Asian Studies Module 1: Geography of Asia

Module Title: Module I – Geography of Asia

Course Title: Asian Studies
Course Number: Social Studies 105

Course Description:
The course examines the development perspective in Asian countries, cultures
and values as well as issues and challenges, historical roots, and Asian responses. The
course is designed to enable students to make comparative study of Asian societies.

Total Learning Time: 6 hrs.

Pre-requisites: None

Overview:
In this module, the student will learn the physical characteristics of the regions
in Asia like the location, shape, size, climate and vegetation. Assess the conditions of
the different natural resources of South Asia, East Asia, West Asia, Southeast Asia and
North Asia. Discuss the multifaceted problems brought about by the misuse of the
physical environment. Explain and discuss the differences and commonalities of culture
of ethno-linguistic groups in the different regions of Asia.

Most Essential Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the lesson, the students must have:

1. Described the physical characteristics of the regions in Asia like the
location, shape, size, climate and vegetation cover.
2. Assessed the conditions of the different natural resources of South Asia,
East Asia, West Asia, Southeast Asia and North Asia.
3. Discussed the multifaceted problems brought about by the misuse of the
physical environment.
4. Explained and discussed the differences and commonalities of culture of
ethno-linguistic groups in the different regions of Asia.

Indicative Content:
Physical Geography of Asia
Natural Resources of Asia
Environmental Problems and Ecological Balance in Asia
Ethno-linguistic Groups in Asia

Discussion

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Geography of Asia
Physical Geography of Asia
Asia is the largest of the world’s continents, covering approximately 30 percent
of the Earth’s land area. It is also the world’s most populous continent, with roughly 60
percent of the total population.

Asia makes up the eastern portion of the Eurasian supercontinent; Europe

occupies the western portion. The border between the two continents is debated.
However, most geographers define Asia’s western border as an indirect line that follows
the Ural Mountains, the Caucasus Mountains, and the Caspian and Black Seas. Asia is
bordered by the Arctic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.

The geographic term “Asia” was originally used by ancient Greeks to describe
the civilizations east of their empire. Ancient Asian peoples, however, saw themselves
as a varied and diverse mix of cultures—not a collective group. Today, the term “Asia”
is used as a cultural concept, while subregion classifications describe the distinct
geopolitical identities of the continent. These classifications are Western Asia, Central
Asia, Southern Asia, Eastern Asia, Southeastern Asia, and Northern Asia.

Today, Asia is home to the citizens of Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan,

Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Georgia, India, Indonesia,
Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon,
Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, North Korea, Oman,
Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka,
Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste (East Timor), Turkey, Turkmenistan, United
Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Yemen.

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Asia can be divided into five major physical regions: mountain systems;
plateaus; plains, steppes, and deserts; freshwater environments; and saltwater
environments.

Mountain Systems
The Himalaya Mountains extend
for about 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles),
separating the Indian subcontinent from
the rest of Asia. The Indian subcontinent,
once connected to Africa, collided with
the Eurasian continent about 50 million to
55 million years ago, forming the
Himalayas. The Indian subcontinent is
still crashing northward into Asia, and the Himalayas are growing about 5 centimeters
(2 inches) every year.

The Himalayas cover more than 612,000 square kilometers (236,000 square
miles), passing through the northern states of India and making up most of the terrain
of Nepal and Bhutan. The Himalayas are so vast that they are composed of three
different mountain belts. The northernmost belt, known as the Great Himalayas, has the
highest average elevation at 6,096 meters (20,000 feet). The belt contains nine of the
highest peaks in the world, which all reach more than 7,925 meters (26,000 feet) tall.
This belt includes the highest mountain summit in the world, Mount Everest, which
stands at 8,850 meters (29,035 feet)

The Tien Shan mountain system stretches for about 2,400 kilometers (1,500
miles), straddling the border between Kyrgyzstan and China. The name Tien Shan
means “Celestial Mountains” in Chinese. The two highest peaks in the Tien Shan are
Victory Peak, which stands at 7,439 meters (24,406 feet), and Khan Tängiri Peak,
which stands at 6,995 meters (22,949 feet). Tien Shan also has more than 10,100 square
kilometers (3,900 square miles) of glaciers. The largest glacier is Engil'chek Glacier,
which is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) long.

