Cultural Regions of Asia

A useful standard for the classification of regions is offered by culture (in the anthropological sense), although it should be noted that in Asia, as elsewhere in the world, cultural subdivisions are at times more meaningful than broad and general categories. Moreover, the configurations of culture do not always coincide with the distribution of races and languages. Despite these limitations, however, culture does furnish a convenient method for the definition of the following regions: 1) Southwest Asia, 2) South Asia, 3) Southeast Asia, 4) East Asia, 5) North Asia, and  6) Central Asia.

Southwest Asia includes the lands to the south of Russia, the Caucasus, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan extending as far as the Indian Ocean. Bounded on the west by the Mediterranean Sea, the region reaches to the frontiers of Afghanistan in the east. The inhabitants of the area are racially Caucasian, but there are many different languages that are spoken there. The commonest cultural denominator is Islam, although appreciably large communities of Jews and Christians exist.

 

South Asia denotes the region centering in the subcontinent of India. In addition to India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, the region includes Afghanistan to the northwest, Nepal and Bhutan in the Himalaya, and the island nations of Sri Lanka (formerly called Ceylon) and Maldives in the Indian Ocean. Although Buddhism and Islam have been and still are vital cultural forces in the area, the civilization developed under Hinduism has enjoyed paramount influence.

 

Southeast Asia, mainland and insular, extends from the southern borders of China to the islands of the Southwest Pacific and from Myanmar (Burma) in the west to the Philippines in the east. In this region, characterized above all by religious, racial, and linguistic pluralism, a special cultural classification must be employed. An overridingly important influence in the lives of most people has been the monsoon cycle, which has made possible the widespread practice of wet, or paddy-field, cultivation of rice.

 

East Asia embraces the People's Republic of China and the island of Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. Although distinct ways of life have evolved in each of these areas and marked cultural subdivisions prevail, particularly in China, the entire region has been overshadowed by Chinese civilization based on Confucianism.

 

North Asia signifies the vast sweep of territory from the Ural Mountains in the west to the North Pacific in the east, and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the steppes and deserts of southern Siberia. It also includes the islands of Sakhalin and the Kurils, north of Japan. Culturally a backwater region, it has been drawn into civilized life only in the past few centuries.

 

Central Asia (sometimes called Inner Asia) is a somewhat imprecise region comprising the western and northern borderlands of China—roughly Tibet, Turkestan, Mongolia, Manchuria, and the southeast corner of Siberia; Turkestan is divided between China (the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region) and Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan and portions of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Historically, Central Asia has been politically fluid and, despite its relatively sparse population, culturally complex. For centuries, Lamaistic Buddhism and Islam have pervaded the local cultures.