Asian Studies Module 2: Ancient Civilizations of Asia

Module Title: Module II – Ancient Civilizations of Asia

Course Title: Asian Studies
Course Number: Social Studies 105

Course Description:
The course examines the development perspective in Asian countries, cultures
and values as well as issues and challenges, historical roots, and Asian responses. The
course is designed to enable students to make comparative study of Asian societies.

Total Learning Time: 6 hrs.

Pre-requisites: None

Overview:
In this module, the student will learn the topics on human evolution, the brief
background of the ancient period of Asia and the religions in Asia.

Most Essential Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the lesson, the students must have:

1. Analyzed the process of human evolution.
2. Discussed the different events that happened in Ancient period.
3. Explained the origin, foundation, teachings and doctrines of the different
religions that started in Asia.

Indicative Content:
Human Evolution
Asia in the Ancient Period
Religions in Asia

Discussion

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Ancient Civilizations of Asia

Human Evolution
Human evolution is the lengthy
process of change by which people originated
from apelike ancestors. Scientific evidence
shows that the physical and behavioral traits
shared by all people originated from apelike
ancestors and evolved over a period of
approximately six million years.

One of the earliest defining human traits, bipedalism -- the ability to walk on
two legs -- evolved over 4 million years ago. Other important human characteristics --
such as a large and complex brain, the ability to make and use tools, and the capacity
for language -- developed more recently. Many advanced traits -- including complex
symbolic expression, art, and elaborate cultural diversity -- emerged mainly during the
past 100,000 years.

Humans are primates. Physical and genetic similarities show that the modern
human species, Homo sapiens, has a very close relationship to another group of primate
species, the apes. Humans and the great apes (large apes) of Africa -- chimpanzees
(including bonobos, or so-called “pygmy chimpanzees”) and gorillas -- share a common
ancestor that lived between 8 and 6 million years ago. Humans first evolved in Africa,
and much of human evolution occurred on that continent. The fossils of early humans
who lived between 6 and 2 million years ago come entirely from Africa.

Most scientists currently recognize some 15 to 20 different species of early

humans. Scientists do not all agree, however, about how these species are related or
which ones simply died out. Many early human species -- certainly the majority of them
– left no living descendants. Scientists also debate over how to identify and classify
particular species of early humans, and about what factors influenced the evolution and
extinction of each species.

Early humans first migrated out of Africa into Asia probably between 2 million
and 1.8 million years ago. They entered Europe somewhat later, between 1.5 million
and 1 million years. Species of modern humans populated many parts of the world much
later. For instance, people first came to Australia probably within the past 60,000 years
and to the Americas within the past 30,000 years or so. The beginnings of agriculture
and the rise of the first civilizations occurred within the past 12,000 years.

Paleoanthropology
Paleoanthropology is the scientific study of
human evolution. Paleoanthropology is a subfield of
anthropology, the study of human culture, society, and
biology. The field involves an understanding of the
similarities and differences between humans and other
species in their genes, body form, physiology, and
behavior. Paleoanthropologists search for the roots of
human physical traits and behavior. They seek to

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discover how evolution has shaped the potentials, tendencies, and limitations of all
people. For many people, paleoanthropology is an exciting scientific field because it
investigates the origin, over millions of years, of the universal and defining traits of our
species. However, some people find the concept of human evolution troubling because
it can seem not to fit with religious and other traditional beliefs about how people, other
living things, and the world came to be. Nevertheless, many people have come to
reconcile their beliefs with the scientific evidence.

Early human fossils and archeological remains offer the most important clues
about this ancient past. These remains include bones, tools and any other evidence (such
as footprints, evidence of hearths, or butchery marks on animal bones) left by earlier
people. Usually, the remains were buried and preserved naturally. They are then found
either on the surface (exposed by rain, rivers, and wind erosion) or by digging in the
ground. By studying fossilized bones, scientists learn about the physical appearance of
earlier humans and how it changed. Bone size, shape, and markings left by muscles tell
us how those predecessors moved around, held tools, and how the size of their brains
changed over a long time. Archeological evidence refers to the things earlier people
made and the places where scientists find them. By studying this type of evidence,
archeologists can understand how early humans made and used tools and lived in their
environments.

