Asia, largest of the Earth’s seven continents, lying almost entirely in the Northern Hemisphere. With outlying islands, it covers an estimated 44,391,000 sq km (17,139,000 sq mi), or about 30 percent of the world’s total land area. Its peoples account for three-fifths of the world’s population; in 2007 Asia had an estimated 4 billion inhabitants.
Most geographers regard Asia as bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the Bering Strait and the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the southwest by the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea. On the west, the conventional boundary between Europe and Asia is drawn at the Ural Mountains, continuing south along the Ural River to the Caspian Sea, then west along the Caucasus Mountains to the Black Sea. Some geographers include Europe and Asia together in a larger Eurasian region, noting that western Asian countries, such as Turkey, merge almost imperceptibly into Europe.
The continental mainland stretches from the southern end of the Malay Peninsula to Cape Chelyuskin in Siberia. Its westernmost point is Cape Baba in northwestern Turkey, and its easternmost point is Cape Dezhnyov in northeastern Siberia. The continent’s greatest width from east to west is 8,500 km (5,300 mi). The lowest and highest points on the Earth’s surface are in Asia, namely, the shore of the Dead Sea (408 m/1,340 ft below sea level in 1996) and Mount Everest (8,850 m/29,035 ft above sea level).
South of the mainland in the Indian Ocean are Sri Lanka and smaller island groups, such as the Maldives and the Andaman and Nicobar islands. To the southeast is an array of archipelagoes and islands that extend east to the Oceanic and Australian realms. Among these islands are those of Indonesia, including Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Borneo. The western end of the island of New Guinea is within Indonesia and for that reason geographers occasionally consider it part of Asia. In this encyclopedia, however, it is treated as a part of the Pacific Islands. The Philippine Islands, which include Luzon and Mindanao, are also among the Southeast Asian islands. To their north lie Taiwan, the Chinese island of Hainan, the islands of Japan, and the Russian island of Sakhalin.
Because of its vast size and diverse character, Asia is divided into five major realms: East Asia, including China, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Japan; Southeast Asia, including Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, and the Philippines; South Asia, including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, and Bhutan; and Southwest Asia, including Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Cyprus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait. Most of the countries of Southwest Asia are also considered part of the Middle East, a loosely defined region that includes Egypt. Afghanistan and Myanmar are sometimes considered part of South Asia, but most geographers place Afghanistan in Southwest Asia and Myanmar in Southeast Asia. The fifth realm consists of the area of Russia that lies east of the Ural Mountains (Russian Asia) and the states of Central Asia that were formerly part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). These states are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.
The continent may also be divided into two broad cultural realms: that which is predominantly Asian in culture (East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia) and that which is not (Southwest Asia, Central Asia, and Russian Asia). There is enormous cultural diversity within both regions, however.
Most geographers regard Asia as bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the Bering Strait and the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the southwest by the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea. On the west, the conventional boundary between Europe and Asia is drawn at the Ural Mountains, continuing south along the Ural River to the Caspian Sea, then west along the Caucasus Mountains to the Black Sea. Some geographers include Europe and Asia together in a larger Eurasian region, noting that western Asian countries, such as Turkey, merge almost imperceptibly into Europe.
The continental mainland stretches from the southern end of the Malay Peninsula to Cape Chelyuskin in Siberia. Its westernmost point is Cape Baba in northwestern Turkey, and its easternmost point is Cape Dezhnyov in northeastern Siberia. The continent’s greatest width from east to west is 8,500 km (5,300 mi). The lowest and highest points on the Earth’s surface are in Asia, namely, the shore of the Dead Sea (408 m/1,340 ft below sea level in 1996) and Mount Everest (8,850 m/29,035 ft above sea level).
South of the mainland in the Indian Ocean are Sri Lanka and smaller island groups, such as the Maldives and the Andaman and Nicobar islands. To the southeast is an array of archipelagoes and islands that extend east to the Oceanic and Australian realms. Among these islands are those of Indonesia, including Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Borneo. The western end of the island of New Guinea is within Indonesia and for that reason geographers occasionally consider it part of Asia. In this encyclopedia, however, it is treated as a part of the Pacific Islands. The Philippine Islands, which include Luzon and Mindanao, are also among the Southeast Asian islands. To their north lie Taiwan, the Chinese island of Hainan, the islands of Japan, and the Russian island of Sakhalin.
Because of its vast size and diverse character, Asia is divided into five major realms: East Asia, including China, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Japan; Southeast Asia, including Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, and the Philippines; South Asia, including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, and Bhutan; and Southwest Asia, including Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Cyprus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait. Most of the countries of Southwest Asia are also considered part of the Middle East, a loosely defined region that includes Egypt. Afghanistan and Myanmar are sometimes considered part of South Asia, but most geographers place Afghanistan in Southwest Asia and Myanmar in Southeast Asia. The fifth realm consists of the area of Russia that lies east of the Ural Mountains (Russian Asia) and the states of Central Asia that were formerly part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). These states are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.
The continent may also be divided into two broad cultural realms: that which is predominantly Asian in culture (East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia) and that which is not (Southwest Asia, Central Asia, and Russian Asia). There is enormous cultural diversity within both regions, however.
Name of region[11] andterritory, with flag
Area(km²)
Population(1 July 2002 est.)
Population density(per km²)
Capital
Central Asia:
Kazakhstan[12]
2,346,927
13,472,593
5.7
Astana
Kyrgyzstan
198,500
4,822,166
24.3
Bishkek
Tajikistan
143,100
6,719,567
47.0
Dushanbe
Turkmenistan
488,100
4,688,963
9.6
Ashgabat
Uzbekistan
447,400
25,563,441
57.1
Tashkent
Eastern Asia:
China[13]
9,584,492
1,384,303,705
134.0
Beijing
Hong Kong (China)[14]
1,092
7,303,334
6,688.0
—
Japan
377,835
126,974,628
336.1
Tokyo
Macau (China)[15]
25
461,833
18,473.3
—
Mongolia
1,565,000
2,694,432
1.7
Ulaanbaatar
North Korea
120,540
22,224,195
184.4
Pyongyang
South Korea
98,480
48,324,000
490.7
Seoul
Taiwan[16]
35,980
22,548,009
626.7
Taipei
Northern Africa:
Egypt[17]
63,556
1,378,159
21.7
Cairo
Northern Asia:
Russia[18]
13,115,200
39,129,729
3.0
Moscow
Southeastern Asia:[19]
Brunei
5,770
350,898
60.8
Bandar Seri Begawan
Cambodia
181,040
12,775,324
70.6
Phnom Penh
Indonesia[20]
1,419,588
227,026,560
159.9
Jakarta
Laos
236,800
5,777,180
24.4
Vientiane
Malaysia
329,750
22,662,365
68.7
Kuala Lumpur
Myanmar (Burma)
678,500
42,238,224
62.3
Yangon[21]
Philippines
300,000
84,525,639
281.8
Manila
Singapore
704
4,483,900
6,369.0
Singapore
Thailand
514,000
62,354,402
121.3
Bangkok
Timor-Leste (East Timor)[22]
15,007
952,618
63.5
Dili
Vietnam
329,560
81,098,416
246.1
Hanoi
Southern Asia:
Afghanistan
647,500
27,755,775
42.9
Kabul
Bangladesh
144,000
133,376,684
926.2
Dhaka
Bhutan
47,000
672,425
14.3
Thimphu
India[23]
3,167,590
1,045,845,226
318.2
New Delhi
Iran
1,648,000
68,467,413
41.5
Tehran
Maldives
300
320,165
1,067.2
Malé
Nepal
140,800
25,873,917
183.8
Kathmandu
Pakistan
803,940
147,663,429
183.7
Islamabad
Sri Lanka
65,610
19,576,783
298.4
Colombo
Western Asia:
Armenia[24]
29,800
3,330,099
111.7
Yerevan
Azerbaijan[25]
46,870
3,845,127
82.0
Baku
Bahrain
665
656,397
987.1
Manama
Cyprus[26]
9,250
775,927
83.9
Nicosia
Gaza[27]
363
1,203,591
3,315.7
Gaza
Georgia[28]
20,460
2,032,004
99.3
Tbilisi
Iraq
437,072
24,001,816
54.9
Baghdad
Israel
20,770
6,029,529
290.3
Jerusalem[29]
Jordan
92,300
5,307,470
57.5
Amman
Kuwait
17,820
2,111,561
118.5
Kuwait City
Lebanon
10,400
3,677,780
353.6
Beirut
Oman
212,460
2,713,462
12.8
Muscat
Qatar
11,437
793,341
69.4
Doha
Saudi Arabia
1,960,582
23,513,330
12.0
Riyadh
Syria
185,180
17,155,814
92.6
Damascus
Turkey[30]
756,768
57,855,068
76.5
Ankara
United Arab Emirates
82,880
2,445,989
29.5
Abu Dhabi
West Bank[31]
5,860
2,303,660
393.1
—
Yemen
527,970
18,701,257
35.4
Sanaá
Total
43,810,582
3,902,404,193
89.07
NATURAL WONDERS OF ASIA
The sights of Asia are numerous and varied in nature. Be it man-made or not, the sheer beauty and awe inspired by these simply take visitors’ breath away. Here is a run down of the natural attractions and wonders to be found in Asia where Mother Nature’s hand is very much at work.
Limestone Karst Formations - a hallmark of Southeast Asia, these soaring vertical massifs are best seen in Krabi, Guilin, Kunming and Halong Bay. The limestone karsts of southern Thailand have featured in many famous movies, including James Bond’s "The Man with the Golden Gun" (hence the James Bond Island near Phuket). These dramatic crags rise from the water’s edge and valley floors to vertical heights in excess of 900 metres. Providing ample pleasures for rock climbers, and cavers, they also offer a splendid backdrop for the less adventurous, claustrophobic or vertiginous.
Flaming Cliffs - Mongolia's dramatic red sandstone mountains rise out of the Gobi Desert, and have been the site of major dinosaur finds. Most famous for the first nest of dinosaur eggs and other fossils found here by the American paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews in the 1920s. He nicknamed this site "Flaming Cliffs" for the surreal glowing orange color of the rock
Mt. Bromo - Considered by many to be the archetypal volcano, Mt. Bromo is one of the most popular and well known of East Java's tourist attractions. The pre-dawn departure and trek across the mountain's famous 'sand sea', to watch the sunrise at the crater rim, has become something of a ritual, enacted daily by people of every nationality.
The Himalayas - stretching from northwest India, to Nepal and Bhutan, the Himalayas captivate all visitors with their majestic splendor. About 2,400 kilometers in length and varying in width from 240 to 330 kilometers, the Himalayan Mountain System is made up of three parallel ranges--the Greater Himalayas, the Lesser Himalayas, and the Outer Himalayas--sometimes collectively called the Great Himalayan Range. The Greater Himalayas, or northern range, average approximately 6,000 meters in height and contain the three highest mountains on earth: Mount Everest (8,796 meters) on the China-Nepal border; K2 (8,611 meters, also known as Mount Godwin-Austen, and in China as Qogir Feng) in an area claimed by India, Pakistan, and China; and Kanchenjunga (8,598 meters) on the India-Nepal border.
Ayers Rock - sacred to the local Aboriginal people of Australia, Uluru is deeply moving, and radiant in the desert sun. Ayers Rock is a magnetic mound large - but not unlike Silbury Hill in England. It is located on a major planetary grid point much like the Great Pyramid in Egypt.It is the world's largest monolith rising 318m above the desert floor with a circumference of 8 km. It is considered once of the great wonders of the world. It is located in the Kata Tjuta National Park, which is owned and run by the local Aboriginals. The Australian government handed ownership of the land back to the Aboriginals some years ago.
Tiger Leaping Gorge - An ancient legend says that a tiger used this rock as its stepping stone so it could leap across from one side of the gorge to the other, which is how the gorge got its name.Believed to be the deepest gorge in the world. From the top of the gorge you look down the steeply angled (70-90 degrees) mountain sides to the rushing Golden Sands (Jingsha) River with its 18 frothing rapids more than 200 meters (about 700 feet) below.
Chocolate Hills - The Chocolate Hills are probably Bohol's most famous tourist attraction. Looking like giant mole hills, people are more often reminded of the hills in a small child's drawing. Most people who first see pictures of this landscape can hardly believe that these hills are not a man-made artifact. However, this idea is quickly abandoned, as the effort would surely surpass the construction of the pyramids in Egypts. The chocolate hills consist of are no less than 1268 hills (some claim this to be the exact number). They are very uniform in shape and mostly between 30 and 50 metres high. They are covered with grass, which, at the end of the dry season, turns chocolate brown. From this color, the hills derive their name.
Great Barrier Reef – Located in Australia, the Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest living organism and home to scores and multitudes of different kinds of fish. The reef is best explored by chartering a boat, diving, or snorkeling.
Niah Caves - Humans inhabited Niah Great Cave over 40,000 years ago. Today, local Penan tribesmen venture into the cave to collect edible bird’s nests and the guano dropped by the myriad swiftlets and bats that live there.
Tonle Sap – The largest lake in Southeast Asia, Cambodia's famed lake's waters actually flow in reverse during the monsoon, creating an abundance of fish and fertile soil. It is fed by numerous streams, and drains by the Tônlé Sab River southeast to the Mekong River.
Yangtze River in China –The Yangtze River is the longest river in Asia and third longest in the world. The headwaters of the Yangtze are situated at an elevation of about 16,000 feet in the Kunlun Mountains in the southwestern section of Qinghai. It flows generally south through Sichuan into Yuanan then northeast and east across central China through Sichuan, Hubei, Auhui, and Juangsu provinces to its mouth, 3,720 miles, in the East China Sea north of Shanghai
Mount Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan. It straddles the boundary of Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures just west of Tokyo, from where it can be seen on a clear day. It is located near the Pacific coast of central Honshū. Three small cities surround it, they are: Gotemba (East), Fuji-Yoshida (North) and Fujinomiya (Southwest).Mount Fuji's exceptionally symmetrical cone is a well-known symbol of Japan and is frequently depicted in art and photographs, as well as visited by sightseers and climbers.
MAN-MADE OF ASIA
Angkor Wat
This fantastic collection of temples and palaces located in the depths of a Cambodian jungle reveal a glimpse into the apex of an ancient world, where Hindi and Buddhist mysticism reigned supreme, as manifested by some of the most astonishing art and architecture ever produced in human history. Built between the 9th and 13th centuries to serve as different capitals of the powerful Khmer Empire, the breathtaking Angkor complex’s most fabled site of all is Angkor Wat, a three-leveled sandstone pyramid, measuring 699 feet from base to tip, and exemplifying the zenith of Khmer architecture. The sight leaves no visitor unstirred – and we urge you to climb the near-vertical stone stairway to the third level for incredible panoramic views of the complex below.
The Acropolis
The Acropolis, the prominent hilltop that harbored Athens’ first settlers as early as 5000 BC, is today an archaeological gold mine, particularly venerated for the white-marble Parthenon (constructed from 447–432 BC) that stands on its flanks. This awe-inspiring Greek temple, a sublime 46-column shrine to the Goddess Athena (the city’s namesake and patron), is a commanding monument that always enthralls spectators, but those that make the pilgrimage to the Acropolis’ summit will also encounter a slew of ancient theaters, temples, and tombs dedicated to various heroes of Greek mythology. Should the city’s renowned smog be absent during your visit, the sublime views over Athens are another monumental draw.
Chichén Itzá
Ancient Mayans were known for their supremacy in many fields – mathematics, astronomy, and architecture among them – evidence of which is best demonstrated at Chichén Itzá, about 117 miles west of Cancun, on Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. Occupied by the Mayans from the 7th to early 13th centuries, the superb complex consists of two primary zones influenced by Toltec and Puuc architecture, complete with massive stone platforms, towering pyramids and temples, and mysterious ball courts – and, of course, the famous Chac Mool statue that frequently graces Mexico tourism brochures. The star attraction, however, is the central pyramid, El Castillo, whose steep steps can be climbed with the help of a rope; those that muster the effort to reach the top will be rewarded with stunning views of the city amidst the Yucatan’s natural splendor.
Dubai
We may be getting ahead of ourselves by naming Dubai – considering that most of its wonders have yet to be built by man – but this United Arab Emirate is already causing an international stir with its epic list of in-the-works architectural projects. Must-see attractions that are nearing completion include the Palm Islands, a collection of manmade isles shaped like palm trees which will accommodate apartments, spas, diving sites, and more; Hydropolis, an underwater luxury hotel that’s 66 feet below the Persian Gulf’s surface (due to open in 2007); Burj Dubai, the world's newest tallest skyscraper (due in 2009); and Dubai land, a sort of Disney World in the Middle East, that will be divided into six themed "worlds" (some are set to open in 2008). Once all is said and built, don't be surprised if this desert city reaches superstar tourism status.
