According to Countryaah, there are 48 countries in Asia. Asia is home to all forms of religion. The major religions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Zarathustraism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Kongfuzianism, Daoism and Shintoism arose here. Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism spread throughout much of the world, while others, such as Hinduism and Kongfuzianism, grew mighty within their own cultural spheres. In addition to the major religions, numerous tribal religions are represented in Asia.
Christianity and Islam have deep roots in Judaism. Apart from smaller Jewish communities in different parts of Asia, they live in Asia living Jews in Israel.
Christianity is the most comprehensive of the major religions worldwide and globally. Although Asian in origin, it spread to the west. Reminiscences of the Christian Ancient Church constitute the small communities in the Middle East belonging to the Syrian Church, as well as the so-called Thomas Christians in Kerala in South India. The other Christian congregations scattered throughout most of Asia – often as reputable minorities – are the result of Catholic or Protestant missionary activities starting from the West.
From the 1500-h. embarked on a comprehensive Roman Catholic mission. The first Protestant missionary activity in India was due to a Danish initiative, with Frederik IV in 1705 sending two missionaries to the Danish colony Tranquebar. During the 1800-t. took on the Protestant mission, especially in India, China and Japan. As the only country in Asia, the Philippines has a Christian majority, with almost 95% of the population being Christian – 84% of whom are Roman Catholic.
Islam is the most religious religion in Asia (around 800 million). After its founding in the early 600-t. Islam spread rapidly from the Arabian Peninsula to the entire Middle East and beyond through Central Asia to China and through South Asia to Indonesia. Islam is state religion in several Middle Eastern states as well as in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Malaysia. Indonesia is home to over 120 million. Muslims and thus have more than any other country. In India, the Muslims constitute a significant minority group (about 75 million). The majority of Asian Muslims are Sunnis, but in Iran and Iraq the Shiites are in majority, and Shia Islam is the state religion in Iran (the only place).
Buddhism emerged in northern India as a reform movement around 500 BC. The Buddha would neither recognize the Brahmans, the clergy, as a privileged spiritual upper class, nor the ancient Vedic scriptures as supreme religious authority. Three major directions evolved over the centuries in Buddhism: hinayana, mahayana and vajrayana. For more than a millennium, Buddhism flourished in India, but Hinduism and Islamic expansion eventually displaced it from the motherland. Buddhism disappeared from Indian territory around 1200 AD, but in turn became an important religious factor in other parts of Asia. The only survivor of the ancient Hinayana schools is theravada. It lives on in Buddhism in Sri Lanka and in much of Southeast Asia. The other two directions, mahayana and vajrayana, form the basis of Buddhism in Bhutan, Tibet, Mongolia and East Asia. Buddhism has in recent times undergone a renaissance in India, with over three million. casteless Hindus have switched to Buddhism because of.BR Ambedkar’s movement against social injustice towards the castless.
Country | Capital | Languages | People |
Afghanistan | Kabul | Pushtu, Dari Persian | Afghan |
Armenia | Yerevan | Armenian | Armenian |
Azerbaijan | Baku | Azerbaijani | Azerbaijani, Azeri |
Bahrain | Al-Manamah | Arabic *, English | Bahraini |
Bangladesh | Dhaka | Bangla *, English | Bengali |
Bhutan | Thimphu | Dzongkha | Bhote |
Brunei | Bandar Seri Begawan | Malay | Bruneian |
Cambodia | Phnom Penh | Khmer | Cambodian |
China | Beijing | Chinese, Mandarin | Chinese |
Cyprus *** | Lefkosia (Nicosia) | Greek, Turkish | Cyprian, Cypriote |
East Timor | Dili | Tetum, Portuguese | ** |
Georgia | Tbilisi | Georgian *, Russian, Armenian, Azerbaijani | Georgian |
India | Delhi | Hindi, English | Indian |
Indonesia | Jakarta | Bahasa Indonesia | Indonesian |
Iran | Tehran | Farsi, Azari, Kurdish, Arabic | Iranian |