The Process of Evolution

The process of evolution involves a
series of natural changes that cause species
(populations of different organisms) to arise,
adapt to the environment, and become extinct.
All species or organisms have originated
through the process of biological evolution. In
animals that reproduce sexually, including
humans, the term species refers to a group
whose adult members regularly interbreed,
resulting in fertile offspring -- that is, offspring themselves capable of reproducing.
Scientists classify each species with a unique, two-part scientific name. In this system,
modern humans are classified as Homo sapiens.

Evolution occurs when there is change in the genetic material -- the chemical
molecule, DNA -- which is inherited from the parents, and especially in the proportions
of different genes in a population. Genes represent the segments of DNA that provide
the chemical code for producing proteins. Information contained in the DNA can
change by a process known as mutation. The way particular genes are expressed – that
is, how they influence the body or behavior of an organism -- can also change. Genes
affect how the body and behavior of an organism develop during its life, and this is why
genetically inherited characteristics can influence the likelihood of an organism’s
survival and reproduction.

Evolution does not change any single individual. Instead, it changes the
inherited means of growth and development that typify a population (a group of
individuals of the same species living in a particular habitat). Parents pass adaptive
genetic changes to their offspring, and ultimately these changes become common
throughout a population. As a result, the offspring inherit those genetic characteristics

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that enhance their chances of survival and ability to give birth, which may work well
until the environment changes. Over time, genetic change can alter a species' overall
way of life, such as what it eats, how it grows, and where it can live. Human evolution
took place as new genetic variations in early ancestor populations favored new abilities
to adapt to environmental change and so altered the human way of life.

Asia in the Ancient Period

The history of Asia can be
seen as the collective history of
several distinct peripheral coastal
regions such as East Asia, South Asia,
Southeast Asia and the Middle East
linked by the interior mass of the
Eurasian steppe.

The coastal periphery was the

home to some of the world's earliest
known civilizations and religions,
with each of the three regions
developing early civilizations around
fertile river valleys. These valleys
were fertile because the soil there was rich and could bear many root crops. The
civilizations in Mesopotamia, India, and China shared many similarities and likely
exchanged technologies and ideas such as mathematics and the wheel. Other notions
such as that of writing likely developed individually in each area. Cities, states and then
empires developed in these lowlands.

The steppe region had long been inhabited by mounted nomads, and from the
central steppes they could reach all areas of the Asian continent. The northern part of
the continent, covering much of Siberia was also inaccessible to the steppe nomads due
to the dense forests and the tundra. These areas in Siberia were very sparsely populated.

The centre and periphery were kept separate by mountains and deserts. The
Caucasus, Himalaya, Karakum Desert, and Gobi Desert formed barriers that the steppe
horsemen could only cross with difficulty. While technologically and culturally the city
dwellers were more advanced, they could do little militarily to defend against the
mounted hordes of the steppe. However, the lowlands did not have enough open
grasslands to support a large horsebound force. Thus the nomads who conquered states
in the Middle East were soon forced to adapt to the local societies.

The spread of Islam waved the Islamic Golden Age and the Timurid
Renaissance, which later influenced the age of Islamic gunpowder empires.

Asia's history features major developments seen in other parts of the world, as
well as events that have affected those other regions. These include the trade of the Silk
Road, which spread cultures, languages, religions, and diseases throughout Afro-
Eurasian trade. Another major advancement was the innovation of gunpowder in
medieval China, later developed by the Gunpowder empires, mainly by the Mughals
and Safavids, which led to advanced warfare through the use of guns.

