This article provides a description of the Asian continent and a survey of its resources, people, economy, and recent developments. Further information may be found in \TAsia, history of\t, and separate articles on the Asian countries. Asia is the largest of all the continents and includes within its limits an area of 44,441,100 sq km (17,159,995 sq mi), or about 33% of the world's total land surface and the greater part of the Eurasian landmass. The border between Europe is traditionally drawn as an imaginary zigzag line passing down the spine of the \TUral Mountains\t and through the \TCaspian Sea\t, \TCaucasus Mountains\t, and \TBlack Sea\t. The boundary dividing Asia and Africa is generally placed along the \TSuez Canal\t, and the boundary between Asia and Australia is usually placed between the island of New Guinea and Australia. Asia is by far the most populous of all the continents, with an estimated population in 1990 of 3,116,000,000, or nearly 60% of the world's total population. The population is, however, diverse and divided by language, race, religion, politics, economics, and cultural origins into a complex cultural mosaic. The nations of Asia are usually grouped into six main geographical and political-cultural subdivisions: 1. Southwest Asia, which includes Afghanistan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, plus Asian Turkey and Egypt east of the Suez Canal (Sinai Peninsula); 2. South Asia, which includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon); 3. East Asia, which includes most of the People's Republic of China, Japan, North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea), South Korea (Republic of Korea), and Taiwan (Republic of China); 4. Southeast Asia, which includes Brunei, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Indonesia, Kampuchea (formerly Cambodia), Laos, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam; 5. Soviet Asia, which includes all of Siberia and the republics of the \TUSSR\t located in Asia (Armenian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Georgian SSR, Kazakh SSR, Kirghiz SSR, Tadzhik SSR, Turkmen SSR, Uzbek SSR, and several smaller autonomous areas); 6. Central Asia, which includes Mongolia and three of the five autonomous regions of China (Inner Mongolia, Sinkiang-Uighur, and Tibet). LAND AND RESOURCES Topography The topography of Asia comprises a series of high mountain belts, which are the dominant landforms, and a related complex of plateaus, basins, island arcs, and alluvial lowlands. The highest point is Mount \TEverest\t, which towers to 8,848 m (29,028 ft) in Nepal; the lowest point is 395 m (1,296 ft) below sea level along the shores of the \TDead Sea\t in Israel and Jordan. The Ural Mountains on the western edge of Asia trend in a north-south direction, but most other belts extend across the continent in a general west-east direction and converge in a knot of high mountains in the \TPamirs\t, located to the north of the Indian subcontinent where the borders of the \TUSSR\t, China, and Afghanistan come together. West of the Pamirs, two main mountain belts are discernible. The southern one crosses the island of Cyprus, enters the mainland to form the \TTaurus Mountains\t along the southern edge of Turkey, swings along the southern edge of the Iranian Plateau to form the \TZagros Mountains\t, and on into Pakistan before turning north to become the \THindu Kush\t and join the Pamirs. The northern mountain belt in Asia west of the Pamirs enters the continent at the Crimean Peninsula; swings eastward to form the Caucasus Mountains between the Black and Caspian seas; continues south of the Caspian Sea as the \TElburz Mountains\t of Iran and the Kopet Mountains on the Iran-USSR border; and crosses into Afghanistan to merge with the Hindu Kush and the Pamirs. East of the Pamirs, three mountain belts are discernible. One trends northeastward toward the Pacific Ocean and forms the Alai Range in the \TUSSR\t, the \TTien Shan\t and Greater Khinghan Range in China, and the \TAltai\t, Sayan, \TYablonovy\t, and \TStanovoi\t mountains in the \TUSSR\t. A second mountain belt, located farther south, extends eastward from the Pamirs to form the \TKunlun Mountains\t, Astin Tagh, and Nan Shan in China and continues across the middle of China, separating North China from South China, as the Chin Ling (Tsinling). The third and most southerly of the mountain belts radiating eastward from the Pamirs turns southeastward to form the \TKarakoram Range\t and the broad arc of the \THimalayas\t and then abruptly southward at the eastern end of the Tibetan Plateau, where it splits into a number of lesser ranges that continue southward as the Arakan Yoma in Myanmar (Burma), the mountainous rib of the Malay Peninsula, and the Annam Mountains (Annamitic Cordillera) in Vietnam. Numerous plateaus and structural basins are located within or along the margins of these mountain ranges. The highest is the Tibetan Plateau, which has an average elevation of over 4,000 m (13,000 ft) and is bordered by some of the world's highest mountains, including the Himalayas on the south, the Karakoram on the west, and the Kunlun Mountains on the north. This entire complex of high mountains and plateaus is often referred to as the "roof of the world." To the north of Tibet are three important Chinese basins: the Tsaidam Basin, the Tarim (\TTakla Makan\t) Basin, and the Dzungarian Basin. Also important to China are the Szechwan (Red) Basin, located in the western Chinese province of Szechwan; the Gobi Plateau, a vast, semidesert upland located in Mongolia and China's Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region (see \TGobi\t); and the Loess Plateau, located south of the Gobi, which is covered with an immense thickness of windblown loess deposits derived from the Gobi. Other plateaus in Asia are the Anatolian Plateau, in Turkey; the Arabian Plateau, mainly in Saudi Arabia; the \TDeccan Plateau\t, in peninsular India; and the Vitim and Aldan plateaus, in the \TUSSR\t. Numerous islands, arranged in a series of arcs, fringe the Southeast Asian and Pacific coasts of the continent. The islands of the Southeast Asia archipelago pick up the main trend lines of Myanmar's (Burma's) Arakan Yoma and continue them through the Andaman and Nicobar islands of India and the islands of Sumatra, Java, and Bali in the Indonesian archipelago. Near Bali, the main trend of the mountainous belt splits into two segments. One segment continues eastward through the islands of Timor, the Moluccas, and New Guinea and eventually forms the mountains of New Zealand; the other segment turns northeastward and passes in a series of arcs through Borneo, the Philippine archipelago, Taiwan, the Ryukyu Islands, Japan, and Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands before touching the mainland in the Kamchatka Peninsula (\TUSSR\t). These island arcs are seismically active, and earthquakes and volcanic eruptions frequently