The Ural Mountains run for approximately 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) in an
indirect north-south line from Russia to Kazakhstan. The Ural Mountains are some of
the world’s oldest, at 250 million to 300 million years old. Millions of years
of erosion have lowered the mountains significantly, and today their average elevation
is between 914 and 1,220 meters (3,000 to 4,000 feet). The highest peak is Mount
Narodnaya at, 1895 meters (6,217 feet).

Asia is home to many plateaus, areas of relatively level high ground. The Iranian
plateau covers more than 3.6 million square kilometers (1.4 million square miles),
encompassing most of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The plateau is not uniformly
flat, but contains some high mountains and low river basins. The highest mountain peak
is Damavand, at 5,610 meters (18,410 feet). The plateau also has two large deserts, the
Dasht-e Kavir and Dasht-e Lut.

The Deccan Plateau makes up most of the southern part of India. The plateau’s
average elevation is about 600 meters (2,000 feet). It is bordered by three mountain
ranges: the Satpura Range in the north, and the Eastern and Western Ghats on either

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side. The plateau and its main waterways—the Godavari and Krishna rivers—gently
slope toward the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal.

The Tibetan Plateau is usually considered the largest and highest area ever to
exist in the history of Earth. Known as the “Rooftop of the World,” the plateau covers
an area about half the size of the contiguous United States and averages more than 5,000
meters (16,400 feet) above sea level. The Tibetan Plateau is extremely important to the
world’s water cycle because of its tremendous number of glaciers. These glaciers
contain the largest volume of ice outside the poles. The ice and snow from these glaciers
feed Asia’s largest rivers. Approximately 2 billion people depend on the rivers fed by
the plateau’s glaciers.

Plains, Steppes, and Deserts

The West Siberian Plain, located in
central Russia, is considered one of the
world’s largest areas of continuous flatland.
It extends from north to south about 2,400
kilometers (1,500 miles) and from west to
east about 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles).
With more than 50 percent of its area at less
than 100 meters (330 feet) above sea level,
the plain contains some of the world’s largest swamps and flood plains.

Central Asia is dominated by a steppe landscape, a large area of flat, unforested

grassland. Mongolia can be divided into different steppe zones: the mountain forest
steppe, the arid steppe, and the desert steppe. These zones transition from the country’s
mountainous region in the north to the Gobi Desert on the southern border with China.

The Rub’ al Khali desert, considered the world’s largest sand sea, covers an area
larger than France across Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
It holds roughly half as much sand as Africa’s Sahara desert, even though it is 15 times
smaller in size. The desert is known as the Empty Quarter because it is virtually
inhospitable to humans except for Bedouin tribes that live on its edges.

Freshwater
Lake Baikal, located in southern
Russia, is the deepest lake in the world,
reaching a depth of 1,620 meters (5,315 feet).
The lake contains 20 percent of the world’s
unfrozen freshwater, making it the
largest reservoir on Earth. It is also the
world’s oldest lake, at 25 million years old.

The Yangtze is the longest river in Asia and the third longest in the world
(behind the Amazon of South America and the Nile of Africa). Reaching 6,300
kilometers (3,915 miles) in length, the Yangtze moves east from the glaciers of the
Tibetan Plateau to the river’s mouth on the East China Sea. The Yangtze is considered
the lifeblood of China. It drains one-fifth of the country’s land area, is home to one-
third of its population, and contributes greatly to China’s economy.

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The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers begin in the highlands of eastern Turkey and
flow through Syria and Iraq, joining in the city of Qurna, Iraq, before emptying into the
Persian Gulf. The land between the two rivers, known as Mesopotamia, was the center
of the earliest civilizations, including Sumer and the Akkadian Empire. Today, the
Tigris-Euphrates river system is under threat from increased agricultural
and industrial use. These pressures have caused desertification and increased salts in
the soil, severely damaging local watershed habitats.

Saltwater
The Persian Gulf has an area of
more than 234,000 square kilometers
(90,000 square miles). It borders Iran,
Oman, United Arab Emirates, Saudi
Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Iraq.
The gulf is subject to high rates
of evaporation, making it shallow and
extremely salty. The seabed beneath the
Persian Gulf contains an estimated 50 percent of the world’s oil reserves. The countries
that border the gulf have engaged in a number of disputes over this rich resource.

The Sea of Okhotsk covers 1.5 million square kilometers (611,000 square miles)
between the Russian mainland and the Kamchatka Peninsula. The sea is largely frozen
between October and March. Large ice floes make winter navigation almost
impossible.