The Great Pyramids of Giza
The Great Pyramids of Giza are the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World to remain in existence today – and, as such, are a must on any list of this kind. Travelers in search of the ultimate testament to one of the world’s most ancient civilizations are guaranteed a profound sensory impact when confronted with the pyramids’ epic scale: The Pyramid of Cheops – or the Great Pyramid – is the most mammoth of the Pharaoic monuments to dominate the Giza Plateau, where a trio of king’s pyramids, several smaller queens’ pyramids, and mastabas speckle the plain in the shadow of the spectacular Sphinx.
Las Vegas Strip
You needn’t leave the country to see many of the world’s man-made wonders – just visit this desert oasis in Nevada instead, where, in a roughly four-mile stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South, aka The Strip, you can see an Egyptian pyramid, Arthurian castle, Arabian Kasbah, the Statue of Liberty, St. Mark’s Square, the Eiffel Tower, and more, as part of its celebrated skyline. Aside from the sheer superficial splendor of it all, Vegas' core existence is a downright miracle, given its harsh desert climate and terrain. Thanks to the engineering genius that went into the 1936 damming of the Colorado River, some 30 miles southeast of the city – resulting in the famous Hoover Dam (itself a man-made marvel of sorts) – an energy jackpot was born to keep this pulsating desert anomaly alit in neon lights.
Machu Picchu
Rediscovered in 1911 and believed to be the legendary “lost city of the Incas”, the dramatic ruins of Machu Picchu, set high in Peru’s Andes Mountains, are the only significant Incan site to remain unharmed by the 16th-century Spanish conquistadors. Theories about the site's role in the Inca Empire continue to inspire intellectual curiosity, but its stunning landscape – the way the limestone temples, steep terraces, and aqueducts complement the land, in keeping with the Incan veneration of nature, and the way daybreak slowly creeps over the majestic peaks, unveiling the ruins stone by stone – is what makes Machu Picchu one of the most spectacular sights in South America – and the world over.
Taipei 101
Ever since 1885, when the first skyscraper was introduced in Chicago (the no-longer-extant Home Insurance Building), cities around the globe have been building up to claim the tallest laurels. For the time being, those bragging rights belong to Taiwan, for its record-breaking Taipei 101, the first building ever to exceed 500m (1/3 of a mile) in height. Taipei 101’s architecture and design is as impressive as its height, inspired as it is by traditional pagodas and bamboo, and incorporating a layout approved by a Feng Shui master. You can reach Zen-like heights here by zipping up to the 89th-floor indoor observation deck, or by going higher still, to the outdoor platform on 91st (the highest of its kind in the world). But get there fast – the Burj Dubai, in Dubai (see above) is expected to best Taipei 101 in 2009.
Taj Mahal
The sheer magnificence of India’s Taj Mahal is a dream-like vision your eyes won’t soon forget. Built entirely of white marble and inlaid with semi-precious stones like jade, crystal, coral, and turquoise, this ethereal temple took 20,000 workers and 22 years to complete, in 1643, as a mausoleum for Emperor Shah Jahan’s wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Rising above a river and framed by four minarets, the Taj, with its perfect symmetry, intricate mosaic details, and utter refinement, is not only one of the world’s most beautiful buildings, it’s also considered a testament to undying love and a symbol of lasting beauty.
Three Gorges Dam
The Great Wall was once China's claim to fame in the man-made-marvel department, but its new Three Gorges Dam along the Yangtze River is not only said to be the country's largest construction project since the Wall, but also its future source of energy, commerce, and defense against the Yangtze’s treacherous floods. One-and-a-half-miles wide and more than 600 feet high, the dam’s colossal reservoir allows 10,000-ton ocean freighters to sail some 1500 miles inland and, perhaps more impressive, its hydropower turbines will create as much electricity as 18 nuclear-power plants. While controversy has shrouded the project, advocates promise the environmental benefits will outweigh the environmental damages. Whichever side you take, one thing is certain: the modern world will marvel at the engineering muscle behind the Three Gorges Dam for years to come.
EUROCENTRIC
Eurocentrism is the practice, conscious or subconscious, of placing emphasis on European (and, generally, Western) concerns, culture and values at the expense of those of other cultures. Eurocentrism is an instance of ethnocentrism, perhaps especially relevant because of its alignment with current and past real power structures in the world. Eurocentrism often involved claiming cultures that were not white or European as being such, or denying their existence at all.
The source of a cultural tradition can be seen in the balance of emphasis given to various thinkers and ideas in discussing a subject. In the 1960s a reaction against the priority given to a canon of "Dead White European Males" provided a slogan which neatly sums up the charge of eurocentrism (alongside other important -centrisms).
In Britain, eurocentric and eurocentrist are occasionally used in political discourse to describe supporters of European integration and the European Union, in other words as an antonym of eurosceptic.
Examples of purported Eurocentrism
The European miracle theory of Europe's rise to its current economic and political position has often been criticised for Eurocentrism, though the scientific and cultural changes in Europe in the post-Renaissance era are undeniably central to the creation of the modern world.
World map showing Europe horizontally centred
Cartesian maps have been designed throughout known history to centre the northwestern part of Europe (most notably Great Britain) in the map, although American map makers do otherwise, as do the Chinese. The definition of the prime meridian, placed in Greenwich, London is likewise said to be Eurocentric. The Greenwich Meridian has today been universally recognised as the longitudinal line representing zero degrees east and west mainly because by doing so it places the International Date Line in the Pacific and so inconveniences the smallest number of people. In a purely geographic sense, mainly in cartography, all places in the world not on this meridian are said to be either 'east' or 'west', and hence in either the eastern hemisphere or western hemisphere. Arranging two-dimensional maps in broadly this arrangement has the advantage that it ensures that all land regions can be concentrated in the centre without continents (except Antarctica) being significantly split between the Eastern and Western hemispheres. centre of the world.
MAN-MADE OF ASIA
Angkor Wat
This fantastic collection of temples and palaces located in the depths of a Cambodian jungle reveal a glimpse into the apex of an ancient world, where Hindi and Buddhist mysticism reigned supreme, as manifested by some of the most astonishing art and architecture ever produced in human history. Built between the 9th and 13th centuries to serve as different capitals of the powerful Khmer Empire, the breathtaking Angkor complex’s most fabled site of all is Angkor Wat, a three-leveled sandstone pyramid, measuring 699 feet from base to tip, and exemplifying the zenith of Khmer architecture. The sight leaves no visitor unstirred – and we urge you to climb the near-vertical stone stairway to the third level for incredible panoramic views of the complex below.
The Acropolis
The Acropolis, the prominent hilltop that harbored Athens’ first settlers as early as 5000 BC, is today an archaeological gold mine, particularly venerated for the white-marble Parthenon (constructed from 447–432 BC) that stands on its flanks. This awe-inspiring Greek temple, a sublime 46-column shrine to the Goddess Athena (the city’s namesake and patron), is a commanding monument that always enthralls spectators, but those that make the pilgrimage to the Acropolis’ summit will also encounter a slew of ancient theaters, temples, and tombs dedicated to various heroes of Greek mythology. Should the city’s renowned smog be absent during your visit, the sublime views over Athens are another monumental draw.
Chichén Itzá
Ancient Mayans were known for their supremacy in many fields – mathematics, astronomy, and architecture among them – evidence of which is best demonstrated at Chichén Itzá, about 117 miles west of Cancun, on Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. Occupied by the Mayans from the 7th to early 13th centuries, the superb complex consists of two primary zones influenced by Toltec and Puuc architecture, complete with massive stone platforms, towering pyramids and temples, and mysterious ball courts – and, of course, the famous Chac Mool statue that frequently graces Mexico tourism brochures. The star attraction, however, is the central pyramid, El Castillo, whose steep steps can be climbed with the help of a rope; those that muster the effort to reach the top will be rewarded with stunning views of the city amidst the Yucatan’s natural splendor.
Dubai
We may be getting ahead of ourselves by naming Dubai – considering that most of its wonders have yet to be built by man – but this United Arab Emirate is already causing an international stir with its epic list of in-the-works architectural projects. Must-see attractions that are nearing completion include the Palm Islands, a collection of manmade isles shaped like palm trees which will accommodate apartments, spas, diving sites, and more; Hydropolis, an underwater luxury hotel that’s 66 feet below the Persian Gulf’s surface (due to open in 2007); Burj Dubai, the world's newest tallest skyscraper (due in 2009); and Dubai land, a sort of Disney World in the Middle East, that will be divided into six themed "worlds" (some are set to open in 2008). Once all is said and built, don't be surprised if this desert city reaches superstar tourism status.
The Great Pyramids of Giza
The Great Pyramids of Giza are the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World to remain in existence today – and, as such, are a must on any list of this kind. Travelers in search of the ultimate testament to one of the world’s most ancient civilizations are guaranteed a profound sensory impact when confronted with the pyramids’ epic scale: The Pyramid of Cheops – or the Great Pyramid – is the most mammoth of the Pharaoic monuments to dominate the Giza Plateau, where a trio of king’s pyramids, several smaller queens’ pyramids, and mastabas speckle the plain in the shadow of the spectacular Sphinx.
Las Vegas Strip
You needn’t leave the country to see many of the world’s man-made wonders – just visit this desert oasis in Nevada instead, where, in a roughly four-mile stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South, aka The Strip, you can see an Egyptian pyramid, Arthurian castle, Arabian Kasbah, the Statue of Liberty, St. Mark’s Square, the Eiffel Tower, and more, as part of its celebrated skyline. Aside from the sheer superficial splendor of it all, Vegas' core existence is a downright miracle, given its harsh desert climate and terrain. Thanks to the engineering genius that went into the 1936 damming of the Colorado River, some 30 miles southeast of the city – resulting in the famous Hoover Dam (itself a man-made marvel of sorts) – an energy jackpot was born to keep this pulsating desert anomaly alit in neon lights.
Machu Picchu
Rediscovered in 1911 and believed to be the legendary “lost city of the Incas”, the dramatic ruins of Machu Picchu, set high in Peru’s Andes Mountains, are the only significant Incan site to remain unharmed by the 16th-century Spanish conquistadors. Theories about the site's role in the Inca Empire continue to inspire intellectual curiosity, but its stunning landscape – the way the limestone temples, steep terraces, and aqueducts complement the land, in keeping with the Incan veneration of nature, and the way daybreak slowly creeps over the majestic peaks, unveiling the ruins stone by stone – is what makes Machu Picchu one of the most spectacular sights in South America – and the world over.
Taipei 101
Ever since 1885, when the first skyscraper was introduced in Chicago (the no-longer-extant Home Insurance Building), cities around the globe have been building up to claim the tallest laurels. For the time being, those bragging rights belong to Taiwan, for its record-breaking Taipei 101, the first building ever to exceed 500m (1/3 of a mile) in height. Taipei 101’s architecture and design is as impressive as its height, inspired as it is by traditional pagodas and bamboo, and incorporating a layout approved by a Feng Shui master. You can reach Zen-like heights here by zipping up to the 89th-floor indoor observation deck, or by going higher still, to the outdoor platform on 91st (the highest of its kind in the world). But get there fast – the Burj Dubai, in Dubai (see above) is expected to best Taipei 101 in 2009.
Taj Mahal
The sheer magnificence of India’s Taj Mahal is a dream-like vision your eyes won’t soon forget. Built entirely of white marble and inlaid with semi-precious stones like jade, crystal, coral, and turquoise, this ethereal temple took 20,000 workers and 22 years to complete, in 1643, as a mausoleum for Emperor Shah Jahan’s wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Rising above a river and framed by four minarets, the Taj, with its perfect symmetry, intricate mosaic details, and utter refinement, is not only one of the world’s most beautiful buildings, it’s also considered a testament to undying love and a symbol of lasting beauty.
Three Gorges Dam
The Great Wall was once China's claim to fame in the man-made-marvel department, but its new Three Gorges Dam along the Yangtze River is not only said to be the country's largest construction project since the Wall, but also its future source of energy, commerce, and defense against the Yangtze’s treacherous floods. One-and-a-half-miles wide and more than 600 feet high, the dam’s colossal reservoir allows 10,000-ton ocean freighters to sail some 1500 miles inland and, perhaps more impressive, its hydropower turbines will create as much electricity as 18 nuclear-power plants. While controversy has shrouded the project, advocates promise the environmental benefits will outweigh the environmental damages. Whichever side you take, one thing is certain: the modern world will marvel at the engineering muscle behind the Three Gorges Dam for years to come.
EUROCENTRIC
Eurocentrism is the practice, conscious or subconscious, of placing emphasis on European (and, generally, Western) concerns, culture and values at the expense of those of other cultures. Eurocentrism is an instance of ethnocentrism, perhaps especially relevant because of its alignment with current and past real power structures in the world. Eurocentrism often involved claiming cultures that were not white or European as being such, or denying their existence at all.
The source of a cultural tradition can be seen in the balance of emphasis given to various thinkers and ideas in discussing a subject. In the 1960s a reaction against the priority given to a canon of "Dead White European Males" provided a slogan which neatly sums up the charge of eurocentrism (alongside other important -centrisms).
In Britain, eurocentric and eurocentrist are occasionally used in political discourse to describe supporters of European integration and the European Union, in other words as an antonym of eurosceptic.
Examples of purported Eurocentrism
The European miracle theory of Europe's rise to its current economic and political position has often been criticised for Eurocentrism, though the scientific and cultural changes in Europe in the post-Renaissance era are undeniably central to the creation of the modern world.
World map showing Europe horizontally centred
Cartesian maps have been designed throughout known history to centre the northwestern part of Europe (most notably Great Britain) in the map, although American map makers do otherwise, as do the Chinese. The definition of the prime meridian, placed in Greenwich, London is likewise said to be Eurocentric. The Greenwich Meridian has today been universally recognised as the longitudinal line representing zero degrees east and west mainly because by doing so it places the International Date Line in the Pacific and so inconveniences the smallest number of people. In a purely geographic sense, mainly in cartography, all places in the world not on this meridian are said to be either 'east' or 'west', and hence in either the eastern hemisphere or western hemisphere. Arranging two-dimensional maps in broadly this arrangement has the advantage that it ensures that all land regions can be concentrated in the centre without continents (except Antarctica) being significantly split between the Eastern and Western hemispheres. centre of the world.
IMAGINARY LINES OF THE EARTH
Latitude lines
Imaginary lines running horizontally around the globe. Also called parallels, latitude lines are equidistant from each other. Each degree of latitude is about 69 miles (110 km) apart. Zero degrees (0°) latitude is the equator, the widest circumference of the globe. Latitude is measured from 0° to 90° north and 0° to 90° south—90° north is the North Pole and 90° south is the South Pole.
Longitude lines
Imaginary lines, also called meridians, running vertically around the globe. Unlike latitude lines, longitude lines are not parallel. Meridians meet at the poles and are widest apart at the equator. Zero degrees longitude (0°) is called the prime meridian. The degrees of longitude run 180° east and 180° west from the prime meridian.
Geographic coordinates
Latitude and longitude lines form an imaginary grid over the Earth's surface. By combining longitude and latitude measurements, any location on earth can be determined. The units of measurement for geographic coordinates are degrees (°), minutes ('), and seconds ("). Like a circle, the Earth has 360 degrees. Each degree is divided into 60 minutes, which in turn is divided into 60 seconds. Latitude and longitude coordinates also include cardinal directions: north or south of the equator for latitude,
and east or west of the prime meridian for longitude. The geographic coordinates of New York City, for example, are 40° N, 74° W, meaning that it is located 40 degrees north latitude and 74 degrees west longitude. Using minutes and seconds as well as degrees, the coordinates for New York would be 40°42'51" N, 74°0'23" W. (Latitude is always listed first.) A less common format for listing coordinates is in decimal degrees. The Tropic of Cancer, for example, can be expressed in degrees and minutes (23°30' N) or in decimal degrees (23.5° N).
Hemisphere
A hemisphere is half the Earth's surface. The four hemispheres are the Northern and Southern hemispheres, divided by the equator (0° latitude), and the Eastern and Western hemispheres, divided by the prime meridian (0° longitude) and the International Date Line (180°).
Equator
Zero degrees latitude. The Sun is directly overhead the equator at noon on the two equinoxes (March and Sept. 20 or 21). The equator divides the globe into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. The equator appears halfway between the North and South poles, at the widest circumference of the globe. It is 24,901.55 miles (40,075.16 km) long.
Prime meridian
Zero degrees longitude (0°). The prime meridian runs through the Royal Greenwich Observatory in Greenwich, England (the location was established in 1884 by international agreement). The prime meridian divides the globe into the Western and Eastern hemispheres. The Earth's time zones are measured from the prime meridian. The time at 0° is called Universal Time (UT) or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). With the Greenwich meridian as the starting point, each 15° east and west marks a new time zone. The 24 time zones extend east and west around the globe for 180° to the International Date Line. When it is noon along the prime meridian, it is midnight along the International Date Line.