occur. The most extensive lowlands in Asia are located in the \TUSSR\t. They are the Western Siberian Plain, a vast, subarctic forested region located east of the Urals, and the Kirghiz Steppe, a semiarid plain located mainly in the Kazakh SSR. Other important lowlands are mainly in the alluvial valleys and deltas developed by rivers flowing to the south and east. The largest of the alluvial valleys is the Indo-Gangetic Plain, located in the Indian subcontinent between the Himalayas and the Deccan Plateau. Occupying parts of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, it is drained by the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra rivers; river water is diverted extensively across the plain for irrigation, and the region is one of the world's most intensively cultivated and most densely populated places. Other Asian lowlands are the North China Plain, its soils enriched for centuries by loess sediments spread over the valley and deltas of the flood-prone Hwang Ho (Yellow River); the alluvial valleys and deltas of the Yangtze (China), Irrawaddy (Myanmar or Burma), and Mekong (Kampuchea) rivers; and the Fertile Crescent of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq. Geology Five Asian "shield" areas (geologically stable areas of ancient crystalline rock) are usually recognized. They are the Arabian and Indian shields in the south and the Tarim Basin (Seridian massif), Northern China (the Chinese massif), and the Siberian (Angara) Shield. Great thicknesses of sediments accumulated between these blocks of stable rocks and were subsequently folded and uplifted in periods of mountain building (orogenies). Asia has had a complex orogenic (mountain-building) history. The Caldonian Orogeny occurred in the Silurian and Devonian periods and is recorded in Asia by the Sayan and other mountains of eastern Siberia. The Hercynian Orogeny occurred in the Late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) and Permian periods and created the Urals, Tien Shan, Kunlun, and Chin lin (Tsingling) mountains. According to plate-tectonics theory, by the close of the Permian Period, Asia, together with the ancestral cores of all the other continents, formed the supercontinent known as Pangaea. During the Triassic Period, Pangaea split apart into the northern landmass of Laurasia (from which North America, Europe, and northern Asia later developed) and the southern landmass of Gondwanaland (from which India and the continents of the Southern Hemisphere later developed). A large sea called Tethys separated the two landmasses. By the end of the Jurassic Period, Gondwanaland fragmented, and the Indian plate began a northeastward movement. It eventually collided with and was drawn under the edge of the Eurasian plate, and in the process Tethyan sediments were deformed and uplifted to form the Himalayas, Tibetan Plateau, and other high mountains of southern Asia. The African plate moved northward and collided with Eurasia to thrust up the European Alps and the mountains of Asia west of the Himalayas. Much later, probably during the Miocene Epoch, rifting and seafloor spreading created the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and Arabia split away from Africa to form a separate plate. Earth movements occur today in the Indonesian, Japanese, Philippine, and other Pacific island arcs, where widespread seismic and volcanic activity attest to the geological instability of the region. (See \Tcontinental drift\t.) Climate Three broad climatic realms may be distinguished in Asia. They are: monsoon Asia, dry Asia, and cold Asia. Monsoon Asia. The climate of South, Southeast, and East Asia is strongly influenced by the immensity of the Asian landmass, the barrier presented by its great highland core, and the \Tmonsoon\t wind system. In summer, the continental interior of Asia heats up rapidly as a result of increased isolation as the overhead Sun moves toward the Tropic of Cancer. Warm air above the heart of Asia rises and creates low-pressure centers. The air pressures above the Pacific and Indian oceans are relatively high. Consequently, strong, moisture-laden winds are drawn inland from the oceans into the low-pressure areas of Asia, bringing heavy rainfall wherever they are forced to rise up over low hills, mountains, or other topographic obstacles. The summer monsoon in India interrupts a very hot, dry spell. Elsewhere in Southeast and East Asia the break is not as dramatic, but rainfall in all of monsoon Asia is concentrated in the summer months. In the coastal region of East Asia, tropical cyclones (typhoons) bring additional precipitation and devastating winds. In winter, the land surface in the interior of Asia cools off more rapidly than the surrounding oceans. As a result, cold descending air currents over the heart of Asia generate high-pressure centers facing the relatively low pressure zones over the Indian and Pacific oceans, where temperatures are higher. From October to about April, cold, dry, continental winds blow offshore from inland Asia. This is the season of the winter monsoon. Places exposed to the monsoons are warmer in summer and colder in winter than places in corresponding latitudes not under their influence. They are also, for the most part, the wettest parts of Asia. Within this large monsoon area, important temperature differences exist between north and south. An equatorial climate predominates over much of Indonesia and Malaysia; average annual temperature is about 20 deg C (70 deg F) and average annual rainfall more than 2,030 mm (80 in). North of the equatorial region is a tropical monsoon area, in which summers are hot and humid (average temperatures over 27 deg C/80 deg F) and winters cool (10 deg C/50 deg F) and dry. Rainfall is more than 1,270 mm (50 in). Climates in the rest of monsoon Asia range from warm temperate in central China and southern Japan to cool temperate in northern China and Japan. Similarly, the length of the growing season, which is the period between killing frosts in the warm half of the year, decreases gradually from almost a full year in Indonesia to about four months in China's northeast. Dry Asia. Parts of Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and Mongolia have a wide range of dry climates that range latitudinally from the tropical deserts of the Arabian Peninsula in the west to the subtropical steppe climate present in Iran and Afghanistan and the midlatitude steppe and deserts of Mongolia and northern China. Rainfall varies from a low of less than 25 mm (1 in) in parts of the Gobi Desert to 200 mm (8 in) in Soviet Central Asia. Throughout this belt, rainfall is extremely unpredictable. The eastern coastal fringe of the Mediterranean Basin (the Levant) has a typical Mediterranean climate and receives rain in winter; average annual precipitation along this Western edge of dry Asia is about 500 mm (20 in). Cold Asia. Most of Soviet Asia has a cold climate. The southern regions have