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Middle East
The Achaemenid dynasty of the Persian Empire,
founded by Cyrus the Great, ruled an area from Greece
and Turkey to the Indus River and Central Asia during
the 6th to 4th centuries BCE. Persian politics included a
tolerance for other cultures, a highly centralized
government, and significant infrastructure developments.
Later, in Darius the Great's rule, the territories were
integrated, a bureaucracy was developed, nobility were
assigned military positions, tax collection was carefully
organized, and spies were used to ensure the loyalty of
regional officials. The primary religion of Persia at this
time was Zoroastrianism, developed by the philosopher
Zoroaster. It introduced an early form of monotheism to
the area. The religion banned animal sacrifice and the use
of intoxicants in rituals; and introduced the concept of
spiritual salvation through personal moral action, an end time, and both general and
Particular judgment with a heaven or hell. These concepts would heavily influence later
emperors and the masses. More importantly, Zoroastrianism would be an important
precursor for the Abrahamic religions such as Christianity, Islam, or Judaism. The
Persian Empire was successful in establishing peace and stability throughout the
Middle East and were a major influence in art, politics (affecting Hellenistic leaders),
and religion.

Alexander the Great conquered this dynasty in the 4th century BCE, creating
the brief Hellenistic period. He was unable to establish stability and after his death,
Persia broke into small, weak dynasties including the Seleucid Empire, followed by the
Parthian Empire. By the end of the Classical age, Persia had been reconsolidated into
the Sassanid Empire, also known as the second Persian Empire.

The Roman Empire would later control parts of Western Asia. The Seleucid,
Parthian and Sassanid dynasties of Persia dominated Western Asia for centuries.

Central Asia
The Mongol Empire conquered a
large part of Asia in the 13th century, an area
extending from China to Europe. Medieval
Asia was the kingdom of the Khans. Never
before had any person controlled as much
land as Genghis Khan. He built his power
unifying separate Mongol tribes before
expanding his kingdom south and west. He
and his grandson, Kublai Khan, controlled
lands in China, Burma, Central Asia, Russia,
Iran, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. Estimates are that the Mongol armies
reduced the population of China by nearly a third. Genghis Khan was a pagan who
tolerated nearly every religion, and their culture often suffered the harshest treatment
from Mongol armies. The Khan armies pushed as far west as Jerusalem before being
defeated in 1260.

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Indus Valley Civilization

While civilizations were
developing in Mesopotamia and Egypt,
another great urban civilization was
coming into its own in the Indus valley,
an area of modern-day Pakistan and
western India. The Indus Valley
civilization flourished between 2600 and
1900 BC, around the same time as
ancient Sumer and Old Kingdom Egypt.
While Egyptian and Near Eastern
civilizations have been well known and
studied for centuries, recorded in histories since ancient times, the Indus Valley
civilization was virtually unknown until the twentieth century. The British, who were
ruling India, stumbled upon the remains of some of the cities of this ancient civilization.
At first they paid little attention to the ruins, and sometimes plundered them for stone,
but over time it was realized that these were remains of a very ancient culture. British
archaeologists began exploring and digging at some of the sites in the 1920s, and
famous archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler led excavations in the 1930s and 1940s, during
which a number of Bronze Age cities were unearthed. The Indus Valley civilization is
also known as the Harappan civilization, because the first city to be excavated was at
Harappa. Another important urban site discovered by the archaeologists further to the
south is a place called Mohenjo-Daro. Since there are virtually no written accounts of
this civilization, nearly everything we know about it is from archaeology.

The Emergence of Indus Valley Civilization

Early civilization spread around the Indus River, which like the Nile River in
Egypt, would flood and bring water and rich soil. From 3500 to 2600 BC, the Early
Indus (or Early Harappan) period began in this region. This period saw a proliferation
of towns and small cities, composed mainly of mud brick homes, as the people of the
region settled into agriculture-based lifestyles. Some of the larger sites had citadels,
artificial mounds upon which were built either civic structures or the homes of the elite.
One of the cities in this early period was Harappa, which seems to have been a
commercial city that produced items like beads from the local stones.