International Date Line
Located at 180° longitude (180° E and 180° W are the same meridian). Regions to the east of the International Date Line are counted as being one calendar day earlier than the regions to the west. Although the International Date Line generally follows the 180° meridian (most of which lies in the Pacific Ocean), it does diverge in places. Since 180° runs through several countries, it would divide those countries not simply into two different time zones, but into two different calendar days. To avoid such unnecessary confusion, the date line dips and bends around countries to permit them to share the same time.
Tropic of Cancer
A line of latitude located at 23°30' north of the equator. The Sun is directly overhead the Tropic of Cancer on the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere (June 20 or 21). It marks the northernmost point of the tropics, which falls between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
Tropic of Capricorn
A line of latitude located at 23°30' south. The Sun is directly overhead the Tropic of Capricorn on the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere (Dec. 20 or 21). It marks the southernmost point of the tropics.
Arctic Circle
A line of latitude located at 66°30' north, delineating the Northern Frigid Zone of the Earth.
Antarctic Circle
A line of latitude located at 66°30' south, delineating the Southern Frigid Zone of the Earth.
Globe
The most accurate map of the Earth, duplicating its spherical shape and relative size.
Map projections
Two-dimensional representations of the three-dimensional Earth. Because projections attempt to present the spherical Earth on a flat plane, they inevitably produce distortions. Map projections are numerous and complex (e.g., there are a variety of cylindrical, conic, or azimuthal projections). Each projection has advantages and serves different purposes, and each produces different types of distortions in direction, distance, shape, and relative size of areas. One of the most famous projections is the Mercator, created by Geradus Mercator in 1569. It is a rectangular-shaped map in which all longitude and latitude lines are parallel and intersect at right angles (on a globe, meridians are not parallel, but grow narrower, eventually converging at the poles). Near the equator, the scale of the Mercator is accurate, but the farther one moves toward the poles, the greater the distortion—Antarctica in the far south and Greenland in the far north, for example, appear gigantic. The Mercator projection was used well into the 20th century, but has now been superseded by others, including the widely used Robinson projection. The Robinson projection is an elliptical-shaped map with a flat top and bottom. Developed in 1963 by Arthur H. Robinson, it is an orthophanic (“right appearing”) projection, which attempts to reflect the spherical appearance of the Earth. The meridians, for example, are curved arcs, which gives the flat map a three-dimensional appearance. But to convey the likeness of a curved, three-dimensional globe, the Robinson projection must in fact distort shape, area, scale, and distance. The Albers, Lambert, Mollweide, and Winkel Tripel are some of the other commonly used map projections.
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF ASIAN
CLIMATE AND RAINFALL IN ASIA
Asia stretches about 5,000 miles from north of the Arctic Circle to south of the equator. From east to west Asia stretches nearly halfway around the world. This vast area has many different kinds of climate. Asia has some of the coldest and some of the hottest, some of the wettest and some of the driest places on earth.
The great interior lands of Asia are far from the ocean. Winds from the oceans cut off by the high mountain chains which surround the interior. Because of this, the climate of central Asia is one of extremes. Winters are long and cold, chilled by cold winds from the polar regions. Summers everywhere but the highlands are short and hot. Except in the mountains, there is little rainfall. Consequently, much of the region is desert.
Northern Asia has much the same sort of climate as central Asia, except that is has more rainfall. Winters are extremely cold-the coldest inhabited place in the world is a village in Siberia called Verkhoyansk. The temperature there sometimes drops to 90 degrees below zero.
In southern Asia the climate is quite different. Here is is hot all year round, except in the mountains. The temperature in the lowlands may reach as high as 125 degrees. There are no summer and winter as we know them. Instead, there is a rainy season and a dry season.
The rainy season usually lasts from June through October. During that period it rains heavily everyday. More rain falls in this part of the Asia than in any other place in the world. Some areas in India get more than 450 inches of rainfall during the rainy season.
The rainy and dry seasons are caused by winds called monsoons, which blow from central Asia toward the southern and eastern edges of the continent. Winter monsoons are dry winds because they blow over dry land. They are cold because they come from a cold region. The summer monsoons blow inland from the oceans, bringing moisture as far inland as they reach.
The rainy season is very important to the millions of people who live in southern and eastern Asia. This is the reason when they planted the crops on which they depend for their food. Without the rains the plants will not grow. Drought brings famine, and thousands of people starve. Sometimes the monsoons are late, and crops cannot be planted in time to ripen. Sometimes the monsoons bring floods.
Southwestern Asia is another very dry region. Summers there are long and very hot. Winters are relatively mild except in the far interior. In certain areas of southwestern Asia, winter is the rainy season. It is also the growing season, because crops would die in the hot, dry summers.
Climate has a great influence on the way people live. For example, the people of northern Siberia live in a region of long, extremely cold winters and short summers. The soil is permanently frozen beneath the surface, making farming impossible. The natives of northern Siberia.
Natural Resources
Natural resources are naturally occurring substances that are considered valuable in their relatively unmodified (natural) form. A natural resource's value rests in the amount of the material available and the demand for the certain material. The latter is determined by its usefulness to production. A commodity is generally considered a natural resource when the primary activities associated with it are extraction and purification, as opposed to creation. Thus, mining, petroleum extraction, fishing, hunting, and forestry are generally considered natural-resource industries, while agriculture is not. The term was introduced to a broad audience by E.F. Schumacher in his 1970s book Small is Beautiful.
Natural resources are often classified into renewable, flow, and non-renewable resources. Renewable resources are generally living resources (fish, reindeer, coffee, and forests, for example), which can restock (renew) themselves if they are not over-harvested. Renewable resources can restock themselves and be used indefinitely if they are used sustainably. Once renewable resources are consumed at a rate that exceeds their natural rate of replacement, the standing stock (see renewable energy) will diminish and eventually run out. The rate of sustainable use of a renewable resource is determined by the replacement rate and amount of standing stock of that particular resource. Non-living renewable natural resources include soil and water.
Flow renewable resources are very much like renewable resources, only they do not need regeneration, unlike renewable resources. Flow renewable resources include wind, tides and solar radiation
Resources can also be classified on the basis of their origin as biotic and abiotic. Biotic resources are derived from animals and plants (i.e., the living world). Abiotic resouces are derived from the non-living world (e.g., land, water, and air). Mineral and power resources are also abiotic resources some of which are derived from nature.
Both extraction of the basic resource and refining it into a purer, directly usable form, (e.g., metals, refined oils) are generally considered natural-resource activities, even though the latter may not necessarily occur near the former.
Natural resources are natural capital converted to commodity inputs to infrastructural capital processes. They include soil, timber, oil, minerals, and other goods taken more or less from the Earth.
A nation's natural resources often determine its wealth and status in the world economic system, by determining its political influence. Developed nations are those which are less dependent on natural resources for wealth, due to their greater reliance on infrastructural capital for production. However, some see a resource curse whereby easily obtainable natural resources could actually hurt the prospects of a national economy by fostering political corruption.
In recent years, the depletion of natural capital and attempts to move to sustainable development have been a major focus of development agencies. This is of particular concern in rainforest regions, which hold most of the Earth's natural biodiversity - irreplaceable genetic natural capital. Conservation of natural resources is the major focus of Natural Capitalism, environmentalism, the ecology movement, and Green Parties. Some view this depletion as a major source of social unrest and conflicts in developing nations.
VEGETATION
Asia incorporates many different biomes, which are landscapes having similar combinations of climate, vegetation, and animal life.
The northernmost areas of Asia, which experience a sub polar climate, have tundra vegetation consisting of grasses, mosses, and other small plants. Farther inland from the Arctic coast, the tundra gives way to the taiga, a region of vast coniferous forests composed of trees such as spruce, larch, and fir. Farther south, the taiga merges with forests of broadleaf trees, or mixed forests of broadleaf and needle leaf trees.
In Asia’s north central interior the forests merge into vast grasslands, much of which is short, steppe grasses. Large portions of Southwest Asia and the continent’s interior have semiarid or desert vegetation. Short grasses and other vegetation that require minimal precipitation surround many of the most barren areas in the deserts.
Although tropical rain forest predominates along the southern coastal strip and on the island of Sri Lanka, the eastern side of South Asia is characterized by semiarid tropical vegetation. The Deccan Plateau has mainly tropical dry forest vegetation.
Mainland and island Southeast Asia once supported extensive areas of tropical rain forest, which thrived in the warm, moist climate. Significant tracts of forest remain in most countries, but legal and illegal harvesting is too rapid to support sustainable regrowth.
Inland from the coastal strips of mainland Southeast Asia and stretching into southern China, tropical seasonal forests predominate. These merge into temperate forests farther north. Around the rim of the Bo Hai gulf the vegetation is chaparral, woody shrubs that grow to 4 m (13 ft) in height.
Asia has three main crop production systems. Across a broad band encompassing the Middle East, Central Asia, much of Russian Asia, and the inner regions of China, subsistence livestock production is the mainstay. Around coastal China, and most of South and Southeast Asia, the major form of agricultural activity is subsistence crop production. Scattered throughout the region—especially in Japan, Southeast Asia, the western parts of Russia, and some fertile patches of the Middle East—are pockets of commercial crop production.
Economically important activities throughout Central Asia and Russia include the production of wheat and other grains, cotton, and vegetables. Southeast Asia and the southern parts of China and India are major rice-growing areas, although grain production and consumption is more common in the northern regions of China and India. Rubber trees and oil palm plantations are significant in Malaysia and Indonesia. Tea plantations are significant in India, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia.
ANIMALS
The great variety of wildlife in Asia includes many species that are unique to the continent. Orangutans, the second tallest of the ape family after gorillas, are found on Borneo and Sumatra. Giant pandas make their home in southwestern China, and snow leopards roam the plateaus and mountains of Central Asia. A rare freshwater seal lives in Lake Baikal. China’s Yangtze River is home to a freshwater dolphin threatened by water pollution and increased numbers of motorized river vessels. The Komodo dragon, the world’s largest lizard and among the oldest surviving lizards, inhabits a small island in eastern Indonesia.
Asia’s wildlife generally can be classified by the particular vegetation zones they inhabit. Reindeer live in the southern tundra region of northern Siberia. Small fur-bearing animals, such as sables and foxes, are plentiful in the taiga forest of Russian Asia. The grasslands are home to antelope and many rodents, including marmots. In the mountainous areas of Central Asia live tiny musk deer. Tigers, one species of which inhabits northern Siberia, are found throughout the tropical rain forests of South and Southeast Asia. This area is also home to rhinoceroses, monkeys, and several subspecies of elephants.
In the hilly regions of Southwest Asia live gazelles. A rare species of antelope known as the Oryx is found on the fringes of the desert areas of the Arabian Peninsula. Other animals commonly found in Southwest Asia include wolves and hyenas.
The remote mountainous region of Vietnam adjacent to the border with Laos has yielded some remarkable discoveries of animals previously unknown by scientists. A new species of cattle-like animal, the sao la (vu quang), was discovered in 1993, only the fourth discovery of this kind in the 20th century. Scientists have discovered other creatures since 1992, including two deer like animals, the giant muntjac and the quang khem.
Asia’s domesticated animals include water buffalo, which are harnessed to plows and carts. Cattle are also used for hauling, especially in India, which has the world’s largest cattle population. Most people in India do not eat beef because they belong to the Hindu religion, which considers cows sacred. Pigs are a major source of protein in China, although they are considered unclean in the Islamic countries, which include Pakistan, Afghanistan, and most countries of the Middle East. Sheep are kept across vast areas of semiarid Russian Asia, and reindeer are farmed in the north. People throughout the dry areas of the Middle East use camels.
The bird life of Asia is varied and includes several rare species. In the mountains of northern India lives the lammergeier, a huge bird similar to the vulture, that can obtain a wingspread of almost 3 m (10 ft). Peacocks and birds of paradise are found in the rain forests of Southeast Asia.
The continent of Asia is also home to many of the world’s poisonous snakes. Cobras, which are especially common in India, and kraits and vipers, which are found throughout the continent, are the leading poisonous snakes. Numerous other reptiles, such as crocodiles, live in the rivers of Southeast Asia.
NATURAL WONDERS AND MAN-MADE OF ASIA
The sights of Asia are numerous and varied in nature. Be it man-made or not, the sheer beauty and awe inspired by these simply take visitors’ breath away. Here is a run down of the natural attractions and wonders to be found in Asia where Mother Nature’s hand is very much at work.
NATURAL WONDER
Limestone Karst Formations - a hallmark of Southeast Asia, these soaring vertical massifs are best seen in Krabi, Guilin, Kunming and Halong Bay. The limestone karsts of southern Thailand have featured in many famous movies, including James Bond’s "The Man with the Golden Gun" (hence the James Bond Island near Phuket). These dramatic crags rise from the water’s edge and valley floors to vertical heights in excess of 900 metres. Providing ample pleasures for rock climbers, and cavers, they also offer a splendid backdrop for the less adventurous, claustrophobic or vertiginous.
Flaming Cliffs - Mongolia's dramatic red sandstone mountains rise out of the Gobi Desert, and have been the site of major dinosaur finds. Most famous for the first nest of dinosaur eggs and other fossils found here by the American paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews in the 1920s. He nicknamed this site "Flaming Cliffs" for the surreal glowing orange color of the rock
Mt. Bromo - Considered by many to be the archetypal volcano, Mt. Bromo is one of the most popular and well known of East Java's tourist attractions. The pre-dawn departure and trek across the mountain's famous 'sand sea', to watch the sunrise at the crater rim, has become something of a ritual, enacted daily by people of every nationality.
The Himalayas - stretching from northwest India, to Nepal and Bhutan, the Himalayas captivate all visitors with their majestic splendor. About 2,400 kilometers in length and varying in width from 240 to 330 kilometers, the Himalayan Mountain System is made up of three parallel ranges--the Greater Himalayas, the Lesser Himalayas, and the Outer Himalayas--sometimes collectively called the Great Himalayan Range. The Greater Himalayas, or northern range, average approximately 6,000 meters in height and contain the three highest mountains on earth: Mount Everest (8,796 meters) on the China-Nepal border; K2 (8,611 meters, also known as Mount Godwin-Austen, and in China as Qogir Feng) in an area claimed by India, Pakistan, and China; and Kanchenjunga (8,598 meters) on the India-Nepal border.
Ayers Rock - sacred to the local Aboriginal people of Australia, Uluru is deeply moving, and radiant in the desert sun. Ayers Rock is a magnetic mound large - but not unlike Silbury Hill in England. It is located on a major planetary grid point much like the Great Pyramid in Egypt.It is the world's largest monolith rising 318m above the desert floor with a circumference of 8 km. It is considered once of the great wonders of the world. It is located in the Kata Tjuta National Park, which is owned and run by the local Aboriginals. The Australian government handed ownership of the land back to the Aboriginals some years ago.
Tiger Leaping Gorge - An ancient legend says that a tiger used this rock as its stepping stone so it could leap across from one side of the gorge to the other, which is how the gorge got its name.Believed to be the deepest gorge in the world. From the top of the gorge you look down the steeply angled (70-90 degrees) mountain sides to the rushing Golden Sands (Jingsha) River with its 18 frothing rapids more than 200 meters (about 700 feet) below.
Chocolate Hills - The Chocolate Hills are probably Bohol's most famous tourist attraction. Looking like giant mole hills, people are more often reminded of the hills in a small child's drawing. Most people who first see pictures of this landscape can hardly believe that these hills are not a man-made artifact. However, this idea is quickly abandoned, as the effort would surely surpass the construction of the pyramids in Egypts. The chocolate hills consist of are no less than 1268 hills (some claim this to be the exact number). They are very uniform in shape and mostly between 30 and 50 metres high. They are covered with grass, which, at the end of the dry season, turns chocolate brown. From this color, the hills derive their name.
Great Barrier Reef – Located in Australia, the Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest living organism and home to scores and multitudes of different kinds of fish. The reef is best explored by chartering a boat, diving, or snorkeling.
Niah Caves - Humans inhabited Niah Great Cave over 40,000 years ago. Today, local Penan tribesmen venture into the cave to collect edible bird’s nests and the guano dropped by the myriad swiftlets and bats that live there.
Tonle Sap – The largest lake in Southeast Asia, Cambodia's famed lake's waters actually flow in reverse during the monsoon, creating an abundance of fish and fertile soil. It is fed by numerous streams, and drains by the Tônlé Sab River southeast to the Mekong River.
Yangtze River in China –The Yangtze River is the longest river in Asia and third longest in the world. The headwaters of the Yangtze are situated at an elevation of about 16,000 feet in the Kunlun Mountains in the southwestern section of Qinghai. It flows generally south through Sichuan into Yuanan then northeast and east across central China through Sichuan, Hubei, Auhui, and Juangsu provinces to its mouth, 3,720 miles, in the East China Sea north of Shanghai.