a subarctic climate, where summers are mild (21 deg C/70 deg F) and short, lasting for less than four months. Rainfall decreases from about 510 mm (20 in) in coastal locations to less than 250 mm (10 in) in the interior. The extreme northern section of Asia is dominated by the polar tundra climate, where the low year round temperatures (warmest month averages below 10 deg C/50 deg F) create a permanently frozen subsoil known as permafrost. Drainage The major rivers of Asia, that is, those reaching the sea, include the \TOb\t, \TYenisei\t, and \TLena\t, which flow northward to the Arctic Ocean; the \TAmur\t, \THwang Ho\t, and \TYangtze\t, which drain eastward to the Sea of Okhotsk, Yellow Sea, and East China Sea, respectively, all coastal seas of the Pacific Ocean; the \TGanges\t, \TIndus\t, and \TBrahmaputra\t rivers, which flow southward toward the Indian Ocean; the \TMekong\t, \TIrrawaddy\t, and \TSalween\t, which rise in eastern Tibet and drain southward through the peninsulas of Southeast Asia; and the \TTigris\t and \TEuphrates\t system, which flows into the Persian Gulf, an arm of the Indian Ocean. In addition, about 12,950,000 sq km (5,000,000 sq mi) of land in Central Asia is drained by rivers that do not reach the sea. This is the internal, or inland, drainage area of Asia. The Ili flows into Lake Balkhash; the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya into the Aral Sea; and the Ural River into the Caspian Sea. Others are intermittent streams, which flow only after heavy rains; their waters evaporate in the deserts, and some end in salt lakes or playas, which may be dry part of the year. The Dead Sea, a saltwater lake whose shore is the lowest point on Earth, is fed by the \TJordan River\t. The Caspian Sea, also saline and the world's largest inland body of water, loses more water by evaporation than it receives from streams and precipitation. The \TAral Sea\t, about 280 km (175 mi) to the east, is also saline and once covered a much larger area. Lake \TBaikal\t in southern Siberia is the world's deepest lake (1,741 m/5,712 ft) and has only one outlet, the Angara River. The waters of Lake Baikal are fresh. Soils Soil types correspond closely to their respective climatic and natural vegetation regions. In the permafrost region of northern Asia are \Ttundra\t soils, unusable for agriculture because of the short growing season and impeded drainage, but otherwise rich in organic matter. South of the tundra, in the vast coniferous forest region of cold temperate Asia, are podzols with high acidity and low organic content. Farther south, in the zone of mixed coniferous and deciduous forests, the gray brown forest soils have higher humus content and are less acidic than the podzols. Between the temperate forests of northern Asia and the deserts of Central Asia a belt of chernozem and chestnut soils appears. These black to dark-brown soils are very rich in humus and mineral nutrients and are very productive when farmed. The desert and mountain soils of dry Asia have little to offer for agricultural production. Even where irrigation is possible, a danger of salt and alkali accumulation in the topsoil exists resulting from the evaporation of mineralized underground water through capillary action. Consequently, cultivation in dry Asia is confined to well-drained alluvial soils along major river valleys. The soils of hot, humid monsoon Asia belong to the major soil category known as pedalfers. These soils are rich in iron and aluminum material. High temperatures promote rapid oxidation and contribute to their reddish or yellowish appearance. Heavy rainfall washes soluble mineral and organic matter from the topsoil to the subsoil, leaving insoluble minerals, such as aluminum, in the topsoil. These tropical red earths are generally infertile, and therefore agriculture in monsoon Asia is confined mostly to alluvial soils along river valleys. Some prominent exceptions exist: soils developed on basic volcanic ash in the northeastern Deccan Plateau (India) and in Java are among the richest soils in monsoon Asia. Vegetation Much of the original green cover in monsoon Asia has been replaced by secondary growth or farmlands as a result of centuries of cultivation. Even in the equatorial region of Southeast Asia periodic burning by shifting cultivators has greatly reduced the extent of tropical rain forest, and tropical deciduous forests dominate what little forest area remains. These forests yield valuable tropical hardwoods, such as teak, sal, ironwood, and bamboo. In dry Asia limited vegetation, such as short grasses, will occur even on the edges of the most barren desert areas. Most of these desert plants are xerophytic (drought resistant) and halophytic (salt tolerant). More significant vegetation occurs where ground water is available near the surface. Separating cold Asia from dry Asia is an extensive band of low grasslands called the steppe. Steppe vegetation predominates in Mongolia and southwest Asiatic Russia. North of the steppeland is a narrow transition zone of mixed forest and further north a vast expanse of coniferous forest known as taiga in the Soviet Union. The taiga is a rich storehouse of commercially valuable needleleaf softwoods, such as spruce, larch, fir, and pine. Farther north lichens, mosses, and occasional dwarf willows manage to survive in the cold tundra. Fauna Arctic animals, although noted for their mobility, are even less diverse than arctic plants. Polar bears, mouselike lemmings, reindeer, and arctic foxes are common animals in the tundra region. The mammals and birds of subarctic Asiatic Russia are of the cold, hardy type. Examples are the Altai elk, brown bear, wolf, ermine, sable, and the erne (a Siberian eagle similar to the bald eagle). Birds are prominent vertebrates in Asian deserts. Animals peculiar to dry Asia include the kuland (Mongolian wild ass), the Bactrian camel, the saiga (an antelope), the Tibetan antelope, the kiang, the yak, the argali (wild sheep), and the markhor (wild goat). In East Asia are found such indigenous animals as the takin, bharal (wild Himalayan sheep), goral (a rock goat), musk deer, sika, Thorold's deer, Pere David's deer, panda, Asiatic black bear, and high-altitude salamanders. Tigers and elephants are still found in some southern parts of the continent. Mineral Resources Asia's coal deposits are the largest in the world, with an estimated 60% of the world's total reserves located within the \TUSSR\t; other coal reserves occur in nearly every province of China, in Korea, and in India. In 1988, the \TUSSR\t ranked 2d in world coal production, China 3d, India 5th, and North Korea 11th. Asia also has vast oil deposits, especially in the \TUSSR\t; in the Persian Gulf area, which has an estimated 60% of the total oil reserves of the non-Communist world; and in the South China and Yellow Seas and other parts of the continental shelf off the coasts of East, Southeast, and South Asia. In 1988 the \TUSSR\t ranked 1st among world crude-oil producers, Saudi Arabia 3d, China 5th, Iran 7th, Malaysia 9th, Iraq 12th, Indonesia 13th, Kuwait 16th, United Arab Emirates 19th, and India 20th. The \TUSSR\t has about 39% of the world's natural-gas reserves, and in 1988 it ranked 1st in natural-gas production. Marketing difficulties have limited Soviet production, but this situation began to change in the 1980s with the construction of a new Soviet pipeline that enabled the \TUSSR\t to supply Western Europe as well as increasing domestic supplies. Iron ore is abundant in the \TUSSR\t, which ranked 1st in world production in 1988; China ranked 3d, and India 6th. Tin is widely distributed in Southeast Asia, with Malaysia and Indonesia ranking among the top world producers. Asia also has large deposits of bauxite and a variety of other minerals, including major world deposits of chromium, manganese, mercury, selenium, tellurium, tungsten, zinc, graphite, magnesite, mica, pyrite, and talc. Japan, although it is the industrial giant in Asia, has few of the mineral resources needed for modern industry and must import them. Water Resources Irrigation canals crisscross the Indo-Gangetic Plain, Yangtze Valley, and other alluvial lowlands of monsoon Asia. Irrigation during the dry season of the monsoon makes possible a double and triple cropping of land where year-round temperatures are warm enough and has been a major factor in the ability of Asia's river valleys to support such large population clusters. Irrigation and the availability of groundwater for growing crops in oases are also major factors in the settlement and economic development of most of dry Asia in the southwest. Rivers remain the primary means of transportation for most Asian countries other than Japan. Road and rail facilities are generally limited, although India's network is extensive. Only a small part of the continent's vast hydroelectric power potential has been developed, most of it in such fuel-deficient nations as Japan and Bangladesh or as part of a larger program of river improvements as in the Indus and Mekong river basin projects. Rivers with enormous hydroelectric potential are the Yangtze, Ob, Lena, and Yenisei. Arable Land Resources Only about 17% of all Asia excluding the \TUSSR\t is planted in crops and only 14% of all Asia including the \TUSSR\t. India has the most arable land, with 168,880,000 ha (422,200,000 acres), or 50% of its total area, under cultivation. China ranks second, with 103,400,000 ha (255,070,000 acres), or 11% of its total area, under crops; and Turkey a poor third, with 27,413,000 ha (67,739,500 acres), or 35% of its total land area, under crops. Other large arable landholdings are in Iran, which has 20,235,000 ha (50,002,000 acres), or 12% of its total land area, under crops; Indonesia, which has 19,400,000 ha (47,938,000 acres), or 10% of its total area, cultivated; and Pakistan, which has 19,109,000 ha (42,219,000 acres), or 24% of its total area, planted to crops. Forest and Fish Resources Forests cover about 36% of the \TUSSR\t and 20% of the rest of Asia. The \TUSSR\t has the largest reserves of commercial softwoods in the world (mostly east of the Urals in Soviet Asia) and leads the world in timber production. Deciduous forests are extensive in southern Asia, especially in the tropical and subtropical parts of monsoon Asia. Indonesia and India together account for half of all Asian woods cut from deciduous forests. In the wake of industrialization, however, deforestation is occurring in South and Southeast Asia, as it had earlier in China. Japan and the \TUSSR\t are the world's two top-ranking fish producers, and both maintain large oceangoing fishing fleets. China is the third-ranking fish producer, and India is fourth. In keeping with the intensive cultivation of land in Asia, fish are also raised in flooded rice fields. PEOPLE Traditional Culture Areas Asia has a long cultural heritage of great diversity. Sedentary agriculture and the beginnings of urban life and civilization developed before 4000 BC in \TMesopotamia\t (southwestern Asia), about 3000 BC at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley, now in Pakistan (see \TIndus civilization\t), and about 2000 BC in the unrelated development of Chinese culture in the loess lands of China's middle Hwang Ho valley (see \TChinese archaeology\t). These three areas of early civilization served as "culture hearths," or centers from which major cultural traditions, modified by later differences in religion, nationalism, and historical circumstance, were transferred outward and adopted over wide areas of Asia, called "culture areas" or "culture regions." Six major cultural regions are recognized in Asia today. The three dominant ones are Southwest (or Islamic) Asia, South (or Indic) Asia, and East (or Sinic) Asia, which developed from the three original culture hearths. The fourth is Southeast Asia; set between China and India, the Southeast Asia culture region is what political and cultural geographers call a "shatter zone," or culture area dominated by two or more strong neighboring cultures. The remaining two culture areas are Northern (or Soviet) Asia and Central (or Interior) Asia, both sparsely populated and peripherally located in terms of the major culture hearths. Southwest (or Islamic) Asia roughly coincides with the dry belt of desert and semidesert lands that extend eastward from the eastern Mediterranean (Levant) shores as far as Afghanistan. This area is customarily linked with North Africa under the labels Near or Middle East or Arab World; the latter is misleading, however, because non-Arabs constitute a majority of the population in Iran, Israel, and Turkey. The Southwest Asia culture area saw the development of early agriculture in Mesopotamia and the rise and fall of numerous ancient kingdoms and empires. It was unified by \TIslam\t in the 7th century, but important concentrations of non-Islamic peoples remain, including Christians in Syria, Armenia, and Lebanon, and Jews, mainly in Israel. South (or Indic) Asia is located on the Indian subcontinent and dominated by India. The culture dates from about 1500 BC when \LAryan\ls invaded northern India. Their Vedic religion merged with indigenous customs and beliefs to produce \THinduism\t, which continues to play a major role in social organization and structure; it remains an important influence even in northern areas where Islam now prevails. \TBuddhism\t, founded in India in the 6th century BC, had its main cultural impact elsewhere. The nations included in East (or Sinic) Asia share a common culture developed by the ancient Chinese in the Hwang Ho loesslands and unified during the \TShang\t dynasty about 1500 BC. Periodically invaded by nomads from the northern steppes, the East Asian culture region included most of modern China by about 100 BC, began to move southward into Vietnam about the same time, and reached out to Korea and Japan about AD 