By 2600 BC, the settlements of the Indus Valley had grown into full-fledged
cities, and Harappa was a major metropolis. Other important cities were Mohenjo-Daro,
Ganweriwala and Rakhigarhi. All of these had populations of around 20,000 to 40,000
people. The old settlements at all these sites burned down, either due to warfare or
accidents, and the cities were rebuilt in a much more organized fashion. These cities,
newly rebuilt around 2600 BC, are characterized as belonging to the Mature Indus (or
Mature Harappan) period, and they are laid out in a way that suggests urban planning
and an organized government capable of engineering such projects. The cities had the
world’s earliest examples of sophisticated sanitation—each home had its own well, and
a toilet that filtered into a sewer pipe that carried the city’s waste away. At Harappa, all
homes seem to have had access to water and drainage. At Mohenjo-Daro there was
similar access to water and sanitation, as well as what appears to have been a public
bath. The styles of jewelry, pottery, and statuary found at these sites are all very similar.
The citadels remained in the cities and were expanded. They may have housed the
government or religious centers of the cities, though we cannot tell for sure.

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Indeed, we know nothing about how these cities were ruled or what form of
government there was in the Bronze Age Indus valley. We also do not know whether
Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro, and the other cities were part of the same state, or whether
they were governed as individual city-states. The cities have much in common in terms
of layout and artifacts, but we cannot know if that was a result of political unification
or simply close contact with each other. Interestingly, although some houses are bigger
than others, and some have better access to water or sanitation, for the most part they
are fairly similar in size and amenities. Excavated graves show some variation in the
richness of grave goods, but the differences are not very pronounced. It seems that the
Indus Valley civilization was fairly egalitarian, with fewer differences in lifestyle
among the different classes of city dwellers than in other contemporary cultures such
as Egypt and Mesopotamia.

The cities were fed by sophisticated agriculture that included domesticated

animals, and crops such as sesame, peas, wheat, and especially barley. Cotton was
grown and spun for making clothes. The people of the Indus Valley civilization seem
to have taken part in long-distance trade. With advances in sailing technology, the
Harappans were able to trade up and down the Indus River and across the sea to Persia
and Mesopotamia. They put their seals on containers of trade goods, and these seals
have been found as far as Mesopotamia. Such seals are an important source of evidence
about Indus Valley civilization. The seals contain images of animals, which may have
been sacred to the Harappan people, images of men and women, which could be gods
and goddesses, as well as symbols (like swastikas) and writing (which has not been
deciphered). Many of these images may be indications of religion in the Indus valley,
but it is difficult to tell, since we have very little evidence otherwise. No known temples
have been found in any of the cities, though there was probably some form of
worshipping gods and goddesses, perhaps early forms of what would become
Hinduism. But this is just speculation.

Furthering the mystery around the Indus Valley civilization is the fact that its
writing system, the Indus Valley script, has not been deciphered. So we know almost
nothing about the language of the people who inhabited the Bronze Age Indus valley,
and though we have many writings from them, we do not know what any of this writing
says.

The Decline and Disappearance of Indus Valley Civilization

Around 1900 BC, the Indus Valley civilization started to go into decline.
Scholars at one time believed that they were overrun and wiped out by the invading
Aryans, a warlike people from the steppes of Euro-Asia. While the Aryans did move
into the Indus valley region, their presence is no longer believed to be the main cause
of the decline of the Indus Valley civilization.

For one thing, the cities of the Indus valley, such as Harappa and Mohenjo-
Daro, were not suddenly destroyed. Instead, they were slowly abandoned over a long
period of time. No one knows why this happened. The river may have changed course,
or global temperature change may have caused the cities to be slowly consumed by the
Saylor URL: www.saylor.org/courses/hist101/#3.1 The Saylor Foundation Saylor.org
Page 3 of 3 desert. Alternatively, disease may have ravaged the cities, or flooding could
have caused heavy destruction that made them uninhabitable.

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Another theory is that changes in agricultural techniques or available crops

could have caused the city dwellers to gradually abandon their homes and go out to the
country to live as farmers. Indeed, the areas of Pakistan and India where the Indus valley
cities once thrived are now largely agricultural regions. This, however, challenges the
common view that civilization entails the gradual change from small, agricultural
settlements to larger and larger cities. It suggests that people can achieve a complex
level of societal sophistication, only to abandon it of their own volition and return to
what is considered a more primitive state.

We will probably never know what happened to the Indus Valley civilization,
but its discovery in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, and the excavation of its
cities, challenge long-held views about civilization. They suggest, though cannot
conclusively prove, that complex urban societies need not become highly stratified in
terms of wealth or class, and that the progress of civilization may not be linear, that
people may abandon urban life for a less complex, agriculturally based existence.

