Asia which countries

In the rest of mainland Southeast Asia, and in the western areas of the Malay-Indonesian archipelago, expanding trade across the Bay of Bengal meant Indian influences were more pronounced.

These influences were most obvious when large sedentary populations were engaged in growing irrigated rice, like northern Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Java, and Bali. Rulers and courts in these areas who adopted Hinduism or forms of Buddhism promoted a culture which combined imported ideas with aspects of local society. Differences in the physical environment affected the political structures that developed in Southeast Asia. When people were nomadic or semi-nomadic, it was difficult to construct a permanent governing system with stable bureaucracies and a reliable tax base.

This type of state only developed in areas where there was a settled population, like the large rice-growing plains of the mainland and Java. However, even the most powerful of these states found it difficult to extend their authority into remote highlands and islands. Islamic teachings began to spread in Southeast Asia from around the thirteenth century. Islam teaches the oneness of God known to Muslims as Allah , who has revealed his message through a succession of prophets and finally through Muhammad ca.

These are: 1 the confession of faith. At the height of its power between the eighth and fifteenth centuries, a united Muslim Empire included all North Africa, Sicily, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, western Arabia, and southern Spain. From the tenth century CE Islam was subsequently brought to India by a similar moment of conquest and conversion, and its dominant political position was confirmed when the Mughal dynasty was established in the sixteenth century. From at least the tenth century, Muslims were among the many foreigners trading in Southeast Asia, and a few individuals from Southeast Asia traveled to the Middle East for study.

In the early stages of conversion, trade passing from Yemen and the Swahili coast across to the Malabar Coast and then the Bay of Bengal was also influential, as well as the growing connections with Muslims in China and India. Muslim traders from western China also settled in coastal towns on the Chinese coast, and Chinese Muslims developed important links with communities in central Vietnam, Borneo, the southern Philippines, and the Javanese coast.

Muslim traders from various parts of India e. Bengal, Gujarat, Malabar came to Southeast Asia in large numbers and they, too, provided a vehicle for the spread of Islamic ideas. As a result of its multiple origins, the Islam that reached Southeast Asia was very varied. The normal pattern was for a ruler or chief to adopt Islam—sometimes because of a desire to attract traders, or to be associated with powerful Muslim kingdoms like Mamluk Egypt, and then Ottoman Turkey and Mughal India, or because of the attraction of Muslim teaching.

Mystical Islam Sufism , which aimed at direct contact with Allah with the help of a teacher using techniques such as meditation and trance, was very appealing. The first confirmed mention of a Muslim community came from Marco Polo, the well-known traveler, who stopped in north Sumatra in Inscriptions and graves with Muslim dates have been located in others coastal areas along the trade routes.

A major development was the decision of the ruler of Melaka, on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula, to adopt Islam around Melaka was a key trading center, and the Malay language, spoken in the Malay Peninsula and east Sumatra, was used as a lingua franca in trading ports throughout the Malay-Indonesian archipelago.

Malay is not a difficult language to learn, and it was already understood by many people along the trade routes that linked the island world. Muslim teachers therefore had a common language through which they could communicate new concepts through oral presentations and written texts. A modified Arabic script displaced the previous Malay script. Arabic words were incorporated into Malay, particularly in regard to spiritual beliefs, social practices, and political life. Local heroes often became Islamic saints, and their graves were venerated places at which to worship.

Some aspects of mystical Islam resembled pre-Islamic beliefs, notably on Java. Individual country pages link to the official government website as well as major news sources and statistical agencies. Development Organizations These organizations' similar subdivisions of Asia are found on their websites.

Asian Development Bank Regional development bank working to alleviate poverty of Asian countries through its financial investments.

The Asia Foundation Nonprofit international development organization based in San Francisco with network offices located in 18 Asian countries and Washington, D. David Rumsey Collection Large digital collection of privately held antique maps from around the world. To the west is the Caspian Sea, the world's largest freshwater lake. In the southeast of Asia there is the Malay Archipelago, a widely ramified island world that consists of many countries and reaches as far as Australia.

Here are most volcanoes of the earth. Along the Pacific firing from Japan over the Philippines to Indonesia thousands of islands have a volcanic origin. There are a total of 48 countries in Asia. In , the population of Asia is estimated at 4,,, Russia is excluded from Asia's population, although there are about 40 million Russians who live in Asia, or east of the Ural Mountains.

Asia has the two most populous countries in its borders: China and India. China is currently the most populous country on earth with an estimated population in of 1,,, It accounts for India is not too far behind with an estimated population of 1,,,, accounting for It's estimated that India's population will surpass China's by , when each country will have a population of about 1.