400. Social organization and structure within the region is strongly influenced by ancient Chinese concepts of familial duty and ancestor worship which were articulated in \TConfucianism\t and Japanese \TShinto\t, and to a lesser degree in \TTaoism\t and Chinese Buddhism. Southeast Asia embraces the peninsulas and islands located between India and China. The indigenous peoples of this region were pushed from the lowlands into isolated hill areas by migrants from China and the rest of Asia in a process beginning 2,500 years ago. Buddhism became the dominant religion, but Islamic influences, brought by Arab traders after the 12th century AD, and colonial penetrations by the British, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Americans after the 17th century brought much cultural diversification. North (or Soviet) Asia, also sometimes called Asiatic Russia, is located in the semiarid steppes of the southern \TUSSR\t and extends northward across Siberia to the shores of the Arctic Ocean. The steppes are the traditional home of various nomadic and indigenous peoples, including the \TMongols\t, YAKUTS, \TTungus\t, KAZAKHS, \LUzbek\ls, and \LTatar\ls. Russians brought European influences into the region from the 17th century on, a process intensified in the 20th century. Inner (or Central) Asia is located in Tibet, Mongolia, Sinkiang-Uighur, and Inner Mongolia. Isolated by high mountains or broad deserts, Inner Asia was for centuries the domain of nomadic herders and was for long feared by the Chinese as the homeland from which invaders repeatedly entered the settled lands of eastern China. Chinese settlement and influence, however, has greatly increased in recent years, spurred in part by Chinese fears of Soviet domination of this strategically significant Sino-Soviet border. Racial and Ethnic Groups Asia has a great diversity of ethnic groups, with two-thirds of all Asian peoples belonging to the Mongoloid group. The largest ethnic group is the Han Chinese, who constitute about 94% of the total population of China and dominate the eastern half of that nation. The remaining 6% of that nation's population includes Mongols, Uighurs, Huis, Chuangs, Tibetans, and other groups. The second largest Asian group is the Japanese, who except for a few thousand \TAinu\t in the northern island of Hokkaido, constitute a single ethnic group in Japan. India, by contrast, is ethnically complex. In general terms, a lighter-skinned people of Aryan origins are characteristic in the north and a darker-skinned \TDravidian\t-speaking people are characteristic of the south. The north-central sections are occupied by a great variety of different tribal groups. European Russians constitute about 40% of the population of Soviet Asia, but important minorities in the southern steppes include the \TBuryat\t, \TKalmyk\t, \TTadzhik\t, \TChukchi\t, and Tungu. Southeast Asia is fragmented along ethnic lines and includes among its major ethnic groupings Indonesians, \TMalays\t, \TBurmese\t, \LThai\ls, \LKhmer\ls, \TVietnamese\t, and Filipinos as well as numerous isolated hill peoples. The principal ethnic groups in Southwest Asia are Semites (mostly \TArabs\t but many \TJews\t in Israel), \TTurks\t, \TArmenians\t, Persians, \TKurds\t, and BALUCHIS. Languages Chinese, spoken by an estimated 1 billion people in China, Southeast Asia, and other parts of the continent, is the language most widely spoken in Asia; it includes Mandarin Chinese and many distinctive dialects including Cantonese, Wu, Min, and Hakka. Hindi, spoken by about 215 million people, is the second most widely used language; it is spoken mainly in northern India and Pakistan. Arabic, spoken mainly in Southwest Asia, is the third major language; and Russian, widely spoken and used as a second language in Soviet Asia, is the fourth. These languages cross national boundaries and enjoy international status. The many other languages spoken in Asia enjoy mainly national and regional usage. Languages introduced by colonial powers have also left important marks on Asia. In India, which is fragmented by numerous languages, English remains an official government language and the country's only unifying tongue. Spanish still has some importance in the Philippines. (See \TAfroasiatic languages\t; \TDravidian languages\t; \TIndo-Iranian languages\t; \TMalayo-Polynesian languages\t; \TSino-Tibetan languages\t; \TSoutheast Asian languages\t; \TUral-Altaic languages\t.) Religions The principal Asian religions are Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism. Hinduism has a following of about 520 million and is the main religion of India. Islam, with an estimated 430 million adherents in Asia, is the principal religion in Southwest Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Large Muslim minorities exist in India, the Philippines, and Central Asia. Buddhism, which developed in India, is no longer important in that country but has a following of about 250 million in other regions of Asia and constitutes the principal religion in Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Laos, and Kampuchea. In the form of a northern sect known as \TTibetan Buddhism\t, it is dominant in Tibet and Bhutan. Buddhism is also well represented in Japan. Taoism, an indigenous Chinese religion, and Confucianism, which is more a philosophy than a religion, were both widespread in China in pre-Communist times. Other important Asian religions are Shinto, or traditional Japanese nature worship; Roman Catholicism, practiced mainly in Vietnam and the Philippines, and Protestantism. Less well represented religions include such sects as the \TSikhs\t, \TParsis\t, and Jains (see \TJainism\t) in India. Education and Health About 60% of Asia's school-age children attend school. Literacy varies markedly from one Asian country to another. Only 10% of Afghanistan's population is literate, which is defined as persons more than 15 years of age who can read or write. Literacy rates range from about 25% of the population in Iran and Saudi Arabia to about 50% in China, India, Turkey, and Malaysia and close to 100% in Japan and the Soviet Union. (See \TChinese universities\t; \TJapanese universities\t; \TKorean universities\t; \TSouth Asian universities\t; \TSoutheast Asian universities\t.) The average daily per capita protein consumption is inadequate in the majority of Asian countries. The rates of infant mortality are higher in India and the Middle East than in China and are lowest in the industrial developed countries of Japan and the \TUSSR\t. The average life expectancy of Asians ranges from about 40 to 65 years. Japan and the \TUSSR\t are significant exceptions; life expectancy is more than 70 years, and infant mortality is very low. Demography Population densities in Asia range from the lowest in the world in parts of the Arabian Desert, Tibetan Plateau, and high mountains of South and Inner Asia to some of the world's highest population densities in