Summary:
 From 3500 to 2600 BC, the Early Indus (or Early Harappan) period began
around the Indus River valley (mostly in modern-day Pakistan), with the spread
of settled agricultural villages in the region.
 Around 2600 BC, many villages were rebuilt as large cities. This was the
beginning of the Mature Indus (or Mature Harappan) period. The two most
important cities discovered from this period are Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro.
 The cities suggest large-scale urban planning, but we do not know anything
about the governments of these cities or how they were organized. Since we
cannot read the writing of the Indus River civilization, much of its culture is
unknown to us.
 The Indus Valley civilization seems to have traded extensively, and the seals
they used in this trade are a major source of evidence about the civilization,
providing us with symbols that they found important.
 The cities and homes of the Indus Valley civilization show advanced sanitation
and good access to water and drainage for almost all residents of the cities.
There were some differences in wealth among its people, but the Indus Valley
civilization seems to have been far more egalitarian than other urban cultures
developing at the time, such as in Egypt and Mesopotamia.
 We do not know why the Indus Valley civilization slowly disappeared. Theories
include foreign invasion (no longer as popular a theory as it once was), climate
change, changes in the course of the river, disease, or new agricultural and
economic factors that caused the people to abandon the cities.

The Ancient Dynasties: China’s Prehistory

Like in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the
Indus River valley, civilization in China
developed around a great river. The Yellow
River carried floodwater and sediment to the
land around it, making the area incredibly
fertile, and thus an excellent place for the
Stone Age inhabitants of the area to
experiment with agriculture. While the Yellow

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River was the main cradle of Chinese civilization, people also settled around other
rivers, such as the Huai and the Yangtze. By around 4000 BC, villages began to appear.
They cultivated a number of crops, but most important was a grain called millet (two
types of millet: proso and foxtail millet). The Chinese, even up to modern times, revere
the Wǔgǔ, the Five Sacred Grains, which are traditionally considered soybeans, wheat,
hemp, and the two types of millet. Rice was also cultivated in this period, but it was not
yet the important staple that it would later become in the Chinese diet. The Neolithic
Chinese domesticated animals such as pigs, dogs, and chickens. Silk production,
through the domestication of silk worms, probably also began in this early period.

During the Neolithic period in

China, there were multiple groups of
people, mostly around the Yellow River,
with separate emerging cultures. Some of
these various cultures include the Yangshao
culture (ca. 4800 – ca. 3000 BC), the
Majiayao culture (ca. 3800 – ca. 2000 BC),
the Dawenkou culture (ca. 4300 – ca. 2400
BC), the Qijia culture (ca. 2200 – ca. 1800
BC), and the Longshan culture (ca. 2600 –
ca. 2000 BC). Over time, they influenced
each other more and more, and pottery, art, and artifacts recovered by archaeologists
show greater homogenization as time went on. By 2000 BC a more unified Chinese
culture was developing, and there is also evidence of urbanism and the use of early
writing among the Chinese. All of this took place about a thousand years later than in
Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus River valley.

Chinese mythology tells a different story. It holds that the universe was created
by Pangu, after which the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, a series of legendary
sage emperors and heroes (such as the Yellow Emperor), helped create man and taught
the ancient Chinese to speak, use fire, build houses, farm, and make clothing. While
these events are mythological, at the root of them may be ancient memories of very
early kings and rulers who emerged among the prehistoric Chinese.

According to these myths, the last of the great Five Emperors left his throne to
Yu the Great, who founded China’s first dynasty, the Xia (or Hsia) dynasty. Yu
supposedly began the practice of passing power from father to son, which was the
necessary step for the creation of a dynasty. According to mythology, his ancestors
ruled China for nearly five hundred years, until the last Xia king became corrupt and
cruel. This led to his overthrow by Tang, who founded a new dynasty, the Shang
dynasty.

