Portal:Asia

Main

Geography

Projects

Asia (/ˈeɪʒə/ ^ⓘ AY-zhə, UK also /ˈeɪʃə/ AY-shə) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which has long been home to the majority of the human population, was the site of many of the first civilisations. Its 4.7 billion people constitute roughly 60% of the world's population.

Asia shares the landmass of Eurasia with Europe, and of Afro-Eurasia with both Europe and Africa. In general terms, it is bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the north by the Arctic Ocean. The border of Asia with Europe is a historical and cultural construct, as there is no clear physical and geographical separation between them. A commonly accepted division places Asia to the east of the Suez Canal separating it from Africa; and to the east of the Turkish straits, the Ural Mountains and Ural River, and to the south of the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian and Black seas, separating it from Europe.

Since the concept of Asia derives from the term for the eastern region from a European perspective, Asia is the remaining vast area of Eurasia minus Europe. Therefore, Asia is a region where various independent cultures coexist rather than sharing a single culture, and its boundary with Europe is somewhat arbitrary and has moved since its first conception in classical antiquity. The division of Eurasia into two continents reflects East–West cultural differences, some of which vary on a spectrum. (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

edit

Featured article

K-pop (Korean: 케이팝; RR: Keipap; an abbreviation of "Korean popular music") is a form of popular music originating in South Korea. The music genre that the term is used to refer to colloquially emerged in the 1990s as a form of youth subculture, with Korean musicians influenced by Western dance music, hip-hop, R&B and rock. Today, K-pop commonly refers to the musical output of teen idol acts, chiefly girl groups and boy bands, who emphasize visual appeal and performance. As a pop genre, K-pop is characterized by its melodic quality and cultural hybridity.

K-pop can trace its origins to "rap dance", a fusion of hip-hop, techno and rock popularized by the group Seo Taiji and Boys, whose experimentation helped to modernize South Korea's contemporary music scene in the early 1990s. Their popularity with teenagers led the music industry to focus on this demographic. Lee Soo-man of SM Entertainment, who developed the Korean idol system in the late 1990s, created H.O.T. and S.E.S., the "first generation" of K-pop. By the early 2000s, TVXQ and BoA had achieved success in Japan and gained traction for the genre overseas. (Full article...)

List of Featured articles

edit

Selected Country

Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in southern Arabia, the country includes the Socotra Archipelago and borders Saudi Arabia to the north, Oman to the northeast, the Arabian Sea to the east, the Gulf of Aden to the south, and the Red Sea to the west. It also shares maritime borders with Djibouti, Eritrea, and Somalia across the Horn of Africa. Covering 455,503 square kilometres (175,871 sq mi), with a coastline of approximately 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi), Yemen is the second-largest country on the Arabian Peninsula by both area and population. Sanaa is its constitutional capital and largest city. Yemen's population is estimated at 34.7 million, predominantly Muslim Arabs.

Owing to its geographic location, Yemen has been at the crossroads of many civilisations for over 7,000 years. The Sabaeans formed a thriving commercial kingdom that influenced parts of modern Ethiopia and Eritrea. In AD 275, it was succeeded by the Himyarite Kingdom, which spanned much of Yemen's present-day territory and was heavily influenced by Judaism. Christianity arrived in the fourth century, followed by the rapid spread of Islam in the seventh century. From its conversion to Islam, Yemen became a centre of Islamic learning, and Yemenite troops played a crucial role in early Islamic conquests. For centuries, Yemen was a primary producer of coffee, exported through the port of Mocha. Various dynasties emerged between the ninth and sixteenth centuries. During the 19th century, the country was divided between the Ottoman and British empires. After World War I, the Kingdom of Yemen was established, which in 1962 became the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) following the North Yemen civil war. In 1967, the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) gained independence from the British Aden Protectorate, becoming the first and only communist state in the Middle East. In 1990, the two Yemeni states united to form the modern Republic of Yemen, with Ali Abdullah Saleh serving as the first president until his resignation in 2012 in the wake of the Arab Spring. (Full article...)

List of selected countries

edit

Featured biography

Official portrait, 2026

Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the prime minister of India since 26 May 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Varanasi. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindutva paramilitary volunteer organisation. He is India's third-longest-serving prime minister, and the longest-serving prime minister outside the Indian National Congress.