the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Yangtze Valley. Although average annual population growth in Asia (excluding Soviet Asia) has declined from the more than 2% in the first half of the 1970s, the annual population growth for the region has averaged 2% a year for the past 30 years. Population-growth figures for the \TUSSR\t averaged a rate of 0.9% a year for the period 1980-88. India grew at an overall rate of 1.7% a year, and China at an estimated rate of 1.6% a year. Because of the immense size of these nations, the rates translate into total increases of about 16 million people a year each for India and China. Natural growth rates near, or in excess of, 3% are typical of Southwest Asia (excluding Israel). In the \TUSSR\t the birthrate for 1988 was 20.1 for each 1,000, and the death rate 10.3 for each 1,000. For the rest of Asia the overall birthrate was 31 for each 1,000, and the overall death rate 2 for each 1,000. Death rates throughout the world have been reduced as a result of improved nutrition and medical care. Birthrates, however, are less easy to control. The Chinese government, alarmed by the rate of population growth indicated by the census of 1982, reinforced its restriction of one child per family. With laws that prohibit marriage before the age of 22 for men and 20 for women and make birth control compulsory for newlyweds, China aims to limit its population growth to no more than 1.2 billion by the end of the century. India has experimented with various programs for birth control since the 1950s, having introduced payments for vasectomies, which proved popular, and compulsory sterilization for all families with three or more children, which was met with great hostility. By 1988, China's birthrate had fallen to about 22 per thousand, as opposed to India's 32 per thousand. Japan's birthrate was controlled many years ago by legalization of abortion. It is generally assumed that economic development and reduction in birthrates are related, but much dispute exists as to which comes first. Practically all Asian countries, with perhaps the exception of isolated Bhutan and Nepal, have experienced urbanization in recent years. People flock from the countryside to the cities, where they increase unemployment, congestion, and various forms of social disorganization. They also tend to abandon traditional cultures in favor of modern, urban, industrial, and commercial mores. \TBombay\t, \TCalcutta\t, \TRangoon\t (Yangon), \TBangkok\t, \TManila\t, \THong Kong\t, \TSingapore\t, and \TJakarta\t are examples of this process. \TShanghai\t, one of the largest cities in the world, was such a city until the Chinese government forcibly relocated part of the city population to the surrounding countryside. Despite this process of urbanization, however, most Asian countries remain predominantly rural. The exceptions are modernized Israel, where less than 15% of the population live in rural areas, and Japan, where only 18% of the population are classified as rural. In Southwest Asia, with its long tradition of urban living, Iraq has only 28% of its population in rural areas and Jordan only 44%. Elsewhere in Asia, the rural population amounts to 76% of the total in India, 77% in Indonesia, and nearly 80% in China. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT During the Middle Ages, Asia was the most developed part of the world. Syria was famous for its textiles, swords, steel, and silverware, India for the delicacy of its cottons, Iran (Persia) and Central Asia for rugs, Southeast Asia for spices, and China for exquisite porcelains, silks, and other items coveted by Western traders and consumers as late as the 18th century. Today, however, except for the \TUSSR\t, Japan, and Israel, most of these same Asian countries are considered part of the developing, or underdeveloped, world. They have not shared in the Industrial Revolution and the higher standards of living that industrialization has provided to the Western world, and in most Asian countries the majority of the people live close to the limits of survival. Agriculture Agriculture remains the dominant economic activity throughout Asia except in Israel, where only 6% of the population are engaged in farming, Japan, where only 8% are farmers, and Soviet Asia, where only 10% work in agricultural activities. By contrast the proportion of the labor force in farming in the rest of Asia is 62% in China, 64% in India, 61% in Indonesia, and ranges as high as 94% in Bhutan and Nepal. Four distinct agricultural systems coexist in Asia: small-holding agriculture, plantation agriculture, collective agriculture, and shifting agriculture. Small-holding agriculture, in which small private farms produce a combination of subsistence and cash crops for home consumption and local markets, predominates in the capitalist economies. Collective agriculture, in which production is based on central planning, is practiced in China and the Soviet Union. Plantation agriculture, involving the production on large land estates of one or a few agricultural commodities for foreign markets, is most notable in Southeast Asia. Shifting or \Tslash-and-burn agriculture\t is practiced by tribal groups in tropical rain forests. The principal food crop in Asia is rice, most of it paddy rice grown in flooded fields during the summer, but some upland rice is also grown without irrigation. About 91% of all the world's rice is grown in Asia, some 40% of it in China, 20% in India, 7% in Indonesia, and 6% in Bangladesh. Wheat is the second major food crop; it is grown as a second crop during the dry monsoon season where temperatures are warm enough and is also the chief crop in drier areas such as northern China, the \TUSSR\t, Turkey, and the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. About 23% of the world's wheat is produced in the \TUSSR\t, 10% in China, 7% in India, 4% in Turkey, and 5% in the rest of Asia. Other principal food crops are millet, sorghum, maize, barley, soybeans and kaoliang (kafir corn). Commercial crops include cotton (India, \TUSSR\t, and China), silk (China, India, and Japan), jute (Bangladesh and Southeast Asia), rubber and palm oil (Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia), sugarcane (Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, India, and the Philippines), tea (India, China, Indonesia, and Japan), and copra (Indonesia and the Philippines). Animals play a major role in Asian agriculture, both as part of the intensive system of agriculture characteristic of the densely populated alluvial plains and as part of a nomadic economy of cold and semiarid regions. China has the largest hog population in the world. They are easy to raise, produce abundant manure, and, as pork, provide a major source of animal protein in the Chinese diet. India has the largest bovine population in the world. Cattle in India, however, are kept for religious and draft purposes; as a sacred animal the cow is not raised for