Iraq | Baghdad | Arabic *, Kurdish | Iraqi |
Israel | Tel Aviv | Hebrew *, Arabic, English | Israeli |
Japan | Tokyo | Japanese | Japanese |
Jordan | Amman | Arabic *, English | Jordanian |
Kazakhstan | Astana | Kazak *, Russian | Kazak |
Kuwait | Kuwait | Arabic *, English | Kuwaiti |
Kyrgyzstan | Bishkek (Frunze) | Kyrgyz *, Russian | Kyrgyz |
Laos | Vientiane | Lao *, French, English | Laotian |
Lebanon | Beirut | Arabic *, French, English | Arab |
Malaysia | Kuala Lumpur | Malay *, Chinese, Tamil, English | Malay |
Maldives | Times | Dhivehi *, Arabic, Hindi, English | Maldivian |
Mongolia | Ulaan Baatar | Mongolian | Mongol |
Burma | Rangoon | Burmese | Burman |
Nepal | Kathmandu | Nepali | Nepalese, Nepali |
North Korea | Pyongyang | Korean | Korean |
Oman | Muscat | Arabic | Omanian |
Pakistan | Islamabad | Punjabi, Sindhi, Siraiki, Pashtu, Urdu | Pakistani |
Philippines | Manila | Filipino | Filipino |
Qatar | Doha | Arabic *, English | Qatari |
Russia **** | Moscow | Russian | Russian |
Saudi Arabia | Riyadh | Arabic *, English | Saudi |
Singapore | Singapore | Malay, Chinese (Mandarin), Tamil, English | Singaporean |
South Korea | Seoul | Korean | Korean |
Sri Lanka | Colombo | Sinhala *, Tamil, English | Sri Lankan |
Syria | Damascus | Arabic *, French, English | Syrian |
Taiwan | Taipei | Chinese (Mandarin) | Taiwanese |
Tajikistan | Dushanbe | Tajik | Tajik |
Thailand | Bangkok | Thai (Siamese), Chinese, English | Thai |
Turkey **** | Ankara | Turkish | Turk |
Turkmenistan | Ashgabat | Turkmen *, Russian, Uzbek | Turkmen |
United Arab Emirates | Abu Dhabi | Arabic *, English | ** |
Uzbekistan | Tashkent | Uzbek *, Russian, Tajik | Uzbek |
Vietnam | Hanoi | Vietnamese *, French, English, Khmer, Chinese | Vietnamese |
Yemen | SanaĆ” | Arabic | Yemeni |
Hinduism is a mixture of the Indian indigenous religion and the ancient Vedar religion that the Aryan tribes brought with them to India since between 2000 and 1500 BC. invaded the country. It is India’s dominant religion, with more than 80% of the population being Hindus. In Nepal, which is the only country with Hinduism as a state religion, almost 90% are Hindus. In other places, too, there are significant Hindu groups, for example in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bali.
Jainism originated in India at about the same time as Buddhism. Its teachings are heretical, like those of Buddhism. Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, could recognize as little as Buddha the ideals of the Vedar religion. It has approx. DKK 3 million followers. Sikhism is a reform movement founded in the 1500s. It contains elements from both Hinduism and Islam. About 13 million live there. Sikhs in India. Finally, in the Bombay area, approx. 120,000 Parsis, supporters of Parsism, the contemporary version of Zarathustra’s ancient Iranian religion.
China’s two major traditional religions, Confucianism and Taoism, originated in 500 tfKr. The ideas of Congo-Fuzianism were based on ancient Chinese ideals and notions. Daoism redefined the inherited concepts from a mystical, natural-philosophical worldview and became a movement aimed at the existing order. Both have been of great importance to religion and culture throughout East Asia. In the 1st century AD the first Buddhist monks arrived in China. Here developed from 500-t. a special Buddhist meditation school, Chan. It spread into 700-t. to Japan, where in the following centuries it was further developed into the Zen school. Shintoism, Japan’s national religion, has always had close cooperation with Buddhism.
The so-called primitive or tribal religions are found especially in India, Nepal, Southeast Asia and Indonesia. They usually have no written tradition. We encounter Shamanism in North and Central Asia, South Korea and Japan, based on AbbreviationFinder.org.
From around the mid-1960s, many Westerners have been attracted to the ideas and ideas of Asian religions. Various forms of yoga are popular in many circles in the western world, which has led to yoga schools in most major cities and many places meditation centers. In the Hare Krishna movement, Western adherents closely follow the rituals of a Bengali, Vishnutian sect. The Buddhists also conduct missionary activities in the West. One or more Buddhist organizations are located in the majority of Western countries.