The Bay of Bengal is the largest bay in the world, covering almost 2.2 million
square kilometers (839,000 square miles) and bordering Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka,
and Burma. Many large rivers, including the Ganges and Brahmaputra, empty into the
bay. The briny wetlands formed by the Ganges-Brahmaputra on the Bay of Bengal is
the largest delta in the world.

Terrestrial Flora and Fauna

Botanists nickname China the
“Mother of Gardens.” It has more
flowering plant species than North and
South America combined. Because China
has such diverse landscapes, from
the arid Gobi Desert to the tropical rain
forests of Yunnan Province, many flowers
can adapt to climates all over the world.
From roses to peonies, many familiar
flowers most likely originated in northern
China. China is the likely origin of such fruit trees as peaches and oranges. China is
also home to the dawn redwood, the only redwood tree found outside North America.

Asia’s diverse physical and cultural landscape has dictated the way animals
have been domesticated. In the Himalayas, communities use yaks as beasts of burden.
Yaks are large animals related to cattle, but with a thick fiber coat and the ability to
survive in the oxygen-poor high altitude of the mountains. Yaks are not only used for

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transportation and for pulling plows, but their coats are sources of warm, hardy fiber.
Yak milk is used for butter and cheese.

In the Mongolian steppe, the two-humped Bactrian camel is the traditional beast
of burden. Bactrian camels are critically endangered in the wild. The camel’s humps
store nutrient-rich fat, which the animal can use in times of drought, heat, or frost. Its
size and ability to adapt to hardship make it an ideal pack animal. Bactrians can actually
outrun horses over long distances. These camels were the traditional animals used
in caravans on the Silk Road, the legendary trade route linking eastern Asia with India
and the Middle East.

Aquatic Flora and Fauna

The freshwater and marine habitats
of Asia offer incredible biodiversity.

Lake Baikal’s age and isolation

make it a unique biological site. Aquatic life
has been able to evolve for millions of years
relatively undisturbed, producing a rich
variety of flora and fauna. The lake is
known as the “Galápagos of Russia” because of its importance to the study of
evolutionary science. It has 1,340 species of animals and 570 species of plants.

Hundreds of Lake Baikal’s species are endemic, meaning they are found
nowhere else on Earth. The Baikal seal, for instance, is one of the few freshwater seal
species in the world. The Baikal seal feeds primarily on the Baikal oil fish and the omul.
Both fishes are similar to salmon, and provide fisheries for the communities on the lake.

The Bay of Bengal, on the Indian Ocean, is one of the world’s largest tropical
marine ecosystems. The bay is home to dozens of marine mammals, including the
bottlenose dolphin, spinner dolphin, spotted dolphin, and Bryde’s whale. The bay also
supports healthy tuna, jack, and marlin fisheries.

Some of the bay’s most diverse array of organisms exist along its coasts and
wetlands. Many wildlife reserves in and around the bay aim to protect its biological
diversity.

The Sundarbans is a wetland area that forms at the delta of the Ganges and
Brahamaputra rivers. The Sundarbans is a huge mangrove forest. Mangroves are hardy
trees that are able to withstand the powerful, salty tides of the Bay of Bengal as well as
the freshwater flows from the Ganges and Brahamaputra. In addition to mangroves, the
Sundarbans is forested by palm trees and swamp grasses.

The swampy jungle of the Sundarbans supports a rich animal community.

Hundreds of species of fish, shrimp, crabs, and snails live in the exposed root system of
the mangrove trees. The Sundarbans supports more than 200 species of aquatic and
wading birds. These small animals are part of a food web that includes wild boar,
macaque monkeys, monitor lizards, and a healthy population of Bengal tigers .

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Natural Resources of Asia

Important reserves of minerals and
natural resources are found in Asia – 60% of
world oil and gas reserves and 50% of the world
coal deposits. The Middle East and Southeast
Asia virtually float on a sea of oil and gas. Vast
minerals and resources yet untapped also
abound in the Asian continental shelf and in the
polar region.

China produces 50% of the world supply of antimony (mineral used in steel)
and 30% of tungsten (mineral used for light bulbs). China and Siberia are rich in coal
and natural gas deposits, as well as soil. Malaysia is the world’s greatest producer of
rubber and tin. Indonesia is the greater exporter of kapok, pepper, and quinine. The
Philippines ranks first in coconut and hemp production, second in sugarcane, and fifth
in tobacco.