meat. Camels, mainly used for transportation, are ubiquitous animals in dry Asia. Sheep are reared in semiarid environments such as south central \TUSSR\t, western China, the central Indian plateaus, and the Middle East, and reindeer are herded in the northern parts of Soviet Asia. Forestry and Fishing In most of Asia, forestry and fishing cater mainly to domestic markets. Both activities, however, are major industries in Japan and the \TUSSR\t. Teak is a specialty timber export in Thailand and Burma. Mining Asia's great wealth of mineral resources furnishes the raw materials for much of the world's industrial establishments. Among the fuels, in 1988 Asia produced 33% of the world's total oil supply, 24% of the bituminous and anthracite coals, and 8% of the marketed natural gas. Among metals, it produced 43% of the world's tin, most of it concentrated in Malaysia, Indonesia, and other parts of Southeast Asia; 18% of the iron ore; 22% of the chromium; 11% of the manganese; 16% of the mercury; 36% of the selenium; 20% of the tellurium; 43% of the tungsten; 19% of the zinc; and 12% of the titanium. Of the world's total production of nonmetals, Asia supplied 24% of the cement, 41% of the graphite, 36% of the magnesite, 40% of the mica, 34% of the nitrogen fertilizers, 19% of the pyrite, 19% of the salt, and 43% of the talc. In total value of mineral output, Asia ranked first among all the continents. Manufacturing The \TUSSR\t and Japan are among the world's leading manufacturing nations. In the \TUSSR\t, however, the major industrial centers are in the European part; Soviet Asia is essentially a vast storehouse of natural resources still largely unexploited because of their inaccessibility to markets. In Japan, manufacturing districts are concentrated in the Kanto Plain (the Tokyo-Yokohama area), the Kansai region (\TNagoya\t and the cities along the Inland Sea, such as \TOsaka\t and \TKobe\t), and in northern Kyushu (\TKitakyushu\t). Lacking industrial raw materials, Japan specializes in producing technical machinery, transport equipment, and precision instruments that are high in value but low in bulk. Examples are automobiles and electrical and electronic equipment. In China, heavy industries are located in such cities as \Tcha\t'NG-\TChu\t'N, \TShen-yang\t, \TTientsin\t, Shanghai, and \TWu-han\t. China has begun to import advanced technological capital goods from the West to promote its industrialization program. As in India, the industrial structure in China is still dominated by light manufacturing. India's major industrial operations are located in the Bombay, Calcutta, and Chota Nagpur area just west of Calcutta, where coal and iron ore mines are in close proximity. Southeast Asia and the Middle East possess few significant industrial regions. What little manufacturing exists is concentrated in the countries' capitals and a few commercial cities. The rich petroleum resources of the Middle East have earned large revenues but have not yet significantly contributed to the area's industrial development. Power Energy consumption in Asia is closely related to the degree of industrialization. Per capita energy consumption is highest in the \TUSSR\t and Japan and lowest in India and Indonesia. Thermal energy is a major source of power in Asia. India, China, and Soviet Asia have high hydroelectric power potentials, most of which, however, have not been developed. Transportation and Communication With the single exception of Japan, Asian countries possess inadequate transportation facilities. Overland transportation in Asia is made difficult by the continent's landforms and the great distances between key population, market, and resource areas. Railroads are extensive only in Japan, India, and eastern China. The \TTrans-Siberian Railroad\t, which serves much of Soviet Asia, crosses the Ural Mountains and proceeds across southern Siberia to the the Pacific port of \TVladivostok\t. A parallel rail line, the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM), was completed in 1984. Asia's road system is even less developed than its railroads. Consequently, river and local coastal transport are of great importance in much of Asia. More than 45% of all passenger traffic in Japan travels via automobile, but corresponding figures in the rest of Asia are very low. Trade Petroleum is the major export in oil-rich countries of the Middle East. It accounts for nearly 90% of the total annual exports by value in Saudi Arabia and is the predominant export for Iran and Kuwait; Iraqi oil exports, halted by an international trade embargo in 1990, remained severely restricted after the \TPersian Gulf War\t in 1991. Indonesia and Brunei are the only countries in monsoon Asia with sizable petroleum exports. The regional economic impact of the 1990-91 Persian Gulf crisis included the loss of income from hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinian, Jordanian, South Asian, and Filipino guest workers in Kuwait and Iraq, the impact of a temporary rise in oil prices and suspension of exports of South Asian commodities to Iraq and Kuwait, and the loss of Turkish and Jordanian revenues from Iraqi exports. Exports from Southeast Asia are mainly tropical crops and minerals (rubber, palm oil, sugarcane, coconut, tin, bauxite), most of which are shipped to the industrialized nations of the world. The Indian subcontinent exports textiles, machine products, and craft goods. The principal imports are manufactured products and petroleum. China's foreign trade increased dramatically in the 1980s after the government abandoned its earlier policy of self-reliance. The foreign trade of mainland China still lags significantly behind that of Taiwan, which exports 73% of its gross national product. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS Population Growth Asia's population is growing at a rapid rate of nearly 2% a year, is expected to double soon after the end of the century, and is expected to account for 65% to 75% of all the world's population at that time. Only Japan, the \TUSSR\t, Hong Kong, and Singapore have attained low birthrates and low death rates. China and India, of special concern because of the immense size of their combined populations, have demonstrated some success in encouraging birth limitation, but birthrates in the rest of Asia continue at high rates characteristic of less developed countries. Death rates have fallen almost everywhere with the advent of better medical care, improved nutrition, and the creation of a vast trade and transportation network capable of relieving famine by imports from other areas when crops fail. Food Supply Asia's food supply has grown at only a slightly faster rate than population. Malnutrition is widespread in poorer areas and among the lowest economic groups. Japan, India, and China are largely self-sufficient in food. New strains of wheat and rice, developed in the 1960s and '70s as part of the \Tgreen revolution\t, have raised