There is much debate among scholars about how much of this mythology is true.
Many argue that the Zhou (Chou) dynasty, which ruled China much later, invented the
idea of the Xia dynasty. It was necessary because the Zhou created the idea of the
Mandate of Heaven, which states that there could only be one legitimate ruler of China
at one time. This meant that the various small states that comprised Neolithic and
Bronze Age China, and which had probably been forgotten, were not useful for their
concept of history. They had to create the idea that China had always had one ruler, and
thus they created the idea of an ancient Xia dynasty. Also, since the Zhou had

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overthrown the legitimate Shang dynasty, they wanted to connect themselves to a more
ancient line of kings, so they invented the Xia and gave them a history of ruling the
country before the Shang.

Nonetheless, the Xia dynasty may not be a complete fabrication. Archaeologists

have discovered advanced Bronze Age culture in China, which they call the Erlitou
culture. Its capital, Erlitou, was a huge city around 2000 BC, with two possible palaces,
a drainage system, and what seems to have been a very high population. This may be
the people referred to in Chinese mythology as the Xia. In addition, for a long time it
was believed that the later Shang dynasty may also have been purely mythological, until
archaeology proved that it had been real.

Indeed, while the existence of the Shang dynasty was still in doubt, at the start
of the twentieth century scholars realized that objects being sold by Chinese merchants
as “dragon bones,” which were crushed to make a traditional Chinese medicine
consumed to treat a variety of ailments, were actually important pieces of historical
evidence called oracle bones. Oracle bones are pieces of bone or turtle shell used by the
ancient Chinese, especially Chinese kings, in attempts to predict the future. The ancient
kings would inscribe their name and the date on the bone, along with a question. They
would then heat the bone until it cracked, and then interpret the shape of the crack,
which was believed to provide an answer to their question. Shang rulers long thought
to be merely mythological figures had carved their names onto such oracle bones,
attesting to their actual existence.

Archaeologists have also found ancient cities that correspond with the Shang
dynasty. A city at Zhengzhou appears to have been a Shang capital, and it contained
palaces, workshops, and city walls. Another important but slightly later Shang city that
has been excavated is Anyang. This site yielded large numbers of oracle bones, which
describe the travels of eleven named kings, and the names of these kings and the order
of their reigns match traditional lists of Shang kings.

In the end, we know that by 1600 BC, China was ruled by its first historically
attested dynasty, the Shang dynasty. It is hard to separate fact from myth when it comes
to the Shang, but archaeological evidence, as well as a careful reading of historical
sources, can give us a good picture of what life was like under the Shang. This was the
decisive period when a truly Chinese culture emerged, a culture that would continue to
thrive and evolve, and which considers itself continuous up to the modern day

Summary:
 Chinese civilization developed around major rivers, especially the Yellow
River. Like in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus River valley, the people of
the Neolithic period who lived there domesticated plants and animals.
 By 2000 BC, cities developed in China, and the various cultures of the area
began to merge into a larger, more unified Chinese culture.
 We know a great deal about prehistoric China through Chinese mythology, but
we cannot tell how much of this is true and how much is fiction.
 The first two Chinese dynasties were the Xia (Hsia) and the Shang. At one point
these were both believed to be purely mythological, but discoveries have
revealed that the Shang really did exist. It is still unknown if the Xia were real.

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Religions in Asia
Asia is the birthplace of
all the world’s major religions
and hundreds of minor ones. Like
all forms of culture, Asian
religions may be considered
geographically in terms of both
their places of origin and their
distribution.

South Asia
Hinduism, with a polytheistic and
ritual tradition comprising numerous cults
and sects, is the oldest of several religions
that originated in South Asia. It remains a
unifying force of Indian culture and the
social caste system—which Hindu tradition
sees as a reflection of the relative spiritual
purity of reincarnated souls. The religion has
had little appeal outside the Indian cultural context. Except on Bali and other
“Hinduized” islands of Indonesia, Hinduism is practiced outside the subcontinent
mainly by Indian expatriates.

Jainism and Buddhism emerged in reaction to prevailing Hindu practices in the

6th and 5th centuries BCE, respectively. Although Jainism never spread significantly
beyond two present-day states of north-western India, its principles of nonviolence and
asceticism have deeply influenced Indian thought.