About 90% of world rice comes from Asia. Most of the world supply of teak
comes from the jungles of Borneo, Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand. Bangladesh is the
leading producer of jute, the tough sack fiber. The world supply of tea comes from Sri
Lanka, India and China.

Asia houses one-fourth of the world’s forests. The vast taiga forests of Siberia
and tropical forests in Southeast Asia total 2.7 billion acres. Most of the total world log
exports come from Asia.

Unfortunately, most Asians remain poor despite the continent’s rich natural
resources. There are several reasons, as follows:
Resources are not fully developed;
Developed resources are controlled by foreign multinational companies and rich
elite that do not share the wealth;
The environment is not protected, and resources are depleted; and
False religions and beliefs keep the people closed to progressive ways.

Asia’s stake in world markets has grown dramatically in the last half-century.
Today, Asian countries rank as some of the top producers of many agricultural, forest,
fishing, mining, and industrial products. This increased production has brought both
extreme wealth and negative environmental impacts to the continent.

Environmental Problems and Ecological Balance in Asia

The major environmental problems which confront Asia are grouped under four
themes: water management, deforestation and land degradation, air pollution, and
climate change. Marine ecosystems and resources, biodiversity, waste management,
and other issues are also important, but in our judgment the four areas above present
the most pressing challenges to Asia’s development over the next two decades.

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Water management
Fresh water is essential to agricultural and industrial production. It is a basic
requirement for human life, as well as for other organisms and biological processes.

Water resources generally have multiple uses

and users, and inadequate management of competitive
use has frequently facilitated their over-exploitation and
degradation. The depletion and contamination of these
resources generates large economic costs, not just by
increasing the cost of obtaining a direct input to
production, but also through damaging impacts to
environmental systems and human health.
Consequently, water management is viewed not only as an environmental issue, but a
major challenge to economic development, particularly in Asia’s larger economies

Deforestation and land degradation

Widespread deforestation and land degradation are highly visible examples of
the unsustainable use of natural resources in Asia. These issues are intrinsically linked.
Unsustainable tree removal practices, such as clear-felling, prompt erosion and soil
salinity, as well as disturbance of the groundwater table. In dry-lands, deforestation
facilitates the transformation of fertile areas into barren land, a process known as
desertification.

Deforestation and land degradation

throughout Asia are caused by various factors,
including: demand for timber products and palm
oil, intensive farming, and urban sprawl. Poor
regulation and, in some cases, corruption have
commonly allowed unsustainable practices.
However, it has become increasingly apparent
throughout the region that the enduring economic
costs from unsustainable land-use ultimately overwhelm the more immediate gains.
Once sufficiently degraded, woodland ecosystems require time and large expense to
recover, effectively eliminating future sources of wood and causing other problems that
curb the productivity of the natural resource base. Over-cultivation of agricultural land
is increasingly leading to declining soil productivity and, consequently, lower output
and, in some areas, food insecurity. Once land is sufficiently degraded, it may be unable
to support forests again, or even the agricultural use that often drives deforestation in
the first place.

Air pollution

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Access to clean air is a principal

determinant of human health, as well as the
overall condition of other organisms and
environmental processes. Outdoor air pollution
is a common by-product of industrial
production, motorized transport, and, in fact, the
central processes underpinning global economic
growth over the last century or so. On the other
hand, indoor air pollution is often associated
with a lack of development. Absence of affordable alternatives encourages the burning
of solid fuels such as dung and timber for energy, despite their harmful effects.
Consequently, air pollution is a primary cause of illness and death in both the growing
cities and the poorer rural areas of Asia. The widespread nature of this problem
undermines the productivity and income of the labor force, exacting a heavy economic
toll.

Climate Change
Asia is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. With a large
population in low-lying and coastal areas, widespread water insecurity, and around two
thirds of the world’s poorest people, the region is likely to suffer extensive damages in
the future. Whilst the full force of development impacts will not be realized for many
decades, climate change adaptation is already a contemporary issue.

Climate change will worsen the ill

effects of Asia’s current environmental
problems, such as water insecurity, but these
problems also contribute to climate change.
Deforestation and black carbon emissions in
Asia are important drivers of global warming,
both in terms of contribution and also because
their mitigation could be a low-cost option
with short-term benefits.

