This is Asia, it’s a very big place.
It is in fact bigger than Texas, Germany, the Solomon Islands, Mongolia, and Los Angeles
combined, so you know it’s also got to be incredibly diverse… which it is, as it is
divided into numerous different regions to help people comprehend the whole deal.
According to the UN’s subregions, there’s East Asia-- the place people usually mean
when they refer to something as “Asian”--, Southeast Asia-- popular nowadays with backpackers
and digital nomads--, South Asia-- basically India, Pakistan, and co.--, North Asia-- literally
just Siberia--, Southwest Asia-- generally more often referred to as the Middle East.
Lastly, for the topic of this video, we look to the center(s) of Asia, located just east
of Central Asia.
This area however (much like many other “central” regions) isn’t generally as well known by
the outside world as the other regions of Asia, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t
still full of interesting cultures and fascinating history, so here’s a basic guide to Central
Asia, as made by an American who’s still yet to go there.
Central Asia contains five different countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,
and Tajikistan.
Afghanistan is also sometimes included, but is mostly considered part of South Asia.
Aside from the more Persian-based Tajikistan, the countries of Central Asia all have varying
Turkic cultures, including their titular nationalities, as well as groups like the Tatars and Karakalpaks.
Seeing as the area borders Russia to the north (and kind of also west), Iran to the south,
and China to the east, Central Asian cultures have been known to take elements from these
three areas, namely in the use of Cyrillic in most of their languages, the use of the
Persian suffix “-stan” in their names instead of the Latin “-ia”, and the millennia
of shared history with China.
The climate of Central Asia ranges from 30C summers to winters dipping below -40 degrees,
and is largely made up of vast, grassy steppes, which did not historically support full-on
agriculture in the same way as the semi-nomadic tribes which developed in the area, who would
eventually arise into various different Khanates (by the way, Khan isn’t meant to be confused
with KhAnubis, that’s a different etymology entirely).
The region was a major part of the Silk Road in its hey-day, boasting cities such as Samarkand,
Bukhara, Kokand, Osh, and Almaty (yeah Uzbekistan really got the majority of those), obviously
helping the region financially, considering none of the countries have access to the wide-open
sea, except maybe through the Caspian now that Russia built the Volga-Don Canal.
In fact Uzbekistan is one of only two double-landlocked countries in the world, that is a landlocked
country whose only neighbors are also landlocked countries.
Throughout the vast majority of its short history, Central Asia was also at the heart
of the vast Mongol Empire, where it served as the crossroads between the empire’s vast
holdings, and would later be split between the Chagatai Khanate and the Golden Horde
after the empire’s collapse.
The general Timur, or Tamerlane, (also known somewhat pejoratively as Timur the Lame) would
then establish the Timur Empire across Persia and the southern half of Central Asia, with
its capital in the city of Samarkand, before moving to Herat in modern-day Afghanistan
in 1405.
In the latter half of the second millennium AD, after Tamerlane’s empire broke up, the
rivalling Khanates of Central Asia gradually came under Russian rule, at first by the Russian
Empire, and later by the USSR until its collapse in 1991.
Thus, Russian influence can often be seen throughout, namely the Cyrillic alphabet used
in most of their languages (and the use of Russian as a common tongue), though do keep
in mind a lot of these are steadily being phased out.
The Soviets especially had a large influence on the region, though one that should be highlighted
would be the gradual drying of the Aral Sea, after diverting the water toward irrigation
projects, though it is slowly recovering, so there’s good news there.
Although the USSR was a strictly atheist country, Islam is particularly prevalent in the region,
with Kazakhstan being the northernmost Muslim-majority nation in the world.
Many notable people also come from Central Asia, for instance the Persian polymath Muhammad
ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, who as his name suggests came from the region of Khwarezm, and whose
name (after he invented algebra of course) would be Latinized into Algoritmi, which would
give rise to the term “algorithm”, the source of all my happiness and despair.
Since there are only five countries to talk about, I think I’ll give you all a brief
overview of these countries.
First, this is Kazakhstan, its capital city is Astana Nur Sultan, its largest city is
Almaty, and it is home to 16 million people, 65% of whom are of Kazakh descent, with the
others belonging to over 130 other ethnic groups.
Kazakhstan is physically by far the largest of these countries, being the 9th largest
in the world, and the largest landlocked country, with its westernmost point being closer to
France than its easternmost point, and its southernmost point closer to Saudi Arabia
than it is to Saturn.
Next we have Kyrgyzstan, a smaller more mountainous country based in the capital of Bishkek.
Home to 6.4 million people, the term “Kyrgyz” might sound familiar to anyone who speaks
Turkish, literally meaning “we are forty”, referring to the original 40 clans united
by the folk hero Manas against the Uyghurs, as according to the Epic of Manas, in a sense
Kyrgyzstan’s founding legend.
Moving west we get to Uzbekistan, with its capital and largest city Tashkent, one of
the many aforementioned major cities on the Silk Road.
Uzbekistan has a population of 34 million, making up nearly half that of the entire region.
Uzbekistan is home to the aforementioned region of Khwarezm, as well as the autonomous republic
of Karakalpakstan, and of course the cities of Khiva, Tashkent, Bukhara, Samarkand, and
many others.
To the south is Turkmenistan, known today rather sadly more for its… poor governmental
record and… gimmicky leaders (yeah, comparisons to North Korea aren’t exactly all that rare).
The capital and largest city Ashgabat is known for its grand boulevards, grandiose architecture,
and vast expanse of white-colored buildings (I mean the place is even whiter than Vermont).
Turkmenistan is also home to the Darvaza gas crater-- also known as the Gates to Hell--,
a crater filled with natural gas which has been burning ever since it was lit on fire
to prevent the gas from spreading after an accident… in 1971.
Finally we have Tajikistan, a smaller republic at the south end of the Fergana Valley.
With its capital and largest city Dushanbe, its 9.2 million citizens (or at least 84%
of them) are of Tajik descent, an Iranian group speaking a more or less Farsi-based
dialect, again completely different from the Turkic dialects spoken by its northern neighbors
(though not as different from its southern neighbor Afghanistan).
So hopefully this video has given you a better idea of what this place is like, and maybe
even made you consider going there, I certainly want to!
Of course, after we’re allowed to go outside and travel again, let’s not put anyone in
danger here.
Of course it is largely gaining in popularity, and visa requirements are already being lightened
(especially for US and EU travelers), so hopefully Central Asia can get the attention it deserves
once more.
Thanks for watching, obviously this was supposed to be more of an introductory video, so there’s
still so much more to talk about regarding the region.
Nevertheless, if you found this video interesting, be sure to give it a like, share it with someone
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