Mount Fuji -is the highest mountain in Japan. It straddles the boundary of Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures just west of Tokyo, from where it can be seen on a clear day. It is located near the Pacific coast of central Honshū. Three small cities surround it, they are: Gotemba (East), Fuji-Yoshida (North) and Fujinomiya (Southwest).Mount Fuji's exceptionally symmetrical cone is a well-known symbol of Japan and is frequently depicted in art and photographs, as well as visited by sightseers and climbers.
MAN-MADE
Angkor Wat
This fantastic collection of temples and palaces located in the depths of a Cambodian jungle reveal a glimpse into the apex of an ancient world, where Hindi and Buddhist mysticism reigned supreme, as manifested by some of the most astonishing art and architecture ever produced in human history.
The Acropolis
The Acropolis, the prominent hilltop that harbored Athens’ first settlers as early as 5000 BC, is today an archaeological gold mine, particularly venerated for the white-marble Parthenon (constructed from 447–432 BC) that stands on its flanks.
Chichén Itzá
Ancient Mayans were known for their supremacy in many fields – mathematics, astronomy, and architecture among them – evidence of which is best demonstrated at Chichén Itzá, about 117 miles west of Cancun, on Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula..
Dubai
We may be getting ahead of ourselves by naming Dubai – considering that most of its wonders have yet to be built by man – but this United Arab Emirate is already causing an international stir with its epic list of in-the-works architectural projects.
The Great Pyramids of Giza
The Great Pyramids of Giza are the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World to remain in existence today – and, as such, are a must on any list of this kind.
Las Vegas Strip
You needn’t leave the country to see many of the world’s man-made wonders – just visit this desert oasis in Nevada instead, where, in a roughly four-mile stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South, aka The Strip, you can see an Egyptian pyramid, Arthurian castle, Arabian Kasbah, the Statue of Liberty, St. Mark’s Square, the Eiffel Tower, and more, as part of its celebrated skyline. Aside from the sheer superficial splendor of it all, Vegas' core existence is a downright miracle, given its harsh desert climate and terrain
Machu Picchu
Rediscovered in 1911 and believed to be the legendary “lost city of the Incas”, the dramatic ruins of Machu Picchu, set high in Peru’s Andes Mountains, are the only significant Incan site to remain unharmed by the 16th-century Spanish conquistadors
Taipei 101
Ever since 1885, when the first skyscraper was introduced in Chicago (the no-longer-extant Home Insurance Building), cities around the globe have been building up to claim the tallest laurels.
Taj Mahal
The sheer magnificence of India’s Taj Mahal is a dream-like vision your eyes won’t soon forget. Built entirely of white marble and inlaid with semi-precious stones like jade, crystal, coral, and turquoise, this ethereal temple took 20,000 workers and 22 years to complete, in 1643, as a mausoleum for Emperor Shah Jahan’s wife, Mumtaz Mahal.
Three Gorges Dam
The Great Wall was once China's claim to fame in the man-made-marvel department, but its new Three Gorges Dam along the Yangtze River is not only said to be the country's largest construction project since the Wall, but also its future source of energy, commerce, and defense against the Yangtze’s treacherous floods.
Latitude lines
Imaginary lines running horizontally around the globe. Also called parallels, latitude lines are equidistant from each other. Each degree of latitude is about 69 miles (110 km) apart. Zero degrees (0°) latitude is the equator, the widest circumference of the globe. Latitude is measured from 0° to 90° north and 0° to 90° south—90° north is the North Pole and 90° south is the South Pole.
Longitude lines
Imaginary lines, also called meridians, running vertically around the globe. Unlike latitude lines, longitude lines are not parallel. Meridians meet at the poles and are widest apart at the equator. Zero degrees longitude (0°) is called the prime meridian. The degrees of longitude run 180° east and 180° west from the prime meridian.
Geographic coordinates
Latitude and longitude lines form an imaginary grid over the Earth's surface. By combining longitude and latitude measurements, any location on earth can be determined. The units of measurement for geographic coordinates are degrees (°), minutes ('), and seconds ("). Like a circle, the Earth has 360 degrees. Each degree is divided into 60 minutes, which in turn is divided into 60 seconds. Latitude and longitude coordinates also include cardinal directions: north or south of the equator for latitude,
and east or west of the prime meridian for longitude. The geographic coordinates of New York City, for example, are 40° N, 74° W, meaning that it is located 40 degrees north latitude and 74 degrees west longitude. Using minutes and seconds as well as degrees, the coordinates for New York would be 40°42'51" N, 74°0'23" W. (Latitude is always listed first.) A less common format for listing coordinates is in decimal degrees. The Tropic of Cancer, for example, can be expressed in degrees and minutes (23°30' N) or in decimal degrees (23.5° N).
Hemisphere
A hemisphere is half the Earth's surface. The four hemispheres are the Northern and Southern hemispheres, divided by the equator (0° latitude), and the Eastern and Western hemispheres, divided by the prime meridian (0° longitude) and the International Date Line (180°).
Equator
Zero degrees latitude. The Sun is directly overhead the equator at noon on the two equinoxes (March and Sept. 20 or 21). The equator divides the globe into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. The equator appears halfway between the North and South poles, at the widest circumference of the globe. It is 24,901.55 miles (40,075.16 km) long.
Prime meridian
Zero degrees longitude (0°). The prime meridian runs through the Royal Greenwich Observatory in Greenwich, England (the location was established in 1884 by international agreement). The prime meridian divides the globe into the Western and Eastern hemispheres. The Earth's time zones are measured from the prime meridian. The time at 0° is called Universal Time (UT) or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). With the Greenwich meridian as the starting point, each 15° east and west marks a new time zone. The 24 time zones extend east and west around the globe for 180° to the International Date Line. When it is noon along the prime meridian, it is midnight along the International Date Line.
International Date Line
Located at 180° longitude (180° E and 180° W are the same meridian). Regions to the east of the International Date Line are counted as being one calendar day earlier than the regions to the west. Although the International Date Line generally follows the 180° meridian (most of which lies in the Pacific Ocean), it does diverge in places. Since 180° runs through several countries, it would divide those countries not simply into two different time zones, but into two different calendar days. To avoid such unnecessary confusion, the date line dips and bends around countries to permit them to share the same time.
Tropic of Cancer
A line of latitude located at 23°30' north of the equator. The Sun is directly overhead the Tropic of Cancer on the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere (June 20 or 21). It marks the northernmost point of the tropics, which falls between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
Tropic of Capricorn
A line of latitude located at 23°30' south. The Sun is directly overhead the Tropic of Capricorn on the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere (Dec. 20 or 21). It marks the southernmost point of the tropics.
Arctic Circle
A line of latitude located at 66°30' north, delineating the Northern Frigid Zone of the Earth.
Antarctic Circle
A line of latitude located at 66°30' south, delineating the Southern Frigid Zone of the Earth.
Globe
The most accurate map of the Earth, duplicating its spherical shape and relative size.
Map projections
Two-dimensional representations of the three-dimensional Earth. Because projections attempt to present the spherical Earth on a flat plane, they inevitably produce distortions. Map projections are numerous and complex (e.g., there are a variety of cylindrical, conic, or azimuthal projections). Each projection has advantages and serves different purposes, and each produces different types of distortions in direction, distance, shape, and relative size of areas. One of the most famous projections is the Mercator, created by Geradus Mercator in 1569. It is a rectangular-shaped map in which all longitude and latitude lines are parallel and intersect at right angles (on a globe, meridians are not parallel, but grow narrower, eventually converging at the poles). Near the equator, the scale of the Mercator is accurate, but the farther one moves toward the poles, the greater the distortion—Antarctica in the far south and Greenland in the far north, for example, appear gigantic. The Mercator projection was used well into the 20th century, but has now been superseded by others, including the widely used Robinson projection. The Robinson projection is an elliptical-shaped map with a flat top and bottom. Developed in 1963 by Arthur H. Robinson, it is an orthophanic (“right appearing”) projection, which attempts to reflect the spherical appearance of the Earth. The meridians, for example, are curved arcs, which gives the flat map a three-dimensional appearance. But to convey the likeness of a curved, three-dimensional globe, the Robinson projection must in fact distort shape, area, scale, and distance. The Albers, Lambert, Mollweide, and Winkel Tripel are some of the other commonly used map projections.
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF ASIAN
CLIMATE AND RAINFALL IN ASIA
Asia stretches about 5,000 miles from north of the Arctic Circle to south of the equator. From east to west Asia stretches nearly halfway around the world. This vast area has many different kinds of climate. Asia has some of the coldest and some of the hottest, some of the wettest and some of the driest places on earth.
The great interior lands of Asia are far from the ocean. Winds from the oceans cut off by the high mountain chains which surround the interior. Because of this, the climate of central Asia is one of extremes. Winters are long and cold, chilled by cold winds from the polar regions. Summers everywhere but the highlands are short and hot. Except in the mountains, there is little rainfall. Consequently, much of the region is desert.
Northern Asia has much the same sort of climate as central Asia, except that is has more rainfall. Winters are extremely cold-the coldest inhabited place in the world is a village in Siberia called Verkhoyansk. The temperature there sometimes drops to 90 degrees below zero.
In southern Asia the climate is quite different. Here is is hot all year round, except in the mountains. The temperature in the lowlands may reach as high as 125 degrees. There are no summer and winter as we know them. Instead, there is a rainy season and a dry season.
The rainy season usually lasts from June through October. During that period it rains heavily everyday. More rain falls in this part of the Asia than in any other place in the world. Some areas in India get more than 450 inches of rainfall during the rainy season.
The rainy and dry seasons are caused by winds called monsoons, which blow from central Asia toward the southern and eastern edges of the continent. Winter monsoons are dry winds because they blow over dry land. They are cold because they come from a cold region. The summer monsoons blow inland from the oceans, bringing moisture as far inland as they reach.
The rainy season is very important to the millions of people who live in southern and eastern Asia. This is the reason when they planted the crops on which they depend for their food. Without the rains the plants will not grow. Drought brings famine, and thousands of people starve. Sometimes the monsoons are late, and crops cannot be planted in time to ripen. Sometimes the monsoons bring floods.
Southwestern Asia is another very dry region. Summers there are long and very hot. Winters are relatively mild except in the far interior. In certain areas of southwestern Asia, winter is the rainy season. It is also the growing season, because crops would die in the hot, dry summers.
Climate has a great influence on the way people live. For example, the people of northern Siberia live in a region of long, extremely cold winters and short summers. The soil is permanently frozen beneath the surface, making farming impossible. The natives of northern Siberia.
Natural Resources
Natural resources are naturally occurring substances that are considered valuable in their relatively unmodified (natural) form. A natural resource's value rests in the amount of the material available and the demand for the certain material. The latter is determined by its usefulness to production. A commodity is generally considered a natural resource when the primary activities associated with it are extraction and purification, as opposed to creation. Thus, mining, petroleum extraction, fishing, hunting, and forestry are generally considered natural-resource industries, while agriculture is not. The term was introduced to a broad audience by E.F. Schumacher in his 1970s book Small is Beautiful.
Natural resources are often classified into renewable, flow, and non-renewable resources. Renewable resources are generally living resources (fish, reindeer, coffee, and forests, for example), which can restock (renew) themselves if they are not over-harvested. Renewable resources can restock themselves and be used indefinitely if they are used sustainably. Once renewable resources are consumed at a rate that exceeds their natural rate of replacement, the standing stock (see renewable energy) will diminish and eventually run out. The rate of sustainable use of a renewable resource is determined by the replacement rate and amount of standing stock of that particular resource. Non-living renewable natural resources include soil and water.
Flow renewable resources are very much like renewable resources, only they do not need regeneration, unlike renewable resources. Flow renewable resources include wind, tides and solar radiation
Resources can also be classified on the basis of their origin as biotic and abiotic. Biotic resources are derived from animals and plants (i.e., the living world). Abiotic resouces are derived from the non-living world (e.g., land, water, and air). Mineral and power resources are also abiotic resources some of which are derived from nature.
Both extraction of the basic resource and refining it into a purer, directly usable form, (e.g., metals, refined oils) are generally considered natural-resource activities, even though the latter may not necessarily occur near the former.
Natural resources are natural capital converted to commodity inputs to infrastructural capital processes. They include soil, timber, oil, minerals, and other goods taken more or less from the Earth.
A nation's natural resources often determine its wealth and status in the world economic system, by determining its political influence. Developed nations are those which are less dependent on natural resources for wealth, due to their greater reliance on infrastructural capital for production. However, some see a resource curse whereby easily obtainable natural resources could actually hurt the prospects of a national economy by fostering political corruption.
In recent years, the depletion of natural capital and attempts to move to sustainable development have been a major focus of development agencies. This is of particular concern in rainforest regions, which hold most of the Earth's natural biodiversity - irreplaceable genetic natural capital. Conservation of natural resources is the major focus of Natural Capitalism, environmentalism, the ecology movement, and Green Parties. Some view this depletion as a major source of social unrest and conflicts in developing nations.
VEGETATION
Asia incorporates many different biomes, which are landscapes having similar combinations of climate, vegetation, and animal life.
The northernmost areas of Asia, which experience a sub polar climate, have tundra vegetation consisting of grasses, mosses, and other small plants. Farther inland from the Arctic coast, the tundra gives way to the taiga, a region of vast coniferous forests composed of trees such as spruce, larch, and fir. Farther south, the taiga merges with forests of broadleaf trees, or mixed forests of broadleaf and needle leaf trees.
In Asia’s north central interior the forests merge into vast grasslands, much of which is short, steppe grasses. Large portions of Southwest Asia and the continent’s interior have semiarid or desert vegetation. Short grasses and other vegetation that require minimal precipitation surround many of the most barren areas in the deserts.
Although tropical rain forest predominates along the southern coastal strip and on the island of Sri Lanka, the eastern side of South Asia is characterized by semiarid tropical vegetation. The Deccan Plateau has mainly tropical dry forest vegetation.
Mainland and island Southeast Asia once supported extensive areas of tropical rain forest, which thrived in the warm, moist climate. Significant tracts of forest remain in most countries, but legal and illegal harvesting is too rapid to support sustainable regrowth.
Inland from the coastal strips of mainland Southeast Asia and stretching into southern China, tropical seasonal forests predominate. These merge into temperate forests farther north. Around the rim of the Bo Hai gulf the vegetation is chaparral, woody shrubs that grow to 4 m (13 ft) in height.
Asia has three main crop production systems. Across a broad band encompassing the Middle East, Central Asia, much of Russian Asia, and the inner regions of China, subsistence livestock production is the mainstay. Around coastal China, and most of South and Southeast Asia, the major form of agricultural activity is subsistence crop production. Scattered throughout the region—especially in Japan, Southeast Asia, the western parts of Russia, and some fertile patches of the Middle East—are pockets of commercial crop production.
Economically important activities throughout Central Asia and Russia include the production of wheat and other grains, cotton, and vegetables. Southeast Asia and the southern parts of China and India are major rice-growing areas, although grain production and consumption is more common in the northern regions of China and India. Rubber trees and oil palm plantations are significant in Malaysia and Indonesia. Tea plantations are significant in India, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia.
ANIMALS
The great variety of wildlife in Asia includes many species that are unique to the continent. Orangutans, the second tallest of the ape family after gorillas, are found on Borneo and Sumatra. Giant pandas make their home in southwestern China, and snow leopards roam the plateaus and mountains of Central Asia. A rare freshwater seal lives in Lake Baikal. China’s Yangtze River is home to a freshwater dolphin threatened by water pollution and increased numbers of motorized river vessels. The Komodo dragon, the world’s largest lizard and among the oldest surviving lizards, inhabits a small island in eastern Indonesia.
Asia’s wildlife generally can be classified by the particular vegetation zones they inhabit. Reindeer live in the southern tundra region of northern Siberia. Small fur-bearing animals, such as sables and foxes, are plentiful in the taiga forest of Russian Asia. The grasslands are home to antelope and many rodents, including marmots. In the mountainous areas of Central Asia live tiny musk deer. Tigers, one species of which inhabits northern Siberia, are found throughout the tropical rain forests of South and Southeast Asia. This area is also home to rhinoceroses, monkeys, and several subspecies of elephants.
In the hilly regions of Southwest Asia live gazelles. A rare species of antelope known as the Oryx is found on the fringes of the desert areas of the Arabian Peninsula. Other animals commonly found in Southwest Asia include wolves and hyenas.
The remote mountainous region of Vietnam adjacent to the border with Laos has yielded some remarkable discoveries of animals previously unknown by scientists. A new species of cattle-like animal, the sao la (vu quang), was discovered in 1993, only the fourth discovery of this kind in the 20th century. Scientists have discovered other creatures since 1992, including two deer like animals, the giant muntjac and the quang khem.