Ethno-linguistic Groups in Asia

Central Asia
Central Asia, in its most common definition, is deemed to consist of five former
Soviet Socialist Republics. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikstan, Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan and Xinjiang of western China. In a wider view, Mongolia, Afghanistan,
and northern Pakistan are included. Turkic, Indo-Iranian, and Mongolic peoples
comprise its general ethnicities. The main religions of Central Asia are Islam
(Turkic/Indo-Iranian peoples) and Buddhism (Mongolia).

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Central Asia has a long, rich

history mainly based on its historic
position on the famous Silk Road. It
has been conquered by Mongols,
Persians, Tatars, Russians, Afghans
and Sarmatians and thus has a very
distinct, vibrant culture. The culture
is influenced by Chinese, Indian,
Persian, Afghan, Arabian, Turkish,
Russian, Sarmatian and Mongolian
cultures. The music of Central Asia
is rich and varied and is appreciated
worldwide. Meanwhile, Central
Asian cuisine is one of the most
prominent cuisines of Asia, with
cuisines from Pakistan, India, China
and Azerbaijan showing significant influence from the foods of Central Asia. One of
the most famous Central Asian foods is the kebab. The literature of Central Asia is
linked with Persian literature as historically it has been part of the Persian Empire for a
lot of its history. Furthermore, being at the junction of the Silk Road it has numerous
Chinese, Indian and Arabian literary works.

East Asia
East Asia, in general terms, consists of China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan,
Japan, South Korea and North Korea, sometimes, Mongolia and Vietnam are included
in the definition. The major ethnicities of East Asia are: Han, Yamato, and Korean.
Other ethnic groups of East Asia include. Tibetan, Uyghur, Kazakh, Manchu and
Mongol. Geographically East Asians farther north would also include groups such as
the Buryats, Evenks, Yakuts, but due to the national and political dividing lines, the
inclusion of East Asians north of China and Mongolia is not considered. Mainly, the
language families or isolates of East Asia are. Sinitic, Tibeto-Burman, Japonic, Ainu
languages, the Korean language, Mongolic, Tungusic, Turkic, Miaoyao, Taikadai and
Mon–Khmer. The dominant influence historically has been China, whose area of
cultural influence is generally known as the Sinosphere. Evidence of this can be seen
in the cuisine, architecture and lexicons, for example, throughout the region, in modern
times, however, cultural exchange has flowed more bidirectionally. Major
characteristics of this region include shared Chinese derived language characteristics,
as well as similar social and moral philosophies derived from Confucianism. The script
of the Han Chinese has long been a unifying feature in East Asia as the vehicle for
Chinese culture.

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It was passed on first to

Korea, Vietnam in the 1st century,
then to Japan, where it forms a
major component of the Japanese
writing system. In Korea, however,
Sejong the Great invented the
hangul alphabet as a simpler
alternative to Chinese characters
(hanja), which it has largely
supplanted as the main
orthographic system for the
Korean language. A similar
phenomenon occurred in Vietnam,
where the Chinese based Chữ nôm
script once used to write the Vietnamese language has been gradually superseded by
the Latin based Vietnamese alphabet since the area's absorption into the French colonial
empire. In Japan, much of the Japanese language is written in hiragana, katakana in
addition to Chinese characters. East Asian countries, in particular China and Japan, an
individual's educational level is traditionally measured by their quality of calligraphy
and the number of characters within their vocabulary rather than diction, as is
sometimes the case in the West. Japan, Korea and Vietnam, though not Chinese
speaking regions, have had their languages influenced by Chinese to some extent. Even
though their writing systems have changed over time, Chinese is still found in the
historical roots of many borrowed words, especially technical terms. Apart from the
unifying influence of Confucianism, Buddhism, Chinese characters, and other Chinese
cultural influences, there is nevertheless much diversity between the countries of the
region.

Ethnic groups in Northern Asia

For the most part, North Asia is considered to be made up of the Asian part of
Russia solely. North Asia is geographically the northern extremity of East Asia and the
physical characteristics of its native inhabitants generally resemble that of East Asians,
however this is principally divided along political lines under separate national
identities, particularly that of China, Mongolia and Russia. The main ethnic groups of
the region speak languages of the Uralic, Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic language
families, along with East Slavs and various Paleo Siberian peoples, with most of these
ethnic groups being composed of nomads or people with a nomadic history. The
geographic region of Siberia was the historical land of the Turkic people, the Tatars, in
the Siberia Khanate (dubious– discuss). Russia, under expansion of its territory
however, took control of the region now known as Siberia, and thus today it is under
Russian rule. There are roughly 40 million people in North Asia.