crop yields as much as four- to fivefold per hectare. The new strains, however, supply lower yields per hectare than traditional seeds unless nurtured by large amounts of fertilizers and careful irrigation. Fertilizer production has increased greatly, as has the amount of land under irrigation. Except in Japan, Taiwan, and the \TUSSR\t, however, fertilizers and irrigation are not available to all farmers, and those too poor to afford them have suffered a decline in their crops. Mechanization holds less promise for raising agricultural productivity in Asia because Asia's agricultural methods have been traditionally labor-intensive. Indeed, it would pose additional burdens for most Asian nations by increasing the need to provide employment for those displaced by the improvements and unable to find work in the industrial sectors. Political Unrest Political unrest is apparent in most developing Asian countries, and insurgency continues today in Kampuchea, Myanmar (Burma), the Philippines, and Sri Lanka much as it did earlier in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Such unrest stems from growing discontent with land ownership patterns, the widening gap between rich and poor in almost all Asian nations, ethnic conflicts, and dislocations resulting from urbanization and industrialization. Vigorous land-reform programs have redistributed land in some countries, most notably China, but land ownership in many countries is concentrated into the hands of a few families belonging to the nation's social, political, or military elite. Day-to-day farm operations are left to a class of poor and discontented renters and sharecroppers who have no hope of breaking the rental cycle. Moreover, the surplus population from rural areas, developed as a result of the fast-growing populations, is unable to find work when it moves to the cities, where it lives in squalor and poverty. The frustrations, discontent, and lack of opportunity of this substantial population group are a potential source of revolution and are everywhere a concern for governments. Industrialization and Economic Development Industrialization is widely promoted as the solution to Asia's poverty and unemployment problems. Japan, assisted by massive U.S. aid programs after World War II, has shown the advantages of its "economic miracle," and Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore have demonstrated that the Japanese model can work elsewhere. Southwest Asia has benefited from foreign aid to some extent, especially in the case of strategically located Turkey, but oil has contributed much of the capital needed for development. Industrial growth in the region was disrupted by the 1990-91 Persian Gulf crisis. India ranks among the first ten industrial nations of the world. After independence industrial development was based on socialist principles aimed at achieving self-sufficiency. In 1991, however, facing an economic crisis, the government introduced reforms designed to reduce state control of industry and trade and attract foreign investment. China experimented briefly with a peasant-based industrialization program during its \TGreat Leap Forward\t of 1958-60, but this approach was later abandoned as inefficient. After the Cultural Revolution, China began to import advanced technology from the West. Industries were encouraged to become more autonomous and responsive to market demands, although the pace of reform slowed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Industry in both India and China is still dominated by light manufacturing. Lingering problems include uncertainty in China and political conflicts in Myanmar (Burma), Kampuchea, Sri Lanka, Kashmir, Afghanistan, and the Philippines. Tensions continue between Israel, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and various Arab countries in the Middle East. The threatened breakup of Soviet Central Asia, particularly in the wake of the failed 1991 Soviet coup, is an ominous possibility. Antagonisms between the region's "haves" and "have-nots" and a rising tide of religious fundamentalism and sectarian militancy in many nations of the region dominate much of the development in Asia today. Regional cooperation is a protective and military device for a politically fragmented continent. Major cooperative ventures include the COLUMBO PLAN, set up in 1960 to provide education in technical matters; the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (see \TASEAN\t), set up in 1967 as the successor to the \TSoutheast Asia Treaty Organization\t to promote unity among the non-Communist countries of the region; the often fragmented \TArab League\t, established in 1945 to promote Arab unity; and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, founded by seven South Asian nations in 1985 but hampered by tensions between India and Pakistan. Reviewed by Rhoads Murphey Bibliography: \TGeneral\t: Chan, S., East Asian Dynamism (1990); Embree, Ainslie, ed., Encyclopedia of Asian History (1987); Fairbanks, J. K., et al., East Asia: Tradition and Transformation, rev. ed. (1989); Far Eastern Economic Review, ed., Asia Yearbook (annual); Farmer, Edward, et al., Comparative History of Civilizations in Asia, 2 vols. (1986); Han, S. B., Asian Peoples and Their Cultures (1987); Jamieson, J. W., The Asian Mainland (1989); McCord, W., The Dawn of the Pacific Century (1990); Peretz, D., ed., The Middle East Today, 5th ed. (1988); Steinberg, D. J., et al., In Search of Southeast Asia, 2d ed. (1987); Welty, P. T., The Asians, 6th ed. (1984). \TCultural\t AND \TPolitical\t \Tgeography\t: Bacon, Elizabeth, Central Asians under Soviet Rule: A Study in Cultural Change (1980); Binswager, Hans P., et al., eds., Rural Household Studies in Asia (1981); Caldarola, Carlo, ed., Religion and Societies: Asia and the Middle East (1984); Chambers, Kevin, The Traveller's Guide to Asian Customs and Manners (1988); Fryer, Donald W., Emerging Southeast Asia: A Study in Growth and Stagnation, 2d ed. (1979); Spencer, J. E., and Thomas, W. L., Asia, East by South: A Cultural Geography (1971); Welty, Paul T., The Asians: Their Heritage and Their Destiny, 6th ed. (1984). \Teconomics\t: Costa, F. J., et al., Urbanization in Asia (1989); Darling, Frank, The Westernization of Asia (1980); Far Eastern Economic Review, ed., Asia Yearbook (annual); Jones, William, et al., Asian Development: Economic Successes and Policy Lessons (1988); Oshima, Harry T., Economic Growth in Monsoon Asia (1986); Scalapino, R. A., The Politics of Development (1989); Woronoff, Jon, Asia's Miracle Economies (1986). \Lculture\ls AND \Lreligion\ls: Binswager, Hans P., et al., eds., Rural Household Studies in Asia (1981); Chan, Wing I., and Alfaruqi, Ismael R., Great Asian Religions (1969); Kitagawa, Joseph M., ed., The Religious Traditions of Asia (1989); Nielsen, Niels, et al., Religions of Asia (1988); Tweddell, Colin C., and Kimball, Linda A., Introduction to the Peoples and Cultures of Asia (1985).