Modi was born and raised in Vadnagar, where he completed his secondary education. He was introduced to the RSS at the age of eight, becoming a full-time worker for the organisation in Gujarat in 1971. Assigned by the RSS to the BJP in 1985, he rose through the party hierarchy and became general secretary in 1998. In 2001, Modi was appointed chief minister of Gujarat and elected to the legislative assembly soon after. His administration is considered complicit in the 2002 Gujarat violence in which over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed, with many others raped or mutilated. An investigation authorised by the Supreme Court found no evidence to prosecute Modi. While his policies as chief minister were credited for encouraging economic growth, business and investment, his administration was criticised for failing to significantly improve health, poverty and education indices in the state. (Full article...)

List of Featured biographies

edit

General images

The following are images from various Asia-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The Qing conquest of the Ming and expansion of the empire (from History of Asia)
Image 2Robert Clive and Mir Jafar after the Battle of Plassey, 1757 by Francis Hayman (from History of Asia)
Image 3Tang dynasty Chinese poet Li Bai, in a 13th-century depiction by Liang Kai (from Culture of Asia)
Image 4Indonesian Balinese cuisine (from Culture of Asia)
Image 5Machiya in Heian period (from History of Asia)
Image 6Ancient ziggurat, Iraq (from Culture of Asia)
Image 7A typical example of Dravidian architecture (from Culture of Asia)
Image 8Detail of the Dragon Throne used by the Qianlong Emperor of China, Forbidden City, Qing dynasty. Artifact circulating in U.S. museums on loan from Beijing (from Culture of Asia)
Image 9The Silk Road in Asia (from History of Asia)
Image 10Battle of Talas between Tang dynasty and Abbasid Caliphate c. 751 (from History of Asia)
Image 11Philippine cuisine (from Culture of Asia)
Image 12Chicken tikka, a well-known dish across the globe, reflects the South Asian cooking style. (from Culture of Asia)
Image 13Political cartoon depicting the Afghan Emir Sher Ali with the rival "friends" the Russian Bear and British Lion (1878) (from History of Asia)
Image 14Đại Việt, Champa, Angkor Empire and their neighbours, late 13th century (from History of Asia)
Image 15The Han dynasty and main polities in Asia c. 200 BC (from History of Asia)
Image 16Balhae in the north, Later Silla in the south. (from History of Asia)
Image 17Eunpyeong Hanok Village in Seoul, South Korea (from Culture of Asia)
Image 18The Great Wall of China at Jinshanling (from Culture of Asia)
Image 19Borobudur, a Buddhist temple in Indonesia (from Culture of Asia)
Image 20Map of the Qing Empire in 1832 (from History of Asia)
Image 21The Mughal ambassador Khan’Alam in 1618 negotiating with Shah Abbas the Great of Iran. (from History of Asia)
Image 22Sculpture of Prince Shōtoku (from History of Asia)
Image 23Angkor Wat, Khmer Empire (from Culture of Asia)
Image 24Byzantine and Sasanian Empires in 600 AD (from History of Asia)
Image 25The Syriac Orthodox Saint Ahoadamah Church was a 7th-century church building in the city of Tikrit, one of the oldest in the world until its destruction by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on 25 September 2014. (from Culture of Asia)
Image 26The Grand Mosque in Kuwait City, one of the largest mosques in the region (from Culture of Asia)
Image 27Map of Asia (from Culture of Asia)
Image 28Sun temple at Konarka, Odisha, India (from Culture of Asia)
Image 29Badshahi Mosque built under the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in Lahore, Pakistan (from Culture of Asia)
Image 30Map of Marco Polo's travels (from History of Asia)
Image 31The early Muslim conquests, 622–750 (from History of Asia)
Image 32Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jeruslam (from Culture of Asia)
Image 33Gyeonghoeru of Gyeongbokgung, the Joseon dynasty's royal palace. (from History of Asia)
Image 34The Russian Znamensky Cathedral in Tyumen built in 1768 (from Culture of Asia)
Image 35The First Persian Empire at its greatest extent, c. 500 BC (from History of Asia)
Image 36Expansion of the Mongol Empire 1206–1294 (from History of Asia)
Image 37Korean peninsula in 476 AD. There are three kingdoms and Gaya Union in the picture. This picture shows the heyday of Goguryeo. (from History of Asia)
Image 38Traditional Rajasthani garments from Jaipur, Rajasthan (from Culture of Asia)
Image 39The Hindu-Buddhist temple of Angkor Wat. (from History of Asia)
Image 40India's middle-class population of 300 million is growing at an annual rate of 5%. Shown here is the skyline in South Mumbai. (from Asian Century)
Image 41Political map of the world in 1860 (from History of Asia)
Image 42A Confucian ritual ceremony in Jeju, South Korea (from Culture of Asia)
Image 43East Asian cultural sphere (from Culture of Asia)
Image 44The Great Wave off Kanagawa, c. 1830 by Hokusai, an example of art flourishing in the Edo Period (from History of Asia)
Image 45A stone image of the Buddha (from Culture of Asia)
Image 46The Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taipei, Taiwan, which was the tallest building in the world from 2004 to 2010 (from Asian Century)
Image 47The global contribution to world's GDP by major economies from 1 AD to 2003 AD according to Angus Maddison's estimates. Before 18th century, China and India were the two largest economies by GDP output. (from Asian Century)
Image 48The Battle of Chinkiang of the First Opium War (from History of Asia)
Image 49Projected shares of global GDP by region to 2050 (from Asian Century)
Image 50Expansion of the Delhi Sultanate (from History of Asia)