Buddhism arose in north-eastern India as

a “universal” alternative to hierarchical religion,
offering nirvana, or enlightenment, to
individuals regardless of culture or social
station. In the centuries following its
foundation, Buddhism gave rise to two main
divergent schools: Theravada, which claimed
orthodox adherence to the teachings of the
religion’s founder, the Buddha, and Mahayana,
which held its teachings to be the fullest account of the Buddha’s message. The
monastically oriented Theravada predominates today in Sri Lanka and mainland
Southeast Asia, while the more liberal Mahayana, with its proliferation of philosophical
schools and sects, has had an immeasurable impact on the civilizations of China, Korea,
and Japan. Vajrayana, or Tantrism, is an esoteric form of Buddhism practiced in the
Tibet Autonomous Region of China, Nepal, Bhutan, and Mongolia. In India itself, the
once sizable Buddhist population has diminished to a relatively small number of
adherents.

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Sikhism, a monotheistic Indian religion, was

founded in the Punjab in the late 15th century CE and
has fueled that region’s modern demands for
independence. The current Indian state of Punjab has a
Sikh majority, with the city of Amritsar in that state as
the religion’s spiritual centre.

Southwest Asia
Southwest Asia (the Middle East) is the
cradle of three great monotheistic systems:
Judaism and its offshoots Christianity and Islam.
Judaism, founded in the eastern Mediterranean
region some 4,000 years ago, posits a covenant
relationship between God—the source of divine
law—and humankind. Most Asian Jews now live
in Israel, although there are small Jewish
communities in various other areas of the
continent. In the 20th century a number of Jewish
sects and reform movements founded elsewhere
accompanied immigrants to Israel.

Christianity, which was derived from Judaism some two millennia ago, came to
have the largest number of believers among the world’s religions. After it was adopted
by the Roman and Byzantine empires, Christianity became predominant in Europe and
in European-derived cultures. It is practiced by sizable minorities in many Asian
countries (notably South Korea) and by Roman Catholic majorities in East Timor and
the Philippines.

Islam dominates as the state religion of most Southwest Asian countries, and a
substantial majority of Muslims live in Asia. From the Arabian Peninsula, where it was
founded in the 7th century, Islam spread throughout the Middle East, into Central Asia
and parts of South Asia, and across the Bay of Bengal to Malaysia and to Indonesia,
which remains predominantly Muslim. The majority of Asian Muslims belong to the
orthodox Sunnite branch, except in Iran and Iraq, where members of the more esoteric
Shīʿite branch are in the majority. Muslims constitute important minority populations
in India, the Philippines, and China. Among the other religions that developed in
Southwest Asia are Zoroastrianism, an ancient religion that survives in Iran and India
and contains both monotheistic and dualistic elements; and Bahāʾī, a Universalist faith
founded in Persia (Iran) in the mid-19th century.

East Asia
Ancient Chinese religious and philosophical
traditions survive in the form of two main schools,
Daoism (Taoism) and Confucianism, both of which
originated in the 5th or 6th century BCE. The two
schools differ in orientation—Daoism stressing
mystical experience and the individual’s harmony with
nature and Confucianism emphasizing the duty of the
individual in society and government—but both have
profoundly influenced Chinese and Chinese-derived

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Asian Studies Module 2: Ancient Civilizations of Asia

culture. Indigenous Chinese folk

religious traditions continue to influence
the practice of both Daoism and
Confucianism, as well as Buddhism,
which has many adherents in China.
Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism
are also widespread in Korea, where
indigenous Korean religious traditions
remain important as well.

Shintō encompasses the indigenous religious

beliefs and practices of the Japanese people.
Although among some practitioners that tradition
has absorbed the influences of other belief systems,
such as Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, its
fundamental principles linking sacred power, ritual
observance, and imperial nationhood remain unique
to Japanese culture.

Other religions
In addition to the major religions discussed above,
numerous localized spiritual practices are found
throughout Asia. Animism, for example, is particularly
common among some ethnic minorities of South and
Southeast Asia. Mystical shamanism remains
characteristic of numerous North and Central Asian
peoples, and shamanistic cults are also found in South
Korea and Japan.

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