Asia’s domesticated animals include water buffalo, which are harnessed to plows and carts. Cattle are also used for hauling, especially in India, which has the world’s largest cattle population. Most people in India do not eat beef because they belong to the Hindu religion, which considers cows sacred. Pigs are a major source of protein in China, although they are considered unclean in the Islamic countries, which include Pakistan, Afghanistan, and most countries of the Middle East. Sheep are kept across vast areas of semiarid Russian Asia, and reindeer are farmed in the north. People throughout the dry areas of the Middle East use camels.
The bird life of Asia is varied and includes several rare species. In the mountains of northern India lives the lammergeier, a huge bird similar to the vulture, that can obtain a wingspread of almost 3 m (10 ft). Peacocks and birds of paradise are found in the rain forests of Southeast Asia.
The continent of Asia is also home to many of the world’s poisonous snakes. Cobras, which are especially common in India, and kraits and vipers, which are found throughout the continent, are the leading poisonous snakes. Numerous other reptiles, such as crocodiles, live in the rivers of Southeast Asia.
NATURAL WONDERS AND MAN-MADE OF ASIA
The sights of Asia are numerous and varied in nature. Be it man-made or not, the sheer beauty and awe inspired by these simply take visitors’ breath away. Here is a run down of the natural attractions and wonders to be found in Asia where Mother Nature’s hand is very much at work.
NATURAL WONDER
Limestone Karst Formations - a hallmark of Southeast Asia, these soaring vertical massifs are best seen in Krabi, Guilin, Kunming and Halong Bay. The limestone karsts of southern Thailand have featured in many famous movies, including James Bond’s "The Man with the Golden Gun" (hence the James Bond Island near Phuket). These dramatic crags rise from the water’s edge and valley floors to vertical heights in excess of 900 metres. Providing ample pleasures for rock climbers, and cavers, they also offer a splendid backdrop for the less adventurous, claustrophobic or vertiginous.
Flaming Cliffs - Mongolia's dramatic red sandstone mountains rise out of the Gobi Desert, and have been the site of major dinosaur finds. Most famous for the first nest of dinosaur eggs and other fossils found here by the American paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews in the 1920s. He nicknamed this site "Flaming Cliffs" for the surreal glowing orange color of the rock
Mt. Bromo - Considered by many to be the archetypal volcano, Mt. Bromo is one of the most popular and well known of East Java's tourist attractions. The pre-dawn departure and trek across the mountain's famous 'sand sea', to watch the sunrise at the crater rim, has become something of a ritual, enacted daily by people of every nationality.
The Himalayas - stretching from northwest India, to Nepal and Bhutan, the Himalayas captivate all visitors with their majestic splendor. About 2,400 kilometers in length and varying in width from 240 to 330 kilometers, the Himalayan Mountain System is made up of three parallel ranges--the Greater Himalayas, the Lesser Himalayas, and the Outer Himalayas--sometimes collectively called the Great Himalayan Range. The Greater Himalayas, or northern range, average approximately 6,000 meters in height and contain the three highest mountains on earth: Mount Everest (8,796 meters) on the China-Nepal border; K2 (8,611 meters, also known as Mount Godwin-Austen, and in China as Qogir Feng) in an area claimed by India, Pakistan, and China; and Kanchenjunga (8,598 meters) on the India-Nepal border.
Ayers Rock - sacred to the local Aboriginal people of Australia, Uluru is deeply moving, and radiant in the desert sun. Ayers Rock is a magnetic mound large - but not unlike Silbury Hill in England. It is located on a major planetary grid point much like the Great Pyramid in Egypt.It is the world's largest monolith rising 318m above the desert floor with a circumference of 8 km. It is considered once of the great wonders of the world. It is located in the Kata Tjuta National Park, which is owned and run by the local Aboriginals. The Australian government handed ownership of the land back to the Aboriginals some years ago.
Tiger Leaping Gorge - An ancient legend says that a tiger used this rock as its stepping stone so it could leap across from one side of the gorge to the other, which is how the gorge got its name.Believed to be the deepest gorge in the world. From the top of the gorge you look down the steeply angled (70-90 degrees) mountain sides to the rushing Golden Sands (Jingsha) River with its 18 frothing rapids more than 200 meters (about 700 feet) below.
Chocolate Hills - The Chocolate Hills are probably Bohol's most famous tourist attraction. Looking like giant mole hills, people are more often reminded of the hills in a small child's drawing. Most people who first see pictures of this landscape can hardly believe that these hills are not a man-made artifact. However, this idea is quickly abandoned, as the effort would surely surpass the construction of the pyramids in Egypts. The chocolate hills consist of are no less than 1268 hills (some claim this to be the exact number). They are very uniform in shape and mostly between 30 and 50 metres high. They are covered with grass, which, at the end of the dry season, turns chocolate brown. From this color, the hills derive their name.
Great Barrier Reef – Located in Australia, the Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest living organism and home to scores and multitudes of different kinds of fish. The reef is best explored by chartering a boat, diving, or snorkeling.
Niah Caves - Humans inhabited Niah Great Cave over 40,000 years ago. Today, local Penan tribesmen venture into the cave to collect edible bird’s nests and the guano dropped by the myriad swiftlets and bats that live there.
Tonle Sap – The largest lake in Southeast Asia, Cambodia's famed lake's waters actually flow in reverse during the monsoon, creating an abundance of fish and fertile soil. It is fed by numerous streams, and drains by the Tônlé Sab River southeast to the Mekong River.
Yangtze River in China –The Yangtze River is the longest river in Asia and third longest in the world. The headwaters of the Yangtze are situated at an elevation of about 16,000 feet in the Kunlun Mountains in the southwestern section of Qinghai. It flows generally south through Sichuan into Yuanan then northeast and east across central China through Sichuan, Hubei, Auhui, and Juangsu provinces to its mouth, 3,720 miles, in the East China Sea north of Shanghai.
Mount Fuji -is the highest mountain in Japan. It straddles the boundary of Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures just west of Tokyo, from where it can be seen on a clear day. It is located near the Pacific coast of central Honshū. Three small cities surround it, they are: Gotemba (East), Fuji-Yoshida (North) and Fujinomiya (Southwest).Mount Fuji's exceptionally symmetrical cone is a well-known symbol of Japan and is frequently depicted in art and photographs, as well as visited by sightseers and climbers.
MAN-MADE
Angkor Wat
This fantastic collection of temples and palaces located in the depths of a Cambodian jungle reveal a glimpse into the apex of an ancient world, where Hindi and Buddhist mysticism reigned supreme, as manifested by some of the most astonishing art and architecture ever produced in human history.
The Acropolis
The Acropolis, the prominent hilltop that harbored Athens’ first settlers as early as 5000 BC, is today an archaeological gold mine, particularly venerated for the white-marble Parthenon (constructed from 447–432 BC) that stands on its flanks.
Chichén Itzá
Ancient Mayans were known for their supremacy in many fields – mathematics, astronomy, and architecture among them – evidence of which is best demonstrated at Chichén Itzá, about 117 miles west of Cancun, on Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula..
Dubai
We may be getting ahead of ourselves by naming Dubai – considering that most of its wonders have yet to be built by man – but this United Arab Emirate is already causing an international stir with its epic list of in-the-works architectural projects.
The Great Pyramids of Giza
The Great Pyramids of Giza are the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World to remain in existence today – and, as such, are a must on any list of this kind.
Las Vegas Strip
You needn’t leave the country to see many of the world’s man-made wonders – just visit this desert oasis in Nevada instead, where, in a roughly four-mile stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South, aka The Strip, you can see an Egyptian pyramid, Arthurian castle, Arabian Kasbah, the Statue of Liberty, St. Mark’s Square, the Eiffel Tower, and more, as part of its celebrated skyline. Aside from the sheer superficial splendor of it all, Vegas' core existence is a downright miracle, given its harsh desert climate and terrain
Machu Picchu
Rediscovered in 1911 and believed to be the legendary “lost city of the Incas”, the dramatic ruins of Machu Picchu, set high in Peru’s Andes Mountains, are the only significant Incan site to remain unharmed by the 16th-century Spanish conquistadors
Taipei 101
Ever since 1885, when the first skyscraper was introduced in Chicago (the no-longer-extant Home Insurance Building), cities around the globe have been building up to claim the tallest laurels.
Taj Mahal
The sheer magnificence of India’s Taj Mahal is a dream-like vision your eyes won’t soon forget. Built entirely of white marble and inlaid with semi-precious stones like jade, crystal, coral, and turquoise, this ethereal temple took 20,000 workers and 22 years to complete, in 1643, as a mausoleum for Emperor Shah Jahan’s wife, Mumtaz Mahal.
Three Gorges Dam
The Great Wall was once China's claim to fame in the man-made-marvel department, but its new Three Gorges Dam along the Yangtze River is not only said to be the country's largest construction project since the Wall, but also its future source of energy, commerce, and defense against the Yangtze’s treacherous floods.
SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTS
Human Race
Mankind exhibits differences which have been variously interpreted. Some consider them so great that they regard the varieties of the human race as distinct species; others maintain the unity of the human race, looking upon the differences as not sufficiently great to constitute different species. The apparently unlimited fertility of crossed races is a fact in favour of the unity of mankind. The diversities are indeed only quantitative, the difference between the most opposite varieties (e.g. the darkest blacks and the lightest whites) being bridged over by numerous intermediate stages. The unity of mankind is moreover supported by the intellectual similarity apparent between the most primitive savages and the representatives of the highest culture.
A summary according to somatological principles has been given lately by J. Deniker (cf. The Races of Man, p. 225), a Frenchman, who has selected the divisions of the earth as the principle of classification in the description of the several races and tribes.
Frizzly hair, broad nose
yellow skin: the Bushman races, comprising Hottentots and Bushmen -- yellow skin, steatopygous, small stature, dolichocephalic;
dark skin:
Negrito races, comprising both very small, sub-brachycephalic or sub-dolichoceplhalic;
Negro, comprising the Nigritian and Bantu stocks -- black skin, dolichocephalic;
Melanesians, comprising Papuans and Melanesians -- blackish-brown skin, medium stature, dolichocelphalic.
Hair frizzly or wavy
dark skin
Ethiopians -- reddish brown skin, narrow nose, large stature, dolichoceplhalic;
aboriginal Australians -- chocolate brown skin, broad nose, medium stature, dolichocephalic;
Dravidians -- black-brown skin, broad or straight nose, small stautre, dolichocephalic;
skin dirty white: Assyrioids -- nose narrow, and convex with thick end.
Hair wavy, brown or black in colour, eyes dark
skin light brown: Indo-Afghan -- hair black, nose narrow, straight or convex, tall stature;
dirty white skin, black hair
tall stature, long face:
Arabians and Semites -- aquiline nose, projecting occiput, dolichocephalic, elliptical face;
Berbers -- nose straight and thick, dolichocephalic, square face:
Inhabitants of the European coasts -- nose straight and small, mesocephalic, face oval;
Small stature: Inhabitants of the Iberian island -- colichocephalic;
dull white skin, hair brown:
Inhabitants of Western Europe -- small stature, strongly brachycephalic, face round:
Inhabitants of countries on the Adriatic -- tall stature, brachycephalic, long face.
Hair wavy or straight, flaxen in colour, eyes light, skin pinkish white
Northern Europeans -- hair generally wavy, flaxen or reddish, tall stature, dolichocephalic;
Eastern Europeans -- hair generally straight, tow-coloured, small stature, sub-dolichocephalic.
Hair straight or wavy and black, dark eyes
Skin light brown: Ainos -- body very hairy, nose broad and concave, dolichocephalic;
Skin yellow, body without hair:
Polynesians -- nose projecting and often convex, tall stature, elliptical face, brachycephalic or mesocephalic;
Indonesians -- small stature, nose flat and often concave, projecting cheek-bones, face lozenge-shaped, dolichocephalic;
Native races of South American -- small stature, nose projecting and straight, mesocephalic or dolichocephalic.
Straight hair
Sallow skin:
Straight or aquiline nose;
North American races-tall stature, mesocephalic;
Native races of Central America -- small stature, brachycephalic;
Straight nose; Patagonians -- tall stature, brachycephalic, square face;
Skin yellow-brown: Eskimo -- small stature, face round and flat, dolichocephalic;
Skin pale yellow:
Lapps -- snub-nose, small stature, brachycephalic;
Ugrian race --nose straight or concave, small stature, mesocephalic or dolichocephalic, projecting cheek-bones;
Turks or Turko-Tatars -- straight nose, medium stature, very brachycephalic;
Skin sallow: Mongolians -- projecting cheek-bones, Mongolian fold, slightly brachycephalic.
Following Cuvier and Topinard, W. H. Flower, an Englishman, separates mankind into three main divisions:
Ethiopian or Negroid Races: (a) The African type of negro; (b) Hottentots and Bushmen; (c) The Oceanic negro or Melanesians; (d) Negritos.
Mongolian Race: (a) Eskimo; (b) The Mongols proper, comprising the Mongolo-Altaic group; and the southern Mongolian group; (c) Malayans; (d) Polynesians, Maoris; (e) Americans.
Caucasians, comprising Kanthoeroi and Melanochroi.
On the basis of the theories of Stratz and Keane, Schurtz makes the following classification:
Early races (that is the almost disappeared remains of earlier races): (1) Palaeo-Asiatic, non-Mongolian race (the Ainos); (2) Ethiopian race (the Nubians); (3) dwarf race.
Chief family groups: A. Light colour or European-West-Asiatic group of races: northern Alpine, and Mediterranean main races; B. Asiatic-Polynesian group of races: Mongolian stock, Malayo- Polynesian stock; C. Nigritian group of races: (1) Negro; (2) dark-coloured Indian (Dravidic races); (3) Indonesian and oceanic Nigritian (Negritos, Melanesians); (4) Australians and Tasmanians; D. American group of races.
Hybrid races: (1) Finno-Ugrian hybrid race; (2) Berber hybrid race.
POPULATION
The continent’s total population (2007 estimate) is 4 billion. East Asia contains about 40 percent of Asia’s population, and South and Central Asia together contain another 40 percent. They are followed by Southeast Asia, with 15 percent of the continent’s population, and West Asia, with 5 percent. China and India together contain some 2.3 billion people, or more than one-third of the world’s population. Asia’s overall population density of 130 persons per sq km (337 per sq mi) of land area is the highest of all continents.
The annual rate of population increase for the continent as a whole is 1.1 percent. The highest growth rates—in excess of 2.5 percent per year—are found in Yemen, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Laos, and Jordan.
Population growth in South Asia is particularly concerning. Although India’s growth rate declined during the 1990s, its population is still projected to grow to 1.45 billion by the year 2025. Pakistan and Bangladesh are also expected to grow considerably. Even with significant improvements to family planning, the combined population of the three countries is projected to reach the alarming level of 1.80 billion by 2025—nearly one-quarter of the world’s total projected population.
In contrast, a stringent family planning program has reduced China’s growth rate to 0.6 percent. Indonesia, the third largest country in Asia, has reduced its population growth rate to 1.2 percent per year, also through effective family planning. Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan have growth rates well below 2 percent.
Countries that have experienced high growth rates over the last decade have youthful populations. More than 40 percent of the populations of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, and Pakistan are under 16 years of age. The population growth rates will inevitably increase as these children become adults and begin having their own children. On the other hand, less than 25 percent of the populations of Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore are under 16. The cost of supporting aging populations is a major concern of both Japan and Singapore.
In most Asian countries the majority of the population live in small rural settlements where they work in agriculture or local services and industries linked to agriculture. More than three—quarters of the people in Nepal, Laos, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Thailand are rural dwellers. In Bhutan, more than 90 percent of the population are rural residents.
Urbanization has proceeded rapidly in recent decades. The urban population accounts for a majority in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Jordan, Syria, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. The Philippines and Malaysia also have relatively large urban populations. In total, Asia accounts for more than half the world’s urban population. That proportion is expected to increase because Asian cities are generally growing at about twice the rate of overall populations.