edit

Featured picture

European migrant crisis

Credit: Ggia

Syrian and Iraqi refugees arrive from Turkey to Skala Sykamias, Lesbos island, Greece. Volunteers (life rescue team - with yellow-red clothes) from the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms help the refugees.

More selected pictures

edit

Did you know...

... that the first publication of the prolific author and Talmudic scholar Israel Ta-Shma was a Jewish songbook for the Israel Defense Forces?
... that Oen Boen Ing, a doctor who often worked for free, was so popular that the Indonesian government was petitioned not to evacuate him during a period of violence against Chinese Indonesians?
... that scriptwriter Ang Eng Tee created The Little Nyonya by drawing inspiration from the rich Peranakan-Chinese heritage in Singapore's Joo Chiat?
... that Marshallese chief Kabua Kabua was described as "probably the only person ever to serve as a judge under both the Japanese and U.S. judicial systems"?
... that Indonesia's ambassador to Serbia, Andreano Erwin, joined the foreign ministry because his trading company went bankrupt?
... that nekonomics includes the leveraging of stray cat populations on islands to draw tourists?
... that Chinese warlord Deng Benyin came out of hiding to lead guerrilla campaigns during the Second Sino-Japanese War?
... that the stone men, horses, &c. of Japan's kofun may have been inspired by the spirit paths of China?
... that a Doctor Who episode took place during the partition of India, and used a unique Indian adaptation of the usual closing theme?
... that the Military-First Girls, a Japanese all-women fan club of the Moranbong Band, have compared their interest in North Korean music to other women's interests in K-pop and Taylor Swift?

Updated: 16:05, 31 October 2026

edit

In the news

31 October 2026 – Polish constitutional crisis, China–Poland relations, Poland–Romania relations: Polish Constitutional Tribunal crisis; Suspension of Bogdan Święczkowski; Poland's ambassador to Romania, Paweł Soloch, and Poland's ambassador to China, Jakub Kumoch, resign from their positions in protest of the suspension of Polish Constitutional Tribunal president Bogdan Święczkowski. (24 Kanal) (Firstpost)
31 October 2026 – Trafficking of Chinese nationals to scam centers abroad, Human trafficking in Madagascar: Madagascar's justice ministry announces dismantling 13 Chinese-run scam centers since August, linked to 148 Chinese nationals who had previously operated scam centers in Cambodia, and who might have been involved in trafficking Africans to commit fraud. The 148 Chinese are extradited to China. (AFP)
31 October 2026 – Gaza war protests in the United Kingdom: Police arrest 139 people outside the United States embassy in London, United Kingdom, during a protest supporting Palestine Action, which the UK banned as a terrorist organisation in 2025. Police say most arrests involve support for a proscribed organisation. (AP)
31 October 2026 – 2026–27 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: In figure skating, France's Kevin Aymoz wins the men's singles title at Skate Canada in Kelowna, British Columbia, overtaking Japan's Rio Nakata and becoming the second-oldest men's Grand Prix champion at age 29. (NBC Sports)

More current events...

edit

Related portals

Major Religions in Asia

Middle East (West Asia)

Central Asia

Indian Subcontinent

Southeast Asia

East Asia

edit

Selected panorama

Credit: David Castor

The Taj Mahal (Hindi: ताज महल, from Persian/Urdu: تاج محل "crown of palaces") is a white Marble mausoleum located in Agra, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal is widely recognized as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage." Taj Mahal is the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Turkish and Indian architectural styles.

More selected panoramas

Read more...

edit