Geography of Asia

The people of Asia belong to a large variety of ethnic groups. India itself Rosetta Stone is made up of several hundred groups. India's ethnic composition is so complex that the people generally identify themselves by their religion rather than their ethnic group. A few countries, notably North Korea, South Korea, and Japan, are among the world's most ethnically homogeneous (made up of people belonging to the same ethnic group).The Chinese are a numerous and important ethnic group in Asia. Outside of China, ethnic Chinese form significant minorities in several Asian countries, including Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Singapore. Some ethnic groups in Asia are in danger of disappearing due to the loss of their homelands to industrialization and urban expansion. Threatened groups include some of the hill tribes of Thailand, Burma, and Laos.PopulationIn 1995 Asia had a population of about 3,484,000,000, approximately three-fifths of the world's total population. These millions are distributed unevenly over the surface of the continent, concentrating in two types of areas—the fertile river valleys and coastal lowlands of the eastern and southern regions, and the crowded cities. In river valleys, such as the Yangtze River Delta and Ganges River Delta, farm families live on tiny plots and there are population concentrations of more than 1,000 persons per square mile (386 persons per km2) over large areas.LanguageThe many hundreds of languages and dialects spoken in Asia represent six of the world's seven major language families. Spoken in eastern Asia are Sino-Tibetan languages and three major languages that do not belong to any language family—Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. The people of Manchuria, Mongolia, Turkestan, and Turkey, and those who are indigenous to Asian Russia speak languages of the Altaic branch of the Ural-Altaic family.Indo-Iranian, a subfamily of the Indo-European family, includes languages of Bangladesh, northern India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Iran. Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken in the southeast, Dravidian languages in India and parts of Sri Lanka, and Semitic languages, of the Afro-Asiatic family, in the southwest.ReligionAll of the great faiths originated in Language Learning Software Asia and have adherents in Asian countries. There are also many regional religions and many groups that are animists or engage in nature worship.Hindus form the largest single religious group, about one-fifth of the total population. They are concentrated in the Indian subcontinent, where their religion originated. Muslims, a vast majority in southwestern and central Asia, and Confucians, centered in China, are the next most numerous. Buddhism, which has largely disappeared from India, where it began, is prevalent in the Far East and southeastern Asia.The Philippines is a Christian country. Christians form more than half the population of Cyprus and Lebanon and probably almost half that of Asiatic Russia. They are found in smaller numbers in other countries, especially in the Middle East and in former colonial areas. In the early Christian Era the faith spread to the borders of China. In time, however, the Christian Turks and other Central Asian Christians were converted to Islam. Jews, formerly widespread throughout the Middle East, have largely disappeared from Muslim countries since the founding of the state of Israel. There are still some in Asiatic Russia.Other major Asian religions include Shintoism, in Japan; Taoism, in China; Sikhism, in India and Pakistan; and Zoroastrianism, originally Persian but now represented mainly by the Parsis in India. Manichaeism, also Persian in origin, rivaled Christianity in strength during the early Middle Ages, but eventually died out.Arts and SciencesAsia's major contribution to the arts is probably the alphabet, invented by the Semitic peoples of the Middle East. All of the world's great written literature, with the notable exception of Far Eastern works, has been produced in alphabetic writing.China, India, and Persia were the centers of cultural development in ancient Asia. Each had its own art style. In the fourth century B.C. Persia fell under the influence of Greece, and later under that of Rome. Greek influence prevailed again in the Middle East under the Byzantine Empire. Persia, however, regained its independence and its cultural leadership. Persian art and science were passed on to the Muslim Arab conquerors in the seventh century and became a major influence in Islamic culture.Meanwhile, Chinese culture was spreading to Japan and southeastern Asia, and Indian art forms were being carried with Buddhism into central Asia and China. Later the Turks and the Mongols, who came from a region adjacent to China, brought elements of Chinese art into the Muslim Empire and into India. As a result of this diffusion, similarities appear frequently in the art of widely separated regions of Asia.Many useful processes and devices were invented or developed in Asia. The first official coinage—the first monetary system established by a government—was in Lydia, in Asia Minor. Parchment, a writing material, took its name from the city of Pergamum, which had a famous library. Paper, which eventually supplanted parchment, was invented in China, as was the process of printing. The wheelbarrow, crossbow, canal lock-gate, gunpowder, and porcelain also originated in China.EducationIn spite of a tradition of scholarship in some cities and areas of Asia, the continent as a whole has only a scattering of educated people and extremely meager school facilities. In Bangladesh, Nepal, and Hindi Learning Software Pakistan, for example, not more than 30 per cent of the population can read and write. Exceptions to the generally high rate of illiteracy in Asia include Japan, Taiwan, and North Korea, which have very little illiteracy. Adult literacy is a special government goal in India and China.A great effort is being made in most Asian countries to give children a basic education. According to United Nations estimates, more than 80 per cent of all Asian children of primary-school age are enrolled in school and about 40 per cent of secondary-school-age children are enrolled. Educational progress in Asia is hampered by high dropout rates, because children from impoverished families often must leave school to help with the farmwork or to earn income.Most of the nations of Asia have universities. Turkey's University of Istanbul dates back to the 15th century. The Philippines' University of Santo Tomás was founded in 1611. Lebanon, India, Pakistan, Japan, and China have universities founded in the 19th century. Most of the other universities in Asia have been established since World War II.