South and Southeast Asia are dotted with large cities that developed as a result of European economic and political domination. Among these are Mumbai, Kolkata, Colombo, George Town (Penang), Goa, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), Jakarta, Karāchi, Kuala Lumpur, Chennai (formerly Madras), Manila, Phnom Penh, Singapore, Surabaya, and Yangon (formerly known as Rangoon). Only Bangkok is not a former colonial center, but it resembles the others in most other respects. Even in China, many of the larger coastal cities were strongly influenced by European presence. In Japan, more than 77 percent of the population is urban. In most other countries the urban population ranges between 20 percent and 40 percent. In Southwest and Central Asia, ancient traditions of city building were reinforced by Islamic culture, giving rise to cities such as Baghdād, Damascus, İstanbul, Jerusalem, and Tehrān (Teheran). Modern urbanization is reflected in cities such as Ankara, Beirut, Tel Aviv-Yafo (Tel Aviv-Jaffa), and Toshkent. But urban populations are a small proportion of the whole in some countries of Southwest and Central Asia. Concerns about the unequal distribution of population have encouraged governments to develop resettlement policies. Indonesia’s transmigration program, which began in the 1960s, has focused on encouraging people to shift from the crowded islands of Java and Bali to more sparsely populated locations in Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi, and Papua. In the mid-1990s, however, the program was being scaled back due to high costs and the exhaustion of quality land for resettlement. Malaysia has run a generally successful resettlement scheme. In Vietnam, mismanagement and a lack of adequate funding have caused its resettlement plan to be far less successful.
Fears about the emergence of very large cities have prompted governments to try to harness their rates of growth. Attempts to halt migration to large cities have been generally unsuccessful in market economies. Jakarta was proclaimed a “closed city” in the 1970s, but it had little impact on migrants. In the socialist countries of the region, such as China and Vietnam, controls on migration to cities have been more successful. As these countries have shifted to a market economy, however, previous restrictions on population movement have been eroded and cities have become magnets for displaced rural people as in the rest of Asia.
Another strategy has been to divert migrants toward secondary cities and smaller towns. The South Korean government has successfully fostered the growth of industrial cities in the south, such as Gwangju and Daejeon, in order to ease pressure on Seoul. Thailand—concerned by the dominance of Bangkok, where nearly two-thirds of all Thai urban dwellers live—has fostered growth in northern cities such as Chiang Mai. But there has been little impact on Bangkok’s population. Likewise, Manila remains the dominant urban center in the Philippines despite attempts to attract industry and people to alternative locations, such as Cebu.
CHARACTER TRAITS
A character orientation is the direction of the libidinous or passionate strivings of a man which makes it possible to describe his character structure uniformly. Character traits (e.g. miserliness, pedantry and intolerance) get together to an orientation and are part of the basic orientation of the character. Erich Fromm was a theorist who came up with 4 different Character Orientations; Receptive Orientation, Exploitive Orientation, Hoarding Orientation, and Marketing Orientation. All of these Orientations are affected by society and they each embody a particular solution to the problem of adapting to social demands that is placed on people today.
Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. The spiritual, involving (as it may) perceived non-physical eternal verities regarding humankind's ultimate nature, often contrasts with the temporal, with the material, or with the worldly. A sense of connection forms a central defining characteristic of spirituality — connection to something "greater" than oneself, which includes an emotional experience of religious awe and reverence. Equally importantly, spirituality relates to matters of sanity and of psychological health. Like some forms of religion, spirituality often focuses on personal experience (see mysticism).
Spirituality may involve perceiving or wishing to perceive life as more important ("higher"), more complex or more integrated with one's world view; as contrasted with the merely sensual.
Many spiritual traditions, accordingly, share a common spiritual theme: the "path", "work", practice, or tradition of perceiving and internalizing one's "true" nature and relationship to the rest of existence (God, creation (the universe), or life), and of becoming free of the lesser egoic self (or ego) in favor of being more fully one's "true" "Self"
Hospitality refers to the relationship process between a guest and a host, and it also refers to the act or practice of being hospitable, that is, the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers, with liberality and goodwill. Hospitality frequently refers to the hospitality industry jobs for hotels, restaurants, casinos, catering, resorts, clubs and any other service position that deals with tourists.
Fatalism
Fatalism is in general the view which holds that all events in the history of the world, and, in particular, the actions and incidents which make up the story of each individual life, are determined by fate.
The theory takes many forms, or, rather, its essential feature of an antecedent force rigidly predetermining all occurrences enters in one shape or another into many theories of the universe. Sometimes in the ancient world fate was conceived as an iron necessity in the nature of things, overruling and controlling the will and power of the gods themselves. Sometimes it was explained as the inexorable decree of the gods directing the course of the universe; sometimes it was personified as a particular divinity, the goddess or goddesses of destiny. Their function was to secure that each man's lot, "share", or part should infallibly come to him.
LANGUAGE
Chinese, a member of the Sino-Tibetan languages
family, is the most commonly spoken language in Asia. More than 1 billion residents of China, plus many of the ethnic Chinese who live throughout Asia, speak Mandarin Chinese or one of the Chinese variants.
Linguists consider Japanese, spoken by 125 million people, and Korean, which has 69 million speakers, to be isolated languages. Some linguists, however, believe they may be related to each other or to languages in the Altaic languages family.
Southeast Asia contains no dominant language. Mainlanders speak Thai, Malay, Khmer, Burmese, Lao, and Vietnamese. In the remoter highlands live tribes who speak other languages. The Hmong (Meo) of the highland regions in northern Laos are an example. Most residents of Malaysia and Indonesia speak a form of Malay, known as Bahasa Malaysia in Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia in Indonesia. The majority of Indonesians also speak a local language. Residents of Java, for example, speak Sundanese in the western part of the island and Javanese in the center and east. With total speakers numbering more than 22 million, Malay belongs to the Austronesian languages family.
In South Asia, millions of people in Pakistan, Jammu and Kashmīr, and northern India speak Urdu or Hindi, which are Indo-Aryan languages and part of the Indo-Iranian languages family. In southern India and in northern Sri Lanka, people speak Dravidian languages such as Tamil and Telugu.
In Southwest Asia, languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages family predominate. People throughout this large region speak Arabic, although in Israel, Hebrew is more widely spoken. Most Iranians speak Persian, an Indo-European language.
Speakers of Turkic languages, a division of the Altaic languages family, are numerous in Central Asia and in western China. Russian, a Slavic language, is the principal language of Siberia and many parts of Russian Asia.
European languages made some inroads from the 16th to the early 20th century when colonial powers controlled parts of Asia. At the present time, however, it is mainly people educated in colonial schools prior to independence who speak Dutch in Indonesia or French in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. English is the exception; increasing numbers of people in Asia speak it. English is an official government language in India, as well as the official language of groups such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which unites seven main Southeast Asian countries.
LITERATURE
Nobel prizes
The polymath Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali poet, dramatist, and writer from Santiniketan, now in West Bengal, India, became in 1913 the first Asian Nobel laureate. He won his Nobel Prize in Literature for notable impact his prose works and poetic thought had on English, French, and other national literatures of Europe and the Americas. He is also the writer of the national anthems of Bangladesh and India.
Tagore is said to have named another Bengali Indian Nobel prize winner, the 1998 laureate in Economics, Amartya Sen. Sen's work has centered around global issues including famine, welfare, and third-world development. Amartya Sen was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge University, UK, from 1998-2004, becoming the first Asian to head an 'Oxbridge' College.
Other Asian writers who won Nobel Prizes include C.V.Raman (India, 1930), Yasunari Kawabata (Japan, 1966), Kenzaburo Oe (Japan, 1994), Gao Xingjian (China, 2000) and Orhan Pamuk (Turkey, 2006).
Also, Mother Teresa of India and Shirin Ebadi of Iran were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially for the rights of women and children. Ebadi is the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to receive the prize. Another Nobel Peace Prize winner is Aung San Suu Kyi from Myanmar for her peaceful and non-violent struggle under a military dictatorship in Myanmar. She is a nonviolent pro-democracy activist and leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar (Burma), and a noted prisoner of conscience. She is Buddhist and awarded Nobel Prize in 1991.
Other Asian Nobel Prize winners include Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Robert Aumann, Menachem Begin, Aaron Ciechanover,Avram Hershko, Daniel Kahneman, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin, all of whom are Israelis.
In 2006 Dr. Mohammad Yunus from Bangladesh and the Grameen Bank he established to lend money to poor people especially women in Bangladesh was awarded the Nobel Peace prize. Dr. Yunus received his Ph.D. in economics from Vanderbilt University, United States. He is internationally known for the concept of micro credit which allows poor and destitutes with little or no collateral to borrow money. The borrowers typically pay back money within specified period of time and the incidence of default is very low
RELIGION
slam is the dominant religion in most countries of Southwest Asia and in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Large minorities of Muslims are also found elsewhere in Asia. Non-Muslims in Southwest Asia include Jews in Israel and Christians in Lebanon.
Hinduism is the chief religion of India and on the island of Java in Indonesia. Buddhism, which originated in northeastern India, has only a few adherents there but is now one of the principal religions of Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, South Korea, Vietnam, and Japan.
Buddhism was also strong in North Korea before 1948 and in Mongolia before 1929 when their Communist governments began partially suppressing religion. Although in 1992 Mongolia shifted to a democratic government that allows greater religious freedom, most Mongolians are now either nonreligious or atheists. Confucianism, which is more a social and moral code than a religion, developed in China but has been largely suppressed by the Communist government. Since the beginning of economic reforms in the 1980s, China has had increased contact with outsiders and religious and Confucian practices have also increased. Buddhist practices continued in Vietnam despite government efforts to suppress them during the 1970s and 1980s; most restrictions have since been lifted.
Japan has a native religion called Shinto. Shinto, which has been mixed with many practices of Buddhism, centers on the worship of ancestors and natural spirits. The religion formerly accepted the divinity of the Japanese emperor, but this aspect of Shinto was abandoned after the Japanese defeat in World War II (1939-1945).
Christianity, as represented by the Russian Orthodox Church, was the principal religion of Russia prior to the 1922 founding of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which dissolved in 1991. For most of its existence, the USSR’s Communist government discouraged religious practices. In 1990, however, the government lifted restrictions on religious worship and the Russian Orthodox Church reemerged as the major Christian denomination.
Roman Catholic missionaries carried Christianity to the Philippines. Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries also converted many people in Korea, Japan, India, and among the hill peoples of Myanmar.
Many groups living in remote areas of the Asian continent, such as the Karen and Shan in Myanmar, practice religions unique to their cultures. These religions can be complex, often involving practices of animism, the belief that every object has a spirit.
Religious conflicts simmer throughout Asia and add to regional insecurity. In the Middle East, peace agreements in the 1990s helped lessen the dispute between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs over the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. In the mid-1990s Afghanistan was enmeshed in a civil war between fundamentalist Muslims backed by Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Arab states, and more moderate Muslims supported by Iran, Russia, India, and Tajikistan. India and Pakistan wrestle over the territory of Jammu and Kashmīr, commonly known as Kashmīr. India claims Kashmīr on historical grounds, whereas Pakistan believes Kashmīr’s Muslim population should be in an Islamic state. In Southeast Asia, the Muslim Moro people of Mindanao Island in the Philippines have long fought with the government, arguing for greater autonomy and closer links with fellow Muslims of Malaysia’s Sabah state. Although the largest rebel group and the government negotiated a peace agreement that created a Muslim autonomous region in 1996, other rebels have continued fighting. Even with the largest Muslim population in the world, Indonesia finds the strongly Islamic residents of Aceh at the northern end of Sumatra a source of political tensions.
Desertification
Desertification is the degradation of land in arid, semi arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various climatic variations, but primarily from human activities. Current desertification is taking place much faster worldwide than historically and usually arises from the demands of increased populations that settle on the land in order to grow crops and graze animals.
A major impact of desertification is biodiversity loss and loss of productive capacity, for example, by transition from grassland dominated by perennial grasses to one dominated by perennial shrubs. In the southwestern deserts of the United States, semiarid ecosystems dominated by perennial bunchgrasses, including blue grama and black grama, have been replaced by shrublands dominated by creosotebush since the early 1900s. The change in vegetation is thought to have induced desertification in this region. In the Madagascar central highland plateau, ten percent of the entire country has been lost to desertification due to slash and burn agriculture by indigenous peoples. In these areas on earth, the landscape resembles the moon or Mars in its barrenness more than our historical concept of Earth.
SALINIZATION
Salinization occurs in warm and dry locations where soluble salts precipitate from water and accumulate in the soil. Saline soils are common in desert and steppe climate. Salt may also accumulate in soils from sea spray. The rapid evaporation of salt-rich water irrigation has devastated thousands of acres of land.
HABITAT
Habitat (which is Latin for "it inhabits") is the place where a particular species live and grow. It is essentially the environment—at least the physical environment—that surrounds (influences and is utilized by) a species population. We use "species population" instead of "organism" here because, while it is possible to describe the habitat of a single black bear, we generally may not find any particular or individual bear, but the grouping of bears that comprise a breeding population and occupy a certain geographical area. Further, this habitat could be somewhat different from the habitat of another group or population of black bears living elsewhere. Thus, it is neither the species, nor the individual, for which the term habitat is typically used. A microhabitat or microenvironment is the immediate surroundings and other physical factors of an individual plant or animal within its habitat.
However, the term "habitat" can be used more broadly in ecology. It was originally defined as the physical conditions that surround a species, or species population, or assemblage of species, or community (Clements and Shelford, 1939). Thus, it is not just a species population that has a habitat, but an assemblage of many species, living together in the same place that essentially share a habitat. Ecologists would regard the habitat shared by many species to be a biotope.
Habitat destruction is a major factor in causing a species population to decrease, eventually leading to its being endangered, or even to its extinction.
A biome is the set of flora and fauna which live in a habitat and occupy a certain geography.
HINTERLANDS
The hinterland is the land or district behind the borders of a coast or river. Specifically, by the doctrine of the hinterland, the word is applied to the inland region lying behind a port, claimed by the state that owns the coast. The area from which products are delivered to a port for shipping elsewhere is that port's hinterland. Contrast foreland, the places to which a port ships.
The word has been borrowed from German, where it literally means the land behind (a city, a port or similar). In German this word also describes the part of a country where only few people live and where the infrastructure is underdeveloped. The direct analogy in English is "back country". See also The Bush of Alaskan and Australian usage.
By analogy, it is the area surrounding a service from which customers are attracted, also called the market area.
It was applied also to the surrounding areas of former European colonies in Africa, which, although not part of the colony itself, were influenced by the colony.
A further sense in which the term is commonly applied is in talking about an individual's depth and breadth of knowledge, specifically on cultural or scholastic matters. For instance, one could say 'X has a vast hinterland'.
ECOLOGICAL BALANCE
Ecology (from Greek: οίκος, oikos, "household"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of living organisms and how the distribution and abundance are affected by interactions between the organisms and their environment. The environment of an organism includes both physical properties, which can be described as the sum of local abiotic factors such as insolation (sunlight), climate, and geology, and biotic factors, which are other organisms that share its habitat.
The word "ecology" is often used more loosely in such terms as social ecology and deep ecology and in common parlance as a synonym for the natural environment or environmentalism. Likewise "ecologic" or "ecological" is often taken in the sense of environmentally friendly.
The term ecology or oekologie was coined by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel in 1866, when he defined it as "the comprehensive science of the relationship of the organism to the environment". Haeckel did not elaborate on the concept, and the first significant textbook on the subject (together with the first university course) was written by the Danish botanist, Eugenius Warming. For this early work, Warming is often identified as the founder of ecology.
DEFORESTATION
Deforestation is the conversion of forested areas to non-forest land use such as arable land, pasture, urban use, logged area or wasteland. Generally, the removal or destruction of significant areas of forest cover has resulted in a degraded environment with reduced biodiversity. In many countries, massive deforestation is ongoing and is shaping climate and geography.
Deforestation results from removal of trees without sufficient reforestation and results in declines in: habitat and biodiversity, wood for fuel and industrial use and decline in quality of life. [3]
Since about the mid 1800s the Earth is experiencing an unprecedented rate of change of destruction of forests worldwide.[4] Forests in Europe are adversely affected by acid rain and very large areas of Siberia have been harvested since the collapse of the Soviet Union. However it is in the world's great tropical rainforests where the destruction is most pronounced at the current time and where wholesale felling is having an adverse effect on biodiversity and contributing to the ongoing Holocene mass extinction.[5]
About half of the mature tropical forests, between 750 to 800 million hectares of the original 1.5 to 1.6 billion hectares that once covered the planet have been felled.[6] The forest loss is already acute in Southeast Asia, the second of the world's great biodiversity hot spots. Much of what remains is in the Amazon basin, where the Amazon Rainforest covered more than 600 million hectares. The forests are being destroyed at an accelerating pace tracking the rapid pace of human population growth. Unless significant measures are taken on a world-wide basis to preserve them, by 2030 there will only be ten percent remaining with another ten percent in a degraded condition. 80 percent will have been lost and with them the irreversible loss of hundreds of thousands of species.
Many tropical countries, including Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh, China, Sri Lanka, Laos, Nigeria, Liberia, Guinea, Ghana and the Cote d'lvoire have lost large areas of their rainforest. 90% of the forests of the Philippine archipelago have been cut. In 1960 Central America still had 4/5 of its original forest; now it is left with only 2/5 of it. Madagascar has lost 95% of its rainforests. Atlantic coast of Brazil has lost 90-95% of its Mata Atlântica rainforest. Half of the Brazilian state of Rondonia's 24.3 million hectares have been destroyed or severely degraded in recent years. Several countries, notably the Philippines, Thailand and India have declared their deforestation a national emergency.