Ethnic groups of South Asia

South Asia, in general definition, consists of the countries of Bangladesh,
Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The five Southern Indian states
share a Dravidian culture, due to the prominence of Dravidian languages there. Sri
Lanka has two main languages, Sinhalese which has Indo-Aryan roots and Tamil which
has Dravidian roots. Bangladesh and the Indian province West Bengal share common
Bengali heritage and culture, with Bangladesh having a prevalent Tibeto-Burman

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influence on its south eastern states. Pakistan is split with its two western regions of
Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa sharing a greater Iranian heritage and its two
eastern provinces of Sindh and Punjab sharing a more Indo-Aryan culture. Nepal, the
states of Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and
parts of the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand have a great cultural
similarity to Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism being the dominant religion there. Finally the
border states of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura have
cultural affinities with South East Asia. Bhutanese are often referred to in literature as
Bhote (people of Bhutia Bhotia or Tibet). They follow Tibetan Buddhism to and it is
dominant political and cultural element in modern Bhutan. Their language, Dzongkha,
is the national language and is descended from Old Tibetan.

Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, religions founded in the region that
is today's India, are spread throughout the subcontinent. Islam and Christianity also
have significant region-specific histories. While India and Nepal have a majority of
people following Hinduism, Sri Lanka and Bhutan have a majority of Buddhists. Islam
is the second largest religion after Hinduism with Muslim countries like Pakistan and
Bangladesh. Indo-Aryan languages are spoken in Pakistan and most of North, West and
East India and Nepal. Dravidian languages are spoken in South India and Sri Lanka.
Tibeto-Burman languages are spoken in the hills of Bangladesh, Nepal, North and
North East India. Austroasiatic languages are spoken in certain northern and eastern
areas of Bangladesh and in East and North East India.

Ethnic groups of Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia is often split into two parts: Mainland Southeast Asia,
comprising Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam and
Maritime Southeast Asia, which includes Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, East Malaysia,
the Philippines, and Singapore. The region has been greatly influenced by the cultures
and religions of India and China, as well as the religions of Islam and Christianity from
Southwest Asia. Southeast Asia seems to be more influenced by India rather than China
with the exception of Vietnam, which is considered part of the Sinosphere.

Southeast Asia has also had a

lot of Western influence due to the
lasting legacy of colonialism. One
example is the Philippines, which has
been heavily influenced by Spain and
the United States of America over the
course of almost four centuries of
colonization. A common feature found
around the region are stilt houses, while
another is rice paddy agriculture, which
originated in the region thousands of
years ago. Dance is also a very
important feature of the culture,
utilizing movements of the hands and
feet perfected over thousands of years.
Furthermore, the arts and literature of
Southeast Asia is very distinctive as
some have been influenced by Indian, Hindu, Chinese, Buddhist and Islamic literature.

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Ethnic groups in West Asia

West Asia largely corresponds with the term the Middle East. West Asia
consists of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan,
Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab
Emirates, and Yemen. The region is the historical birthplace of Abrahamic religions:
Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Today, the region is almost 93% Muslim and is
dominated by Islamic politics. Israel is the sole exception, and is populated largely by
Jewish immigrants from the diaspora. Culturally, the region is mainly Arab, Turkic and
Persian, alongside smaller numbers of Greek, Kurdish people, Jewish people, Assyrian,
Armenian and Cypriot peoples. Iraq is a unique example of both Persian and Arab
culture. Many of the West Asian countries are desert, and thus many nomadic groups
exist today, most notably the Bedouin. On the other hand, modern metropolises also
exist on the shifting sands. Tel Aviv, Abu Dhabi, Amman, Riyadh, Doha and Muscat.

The climate is mostly a desert one, although some of the coastal regions have a
more temperate climate, including the mountainous Anatolian plateau (Turkey,
Lebanon, Georgia and Armenia). Coastal areas of the Eastern Mediterranean,
particularly Israel, Cyprus and Lebanon, have a distinct Mediterranean climate. The
Persian Plateau (Iran, Iraq, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan) has
a diverse terrain, it is mainly mountainous with portions of desert, steppe, and tropical
forest on the coast of the Caspian Sea. West Asian cuisine is a fusion of Turkish, Jewish,
Arabian, Greek, North African, and Persian cuisine. It is immensely rich and diverse.
The literature is also immensely rich with Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian literature
dominating. One of the most famous literary works of West Asia is 1001 Arabian
Nights.

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