
13,115,200
39,129,729
5,770
350,898
181,040
12,775,324
1,419,588
227,026,560
Laos
236,800
5,777,180
Malaysia
329,750
22,662,365
Eastern Asia:
Japan
Macau (PRC)[10]
Mongolia
Republic of China
(Taiwan) [11]
134.0 Beijing
6,688.0 —
336.1 Tokyo
18,473.3 —
1.7 Ulaanbaatar
Northern Africa:
Egypt[12]
Northern Asia:
Russia[13]
3.0 Moscow
Southeastern Asia:
Brunei
Cambodia
Indonesia[14]
60.8
Bandar Seri
Begawan
70.6 Phnom Penh
159.9 Jakarta
24.4 Vientiane
68.7 Kuala Lumpur
62.3 Naypyidaw[15]
Myanmar (Burma)
678,500
42,238,224
Philippines
300,000
84,525,639
281.8 Manila
693
4,452,732
6,425.3 Singapore
514,000
62,354,402
121.3 Bangkok
15,007
952,618
329,560
81,098,416
246.1 Hanoi
Afghanistan
647,500
27,755,775
42.9 Kabul
Bangladesh
144,000
133,376,684
926.2 Dhaka
Bhutan
47,000
2,094,176
India[17]
3,287,590
1,045,845,226
Iran
1,648,000
66,622,704
300
320,165
146,800
25,873,917
183.8 Kathmandu
Pakistan
803,940
147,663,429
183.7 Islamabad
Sri Lanka
65,610
19,576,783
298.4 Colombo
29,800
3,330,099
111.7 Yerevan
41,370
3,479,127
665
656,397
987.1 Manama
9,250
775,927
83.9 Nicosia
363
1,203,591
20,460
2,032,004
437,072
24,001,816
54.9 Baghdad
Israel
20,770
6,029,529
290.3 Jerusalem
Jordan
92,300
5,307,470
57.5 Amman
Kuwait
17,820
2,111,561
118.5 Kuwait City
Lebanon
10,400
3,677,780
353.6 Beirut
Naxçivan
(Azerbaijan)[23]
5,500
365,000
Oman
212,460
2,713,462
Qatar
11,437
793,341
1,960,582
23,513,330
12.0 Riyadh
185,180
17,155,814
92.6 Damascus
756,768
57,855,068
76.5 Ankara
82,880
2,445,989
Singapore
Thailand
Timor-Leste (East
Timor)[16]
Vietnam
63.5 Dili
Southern Asia:
Maldives
Nepal
44.6 Thimphu
318.2 New Delhi
40.4 Tehran
1,067.2 Malé
Western Asia:
Armenia[18]
Azerbaijan
[19]
Bahrain
Cyprus[20]
Gaza[21]
Georgia[22]
Iraq
Saudi Arabia
Syria
[24]
Turkey
United Arab
84.1 Baku
3,315.7 Gaza
99.3 Tbilisi
66.4 Naxçivan
12.8 Muscat
69.4 Doha
29.5 Abu Dhabi
Emirates
West Bank[25]
Yemen
Total
5,860
2,303,660
527,970
18,701,257
43,810,582
3,902,404,193
393.1 —
35.4 Sanaá
86.8
Project work submited to
Thapa sir.