ARMENIA
Armenia (Armenian: Հայաստան Hayastan, Հայք Hayk‘), officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked mountainous country in Eurasia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, located in the Southern Caucasus. It shares borders with Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan to the south. A transcontinental country located at the juncture of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, Armenia has extensive sociopolitical and cultural connections to Europe.[2]
A former republic of the Soviet Union, Armenia is a unitary, multiparty, democratic nation-state with an ancient and historic cultural heritage. Historically the first nation to adopt Christianity as its state religion[3], Armenia is constitutionally a secular state today, although the Christian faith plays a major role in the history and identification of the Armenian people. Armenia is currently a member of more than 40 different international organizations, including the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the Asian Development Bank, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the World Trade Organization and the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. It is a Partnership for Peace (PfP) member of NATO and also a member of the CSTO military alliance. It is also an observer member of the Eurasian Economic Community, La Francophonie, and the Non-Aligned Movement. Armenia is also active in the international sports community with full membership in the Union of European Football Associations and International Ice Hockey Federation. The country is an emerging democracy and because of its strategic location, it lies among both the Russian and Western spheres of influence.
Overpopulation is the condition of any organism's numbers exceeding the carrying capacity of its ecological niche. In common parlance, the term usually refers to the relationship between the human population and its environment, the Earth.
Overpopulation is not simply a function of the size or density of the population. Overpopulation can be determined using the ratio of population to available resources. If a given environment has a population of ten, but there is food or drinking water enough for only nine, then that environment is overpopulated; if the population is 100 individuals but there is food, shelter or water enough for 200, then it is not. Overpopulation can result from an increase in births, a decline in mortality rates due to medical advances, from an increase in immigration, a decrease in emigration, or from an unsustainable use and depletion of resources. It is possible for very sparsely-populated areas to be "overpopulated", as the area in question may have a very meager or non-existent capability to sustain human life (e.g. the middle of the Sahara desert or Antarctica).
The resources to be considered when evaluating whether an ecological niche is overpopulated include clean water, clean air, food, shelter, warmth, and other resources necessary to sustain life. If the quality of human life is addressed as well, there are then additional resources to be considered, such as medical care, employment, money, education, fuel, electricity, proper sewage treatment, waste management, and transportation. Negative impacts should also be considered including crowding stress and increased pollution. If addressing the environment as a whole, the survival and well-being of species other than humans must also be considered.
In the context of human societies, overpopulation occurs when the population density is so great as to actually cause an impaired quality of life, serious environmental degradation, or long-term shortages of essential goods and services. This is the definition used by popular dictionaries such Merriam-Webster. Overpopulation is not merely an imbalance between the number of individuals compared to the resources needed for survival, or a ratio of population over resources, or a function of the number or density of individuals, compared to the resources (ie. food production) they need to survive.
Some countries have managed to increase their carrying capacity by using technologies such as agriculture, desalination, and nuclear power. Some people have argued that poverty and famine are caused by bad government and bad economic policies, and that higher population density leads to more specialization and technological innovation, and that this leads to a higher standard of living
Urbanization (or urbanisation) is the increase in the population of cities in proportion to the region's rural population. Urbanization is studied in terms of its effects on the ecology and economy of a region, while the discipline of urban sociology studies political, psychological and anthropological changes to human society that occur in an urban environment (urban-city).
Human migration" denotes any movement by humans from one locality to another (migration), often over long distances or in large groups. Humans are known to have migrated extensively throughout history and prehistory.
Migration and population isolation is one of the four evolutionary forces (along with natural selection, genetic drift, and mutation). The study of the distribution of and change in allele (gene variations) frequencies under such influences is the discipline of Population genetics.
The movement of populations in modern times has continued under the form of both voluntary migration within one's region, country, or beyond, and involuntary migration (which includes slave trade, Trafficking in human beings and ethnic cleansing). The people who migrate are called migrants, or, more specifically, emigrants, immigrants or settlers, depending on historical setting, circumstance and perspective.
Sustainable development is a socio-ecological process characterized by ideal-seeking behaviour. Sustainable development has also been defined as balancing the fulfillment of human needs with the protection of the natural environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but in the indefinite future. The term was used by the Brundtland Commission which coined what has become the most often-quoted definition of sustainable development as development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."[1]
The field of sustainable development can be conceptually broken into four constituent parts: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, social sustainability and political sustainability.
Human Race
Mankind exhibits differences which have been variously interpreted. Some consider them so great that they regard the varieties of the human race as distinct species; others maintain the unity of the human race, looking upon the differences as not sufficiently great to constitute different species. The apparently unlimited fertility of crossed races is a fact in favour of the unity of mankind. The diversities are indeed only quantitative, the difference between the most opposite varieties (e.g. the darkest blacks and the lightest whites) being bridged over by numerous intermediate stages. The unity of mankind is moreover supported by the intellectual similarity apparent between the most primitive savages and the representatives of the highest culture.
A summary according to somatological principles has been given lately by J. Deniker (cf. The Races of Man, p. 225), a Frenchman, who has selected the divisions of the earth as the principle of classification in the description of the several races and tribes.
Frizzly hair, broad nose
yellow skin: the Bushman races, comprising Hottentots and Bushmen -- yellow skin, steatopygous, small stature, dolichocephalic;
dark skin:
Negrito races, comprising both very small, sub-brachycephalic or sub-dolichoceplhalic;
Negro, comprising the Nigritian and Bantu stocks -- black skin, dolichocephalic;
Melanesians, comprising Papuans and Melanesians -- blackish-brown skin, medium stature, dolichocelphalic.
Hair frizzly or wavy
dark skin
Ethiopians -- reddish brown skin, narrow nose, large stature, dolichoceplhalic;
aboriginal Australians -- chocolate brown skin, broad nose, medium stature, dolichocephalic;
Dravidians -- black-brown skin, broad or straight nose, small stautre, dolichocephalic;
skin dirty white: Assyrioids -- nose narrow, and convex with thick end.
Hair wavy, brown or black in colour, eyes dark
skin light brown: Indo-Afghan -- hair black, nose narrow, straight or convex, tall stature;
dirty white skin, black hair
tall stature, long face:
Arabians and Semites -- aquiline nose, projecting occiput, dolichocephalic, elliptical face;
Berbers -- nose straight and thick, dolichocephalic, square face:
Inhabitants of the European coasts -- nose straight and small, mesocephalic, face oval;
Small stature: Inhabitants of the Iberian island -- colichocephalic;
dull white skin, hair brown:
Inhabitants of Western Europe -- small stature, strongly brachycephalic, face round:
Inhabitants of countries on the Adriatic -- tall stature, brachycephalic, long face.
Hair wavy or straight, flaxen in colour, eyes light, skin pinkish white
Northern Europeans -- hair generally wavy, flaxen or reddish, tall stature, dolichocephalic;
Eastern Europeans -- hair generally straight, tow-coloured, small stature, sub-dolichocephalic.
Hair straight or wavy and black, dark eyes
Skin light brown: Ainos -- body very hairy, nose broad and concave, dolichocephalic;
Skin yellow, body without hair:
Polynesians -- nose projecting and often convex, tall stature, elliptical face, brachycephalic or mesocephalic;
Indonesians -- small stature, nose flat and often concave, projecting cheek-bones, face lozenge-shaped, dolichocephalic;
Native races of South American -- small stature, nose projecting and straight, mesocephalic or dolichocephalic.
Straight hair
Sallow skin:
Straight or aquiline nose;
North American races-tall stature, mesocephalic;
Native races of Central America -- small stature, brachycephalic;
Straight nose; Patagonians -- tall stature, brachycephalic, square face;
Skin yellow-brown: Eskimo -- small stature, face round and flat, dolichocephalic;
Skin pale yellow:
Lapps -- snub-nose, small stature, brachycephalic;
Ugrian race --nose straight or concave, small stature, mesocephalic or dolichocephalic, projecting cheek-bones;
Turks or Turko-Tatars -- straight nose, medium stature, very brachycephalic;
Skin sallow: Mongolians -- projecting cheek-bones, Mongolian fold, slightly brachycephalic.
Following Cuvier and Topinard, W. H. Flower, an Englishman, separates mankind into three main divisions:
Ethiopian or Negroid Races: (a) The African type of negro; (b) Hottentots and Bushmen; (c) The Oceanic negro or Melanesians; (d) Negritos.
Mongolian Race: (a) Eskimo; (b) The Mongols proper, comprising the Mongolo-Altaic group; and the southern Mongolian group; (c) Malayans; (d) Polynesians, Maoris; (e) Americans.
Caucasians, comprising Kanthoeroi and Melanochroi.
On the basis of the theories of Stratz and Keane, Schurtz makes the following classification:
Early races (that is the almost disappeared remains of earlier races): (1) Palaeo-Asiatic, non-Mongolian race (the Ainos); (2) Ethiopian race (the Nubians); (3) dwarf race.
Chief family groups: A. Light colour or European-West-Asiatic group of races: northern Alpine, and Mediterranean main races; B. Asiatic-Polynesian group of races: Mongolian stock, Malayo- Polynesian stock; C. Nigritian group of races: (1) Negro; (2) dark-coloured Indian (Dravidic races); (3) Indonesian and oceanic Nigritian (Negritos, Melanesians); (4) Australians and Tasmanians; D. American group of races.
Hybrid races: (1) Finno-Ugrian hybrid race; (2) Berber hybrid race.
POPULATION
The continent’s total population (2007 estimate) is 4 billion. East Asia contains about 40 percent of Asia’s population, and South and Central Asia together contain another 40 percent. They are followed by Southeast Asia, with 15 percent of the continent’s population, and West Asia, with 5 percent. China and India together contain some 2.3 billion people, or more than one-third of the world’s population. Asia’s overall population density of 130 persons per sq km (337 per sq mi) of land area is the highest of all continents.
The annual rate of population increase for the continent as a whole is 1.1 percent. The highest growth rates—in excess of 2.5 percent per year—are found in Yemen, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Laos, and Jordan.
Population growth in South Asia is particularly concerning. Although India’s growth rate declined during the 1990s, its population is still projected to grow to 1.45 billion by the year 2025. Pakistan and Bangladesh are also expected to grow considerably. Even with significant improvements to family planning, the combined population of the three countries is projected to reach the alarming level of 1.80 billion by 2025—nearly one-quarter of the world’s total projected population.
In contrast, a stringent family planning program has reduced China’s growth rate to 0.6 percent. Indonesia, the third largest country in Asia, has reduced its population growth rate to 1.2 percent per year, also through effective family planning. Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan have growth rates well below 2 percent.
Countries that have experienced high growth rates over the last decade have youthful populations. More than 40 percent of the populations of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, and Pakistan are under 16 years of age. The population growth rates will inevitably increase as these children become adults and begin having their own children. On the other hand, less than 25 percent of the populations of Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore are under 16. The cost of supporting aging populations is a major concern of both Japan and Singapore.
In most Asian countries the majority of the population live in small rural settlements where they work in agriculture or local services and industries linked to agriculture. More than three—quarters of the people in Nepal, Laos, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Thailand are rural dwellers. In Bhutan, more than 90 percent of the population are rural residents.
Urbanization has proceeded rapidly in recent decades. The urban population accounts for a majority in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Jordan, Syria, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. The Philippines and Malaysia also have relatively large urban populations. In total, Asia accounts for more than half the world’s urban population. That proportion is expected to increase because Asian cities are generally growing at about twice the rate of overall populations.
South and Southeast Asia are dotted with large cities that developed as a result of European economic and political domination. Among these are Mumbai, Kolkata, Colombo, George Town (Penang), Goa, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), Jakarta, Karāchi, Kuala Lumpur, Chennai (formerly Madras), Manila, Phnom Penh, Singapore, Surabaya, and Yangon (formerly known as Rangoon). Only Bangkok is not a former colonial center, but it resembles the others in most other respects. Even in China, many of the larger coastal cities were strongly influenced by European presence. In Japan, more than 77 percent of the population is urban. In most other countries the urban population ranges between 20 percent and 40 percent. In Southwest and Central Asia, ancient traditions of city building were reinforced by Islamic culture, giving rise to cities such as Baghdād, Damascus, İstanbul, Jerusalem, and Tehrān (Teheran). Modern urbanization is reflected in cities such as Ankara, Beirut, Tel Aviv-Yafo (Tel Aviv-Jaffa), and Toshkent. But urban populations are a small proportion of the whole in some countries of Southwest and Central Asia. Concerns about the unequal distribution of population have encouraged governments to develop resettlement policies. Indonesia’s transmigration program, which began in the 1960s, has focused on encouraging people to shift from the crowded islands of Java and Bali to more sparsely populated locations in Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi, and Papua. In the mid-1990s, however, the program was being scaled back due to high costs and the exhaustion of quality land for resettlement. Malaysia has run a generally successful resettlement scheme. In Vietnam, mismanagement and a lack of adequate funding have caused its resettlement plan to be far less successful.
Fears about the emergence of very large cities have prompted governments to try to harness their rates of growth. Attempts to halt migration to large cities have been generally unsuccessful in market economies. Jakarta was proclaimed a “closed city” in the 1970s, but it had little impact on migrants. In the socialist countries of the region, such as China and Vietnam, controls on migration to cities have been more successful. As these countries have shifted to a market economy, however, previous restrictions on population movement have been eroded and cities have become magnets for displaced rural people as in the rest of Asia.
Another strategy has been to divert migrants toward secondary cities and smaller towns. The South Korean government has successfully fostered the growth of industrial cities in the south, such as Gwangju and Daejeon, in order to ease pressure on Seoul. Thailand—concerned by the dominance of Bangkok, where nearly two-thirds of all Thai urban dwellers live—has fostered growth in northern cities such as Chiang Mai. But there has been little impact on Bangkok’s population. Likewise, Manila remains the dominant urban center in the Philippines despite attempts to attract industry and people to alternative locations, such as Cebu.
CHARACTER TRAITS
A character orientation is the direction of the libidinous or passionate strivings of a man which makes it possible to describe his character structure uniformly. Character traits (e.g. miserliness, pedantry and intolerance) get together to an orientation and are part of the basic orientation of the character. Erich Fromm was a theorist who came up with 4 different Character Orientations; Receptive Orientation, Exploitive Orientation, Hoarding Orientation, and Marketing Orientation. All of these Orientations are affected by society and they each embody a particular solution to the problem of adapting to social demands that is placed on people today.
Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. The spiritual, involving (as it may) perceived non-physical eternal verities regarding humankind's ultimate nature, often contrasts with the temporal, with the material, or with the worldly. A sense of connection forms a central defining characteristic of spirituality — connection to something "greater" than oneself, which includes an emotional experience of religious awe and reverence. Equally importantly, spirituality relates to matters of sanity and of psychological health. Like some forms of religion, spirituality often focuses on personal experience (see mysticism).
Spirituality may involve perceiving or wishing to perceive life as more important ("higher"), more complex or more integrated with one's world view; as contrasted with the merely sensual.
Many spiritual traditions, accordingly, share a common spiritual theme: the "path", "work", practice, or tradition of perceiving and internalizing one's "true" nature and relationship to the rest of existence (God, creation (the universe), or life), and of becoming free of the lesser egoic self (or ego) in favor of being more fully one's "true" "Self"
Hospitality refers to the relationship process between a guest and a host, and it also refers to the act or practice of being hospitable, that is, the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers, with liberality and goodwill. Hospitality frequently refers to the hospitality industry jobs for hotels, restaurants, casinos, catering, resorts, clubs and any other service position that deals with tourists.
Fatalism
Fatalism is in general the view which holds that all events in the history of the world, and, in particular, the actions and incidents which make up the story of each individual life, are determined by fate.
The theory takes many forms, or, rather, its essential feature of an antecedent force rigidly predetermining all occurrences enters in one shape or another into many theories of the universe. Sometimes in the ancient world fate was conceived as an iron necessity in the nature of things, overruling and controlling the will and power of the gods themselves. Sometimes it was explained as the inexorable decree of the gods directing the course of the universe; sometimes it was personified as a particular divinity, the goddess or goddesses of destiny. Their function was to secure that each man's lot, "share", or part should infallibly come to him.
LANGUAGE
Chinese, a member of the Sino-Tibetan languages
family, is the most commonly spoken language in Asia. More than 1 billion residents of China, plus many of the ethnic Chinese who live throughout Asia, speak Mandarin Chinese or one of the Chinese variants.
Linguists consider Japanese, spoken by 125 million people, and Korean, which has 69 million speakers, to be isolated languages. Some linguists, however, believe they may be related to each other or to languages in the Altaic languages family.
Southeast Asia contains no dominant language. Mainlanders speak Thai, Malay, Khmer, Burmese, Lao, and Vietnamese. In the remoter highlands live tribes who speak other languages. The Hmong (Meo) of the highland regions in northern Laos are an example. Most residents of Malaysia and Indonesia speak a form of Malay, known as Bahasa Malaysia in Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia in Indonesia. The majority of Indonesians also speak a local language. Residents of Java, for example, speak Sundanese in the western part of the island and Javanese in the center and east. With total speakers numbering more than 22 million, Malay belongs to the Austronesian languages family.
In South Asia, millions of people in Pakistan, Jammu and Kashmīr, and northern India speak Urdu or Hindi, which are Indo-Aryan languages and part of the Indo-Iranian languages family. In southern India and in northern Sri Lanka, people speak Dravidian languages such as Tamil and Telugu.
In Southwest Asia, languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages family predominate. People throughout this large region speak Arabic, although in Israel, Hebrew is more widely spoken. Most Iranians speak Persian, an Indo-European language.
Speakers of Turkic languages, a division of the Altaic languages family, are numerous in Central Asia and in western China. Russian, a Slavic language, is the principal language of Siberia and many parts of Russian Asia.
European languages made some inroads from the 16th to the early 20th century when colonial powers controlled parts of Asia. At the present time, however, it is mainly people educated in colonial schools prior to independence who speak Dutch in Indonesia or French in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. English is the exception; increasing numbers of people in Asia speak it. English is an official government language in India, as well as the official language of groups such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which unites seven main Southeast Asian countries.
LITERATURE
Nobel prizes
The polymath Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali poet, dramatist, and writer from Santiniketan, now in West Bengal, India, became in 1913 the first Asian Nobel laureate. He won his Nobel Prize in Literature for notable impact his prose works and poetic thought had on English, French, and other national literatures of Europe and the Americas. He is also the writer of the national anthems of Bangladesh and India.
Tagore is said to have named another Bengali Indian Nobel prize winner, the 1998 laureate in Economics, Amartya Sen. Sen's work has centered around global issues including famine, welfare, and third-world development. Amartya Sen was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge University, UK, from 1998-2004, becoming the first Asian to head an 'Oxbridge' College.
Other Asian writers who won Nobel Prizes include C.V.Raman (India, 1930), Yasunari Kawabata (Japan, 1966), Kenzaburo Oe (Japan, 1994), Gao Xingjian (China, 2000) and Orhan Pamuk (Turkey, 2006).
Also, Mother Teresa of India and Shirin Ebadi of Iran were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially for the rights of women and children. Ebadi is the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to receive the prize. Another Nobel Peace Prize winner is Aung San Suu Kyi from Myanmar for her peaceful and non-violent struggle under a military dictatorship in Myanmar. She is a nonviolent pro-democracy activist and leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar (Burma), and a noted prisoner of conscience. She is Buddhist and awarded Nobel Prize in 1991.
Other Asian Nobel Prize winners include Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Robert Aumann, Menachem Begin, Aaron Ciechanover,Avram Hershko, Daniel Kahneman, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin, all of whom are Israelis.
In 2006 Dr. Mohammad Yunus from Bangladesh and the Grameen Bank he established to lend money to poor people especially women in Bangladesh was awarded the Nobel Peace prize. Dr. Yunus received his Ph.D. in economics from Vanderbilt University, United States. He is internationally known for the concept of micro credit which allows poor and destitutes with little or no collateral to borrow money. The borrowers typically pay back money within specified period of time and the incidence of default is very low
RELIGION
slam is the dominant religion in most countries of Southwest Asia and in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Large minorities of Muslims are also found elsewhere in Asia. Non-Muslims in Southwest Asia include Jews in Israel and Christians in Lebanon.
Hinduism is the chief religion of India and on the island of Java in Indonesia. Buddhism, which originated in northeastern India, has only a few adherents there but is now one of the principal religions of Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, South Korea, Vietnam, and Japan.
Buddhism was also strong in North Korea before 1948 and in Mongolia before 1929 when their Communist governments began partially suppressing religion. Although in 1992 Mongolia shifted to a democratic government that allows greater religious freedom, most Mongolians are now either nonreligious or atheists. Confucianism, which is more a social and moral code than a religion, developed in China but has been largely suppressed by the Communist government. Since the beginning of economic reforms in the 1980s, China has had increased contact with outsiders and religious and Confucian practices have also increased. Buddhist practices continued in Vietnam despite government efforts to suppress them during the 1970s and 1980s; most restrictions have since been lifted.
Japan has a native religion called Shinto. Shinto, which has been mixed with many practices of Buddhism, centers on the worship of ancestors and natural spirits. The religion formerly accepted the divinity of the Japanese emperor, but this aspect of Shinto was abandoned after the Japanese defeat in World War II (1939-1945).
Christianity, as represented by the Russian Orthodox Church, was the principal religion of Russia prior to the 1922 founding of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which dissolved in 1991. For most of its existence, the USSR’s Communist government discouraged religious practices. In 1990, however, the government lifted restrictions on religious worship and the Russian Orthodox Church reemerged as the major Christian denomination.
Roman Catholic missionaries carried Christianity to the Philippines. Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries also converted many people in Korea, Japan, India, and among the hill peoples of Myanmar.
Many groups living in remote areas of the Asian continent, such as the Karen and Shan in Myanmar, practice religions unique to their cultures. These religions can be complex, often involving practices of animism, the belief that every object has a spirit.
Religious conflicts simmer throughout Asia and add to regional insecurity. In the Middle East, peace agreements in the 1990s helped lessen the dispute between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs over the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. In the mid-1990s Afghanistan was enmeshed in a civil war between fundamentalist Muslims backed by Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Arab states, and more moderate Muslims supported by Iran, Russia, India, and Tajikistan. India and Pakistan wrestle over the territory of Jammu and Kashmīr, commonly known as Kashmīr. India claims Kashmīr on historical grounds, whereas Pakistan believes Kashmīr’s Muslim population should be in an Islamic state. In Southeast Asia, the Muslim Moro people of Mindanao Island in the Philippines have long fought with the government, arguing for greater autonomy and closer links with fellow Muslims of Malaysia’s Sabah state. Although the largest rebel group and the government negotiated a peace agreement that created a Muslim autonomous region in 1996, other rebels have continued fighting. Even with the largest Muslim population in the world, Indonesia finds the strongly Islamic residents of Aceh at the northern end of Sumatra a source of political tensions.
Desertification
Desertification is the degradation of land in arid, semi arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various climatic variations, but primarily from human activities. Current desertification is taking place much faster worldwide than historically and usually arises from the demands of increased populations that settle on the land in order to grow crops and graze animals.
A major impact of desertification is biodiversity loss and loss of productive capacity, for example, by transition from grassland dominated by perennial grasses to one dominated by perennial shrubs. In the southwestern deserts of the United States, semiarid ecosystems dominated by perennial bunchgrasses, including blue grama and black grama, have been replaced by shrublands dominated by creosotebush since the early 1900s. The change in vegetation is thought to have induced desertification in this region. In the Madagascar central highland plateau, ten percent of the entire country has been lost to desertification due to slash and burn agriculture by indigenous peoples. In these areas on earth, the landscape resembles the moon or Mars in its barrenness more than our historical concept of Earth.
SALINIZATION
Salinization occurs in warm and dry locations where soluble salts precipitate from water and accumulate in the soil. Saline soils are common in desert and steppe climate. Salt may also accumulate in soils from sea spray. The rapid evaporation of salt-rich water irrigation has devastated thousands of acres of land.
HABITAT
Habitat (which is Latin for "it inhabits") is the place where a particular species live and grow. It is essentially the environment—at least the physical environment—that surrounds (influences and is utilized by) a species population. We use "species population" instead of "organism" here because, while it is possible to describe the habitat of a single black bear, we generally may not find any particular or individual bear, but the grouping of bears that comprise a breeding population and occupy a certain geographical area. Further, this habitat could be somewhat different from the habitat of another group or population of black bears living elsewhere. Thus, it is neither the species, nor the individual, for which the term habitat is typically used. A microhabitat or microenvironment is the immediate surroundings and other physical factors of an individual plant or animal within its habitat.
However, the term "habitat" can be used more broadly in ecology. It was originally defined as the physical conditions that surround a species, or species population, or assemblage of species, or community (Clements and Shelford, 1939). Thus, it is not just a species population that has a habitat, but an assemblage of many species, living together in the same place that essentially share a habitat. Ecologists would regard the habitat shared by many species to be a biotope.
Habitat destruction is a major factor in causing a species population to decrease, eventually leading to its being endangered, or even to its extinction.
A biome is the set of flora and fauna which live in a habitat and occupy a certain geography.
HINTERLANDS
The hinterland is the land or district behind the borders of a coast or river. Specifically, by the doctrine of the hinterland, the word is applied to the inland region lying behind a port, claimed by the state that owns the coast. The area from which products are delivered to a port for shipping elsewhere is that port's hinterland. Contrast foreland, the places to which a port ships.
The word has been borrowed from German, where it literally means the land behind (a city, a port or similar). In German this word also describes the part of a country where only few people live and where the infrastructure is underdeveloped. The direct analogy in English is "back country". See also The Bush of Alaskan and Australian usage.
By analogy, it is the area surrounding a service from which customers are attracted, also called the market area.
It was applied also to the surrounding areas of former European colonies in Africa, which, although not part of the colony itself, were influenced by the colony.
A further sense in which the term is commonly applied is in talking about an individual's depth and breadth of knowledge, specifically on cultural or scholastic matters. For instance, one could say 'X has a vast hinterland'.
ECOLOGICAL BALANCE
Ecology (from Greek: οίκος, oikos, "household"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of living organisms and how the distribution and abundance are affected by interactions between the organisms and their environment. The environment of an organism includes both physical properties, which can be described as the sum of local abiotic factors such as insolation (sunlight), climate, and geology, and biotic factors, which are other organisms that share its habitat.
The word "ecology" is often used more loosely in such terms as social ecology and deep ecology and in common parlance as a synonym for the natural environment or environmentalism. Likewise "ecologic" or "ecological" is often taken in the sense of environmentally friendly.
The term ecology or oekologie was coined by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel in 1866, when he defined it as "the comprehensive science of the relationship of the organism to the environment". Haeckel did not elaborate on the concept, and the first significant textbook on the subject (together with the first university course) was written by the Danish botanist, Eugenius Warming. For this early work, Warming is often identified as the founder of ecology.
DEFORESTATION
Deforestation is the conversion of forested areas to non-forest land use such as arable land, pasture, urban use, logged area or wasteland. Generally, the removal or destruction of significant areas of forest cover has resulted in a degraded environment with reduced biodiversity. In many countries, massive deforestation is ongoing and is shaping climate and geography.
Deforestation results from removal of trees without sufficient reforestation and results in declines in: habitat and biodiversity, wood for fuel and industrial use and decline in quality of life. [3]
Since about the mid 1800s the Earth is experiencing an unprecedented rate of change of destruction of forests worldwide.[4] Forests in Europe are adversely affected by acid rain and very large areas of Siberia have been harvested since the collapse of the Soviet Union. However it is in the world's great tropical rainforests where the destruction is most pronounced at the current time and where wholesale felling is having an adverse effect on biodiversity and contributing to the ongoing Holocene mass extinction.[5]
About half of the mature tropical forests, between 750 to 800 million hectares of the original 1.5 to 1.6 billion hectares that once covered the planet have been felled.[6] The forest loss is already acute in Southeast Asia, the second of the world's great biodiversity hot spots. Much of what remains is in the Amazon basin, where the Amazon Rainforest covered more than 600 million hectares. The forests are being destroyed at an accelerating pace tracking the rapid pace of human population growth. Unless significant measures are taken on a world-wide basis to preserve them, by 2030 there will only be ten percent remaining with another ten percent in a degraded condition. 80 percent will have been lost and with them the irreversible loss of hundreds of thousands of species.
Many tropical countries, including Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh, China, Sri Lanka, Laos, Nigeria, Liberia, Guinea, Ghana and the Cote d'lvoire have lost large areas of their rainforest. 90% of the forests of the Philippine archipelago have been cut. In 1960 Central America still had 4/5 of its original forest; now it is left with only 2/5 of it. Madagascar has lost 95% of its rainforests. Atlantic coast of Brazil has lost 90-95% of its Mata Atlântica rainforest. Half of the Brazilian state of Rondonia's 24.3 million hectares have been destroyed or severely degraded in recent years. Several countries, notably the Philippines, Thailand and India have declared their deforestation a national emergency.
ARMENIA
Armenia (Armenian: Հայաստան Hayastan, Հայք Hayk‘), officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked mountainous country in Eurasia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, located in the Southern Caucasus. It shares borders with Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan to the south. A transcontinental country located at the juncture of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, Armenia has extensive sociopolitical and cultural connections to Europe.[2]
A former republic of the Soviet Union, Armenia is a unitary, multiparty, democratic nation-state with an ancient and historic cultural heritage. Historically the first nation to adopt Christianity as its state religion[3], Armenia is constitutionally a secular state today, although the Christian faith plays a major role in the history and identification of the Armenian people. Armenia is currently a member of more than 40 different international organizations, including the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the Asian Development Bank, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the World Trade Organization and the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. It is a Partnership for Peace (PfP) member of NATO and also a member of the CSTO military alliance. It is also an observer member of the Eurasian Economic Community, La Francophonie, and the Non-Aligned Movement. Armenia is also active in the international sports community with full membership in the Union of European Football Associations and International Ice Hockey Federation. The country is an emerging democracy and because of its strategic location, it lies among both the Russian and Western spheres of influence.
Overpopulation is the condition of any organism's numbers exceeding the carrying capacity of its ecological niche. In common parlance, the term usually refers to the relationship between the human population and its environment, the Earth.
Overpopulation is not simply a function of the size or density of the population. Overpopulation can be determined using the ratio of population to available resources. If a given environment has a population of ten, but there is food or drinking water enough for only nine, then that environment is overpopulated; if the population is 100 individuals but there is food, shelter or water enough for 200, then it is not. Overpopulation can result from an increase in births, a decline in mortality rates due to medical advances, from an increase in immigration, a decrease in emigration, or from an unsustainable use and depletion of resources. It is possible for very sparsely-populated areas to be "overpopulated", as the area in question may have a very meager or non-existent capability to sustain human life (e.g. the middle of the Sahara desert or Antarctica).
The resources to be considered when evaluating whether an ecological niche is overpopulated include clean water, clean air, food, shelter, warmth, and other resources necessary to sustain life. If the quality of human life is addressed as well, there are then additional resources to be considered, such as medical care, employment, money, education, fuel, electricity, proper sewage treatment, waste management, and transportation. Negative impacts should also be considered including crowding stress and increased pollution. If addressing the environment as a whole, the survival and well-being of species other than humans must also be considered.
In the context of human societies, overpopulation occurs when the population density is so great as to actually cause an impaired quality of life, serious environmental degradation, or long-term shortages of essential goods and services. This is the definition used by popular dictionaries such Merriam-Webster. Overpopulation is not merely an imbalance between the number of individuals compared to the resources needed for survival, or a ratio of population over resources, or a function of the number or density of individuals, compared to the resources (ie. food production) they need to survive.
Some countries have managed to increase their carrying capacity by using technologies such as agriculture, desalination, and nuclear power. Some people have argued that poverty and famine are caused by bad government and bad economic policies, and that higher population density leads to more specialization and technological innovation, and that this leads to a higher standard of living
Urbanization (or urbanisation) is the increase in the population of cities in proportion to the region's rural population. Urbanization is studied in terms of its effects on the ecology and economy of a region, while the discipline of urban sociology studies political, psychological and anthropological changes to human society that occur in an urban environment (urban-city).
Human migration" denotes any movement by humans from one locality to another (migration), often over long distances or in large groups. Humans are known to have migrated extensively throughout history and prehistory.
Migration and population isolation is one of the four evolutionary forces (along with natural selection, genetic drift, and mutation). The study of the distribution of and change in allele (gene variations) frequencies under such influences is the discipline of Population genetics.
The movement of populations in modern times has continued under the form of both voluntary migration within one's region, country, or beyond, and involuntary migration (which includes slave trade, Trafficking in human beings and ethnic cleansing). The people who migrate are called migrants, or, more specifically, emigrants, immigrants or settlers, depending on historical setting, circumstance and perspective.
Sustainable development is a socio-ecological process characterized by ideal-seeking behaviour. Sustainable development has also been defined as balancing the fulfillment of human needs with the protection of the natural environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but in the indefinite future. The term was used by the Brundtland Commission which coined what has become the most often-quoted definition of sustainable development as development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."[1]
The field of sustainable development can be conceptually broken into four constituent parts: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, social sustainability and political sustainability.
