Inner Asia

Inner Asia refers to the northern and landlocked regions spanning North, Central, and East Asia. It includes parts of western and northeast China, as well as southern Siberia. The area overlaps with some definitions of "Central Asia", mostly the historical ones, but certain regions that are often included in Inner Asia, such as Manchuria, are not a part of Central Asia by any of its definitions. Inner Asia may be regarded as the western and northern "frontier" of China proper and as being bounded by East Asia proper, which consists of China proper, Japan, and Korea.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The extent of Inner Asia has been understood differently in different periods. "Inner Asia" is sometimes contrasted to "China proper", that is, the territories originally unified under the Qin dynasty with majority Han populations. By the year 1800, Chinese Inner Asia consisted of four main areas, namely Manchuria (modern Northeast China and Outer Manchuria), the Mongolian Plateau (Inner Mongolia and Outer Mongolia), Xinjiang (Chinese Turkestan or East Turkestan), and Tibet. Many of these areas had been only recently conquered by the Qing dynasty of China and, during most of the Qing period, they were governed through administrative structures different from those of the older Chinese provinces.<ref>The Cambridge History of China: Volume 10, Part 1, by John K. Fairbank, p37</ref> A Qing government agency, the Lifan Yuan, supervised the empire's Inner Asian regions, also known as Chinese Tartary. The frontier regions of China proper—Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, and Yunnan—are also sometimes included as part of Inner Asia.<ref name="harvard">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="cambridge">Template:Cite web</ref>

Definition and usage

Alternative conception of Inner Asia showing the Mongolian (or Mongolian-related) areas of Inner Asia that are represented in the Mongolian Digital Ethnography Archive.

"Inner Asia" today has a range of definitions and usages.<ref>Book Abstract: "Inner Asia: Making a Long-Term U.S. Commitment." Template:Webarchive Authors: Carol D. Clair; Army War Coll Carlisle Barracks Pa. Retrieved: 22 August 2009.</ref> Denis Sinor, for example, used "Inner Asia" in contrast to agricultural civilizations, noting its changing borders, such as when a Roman province was taken by the Huns, areas of North China were occupied by the Mongols, or Anatolia came under Turkish influence, eradicating Hellenistic culture.<ref>The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Volume 1 By Denis Sinor. Retrieved: 22 August 2009.</ref>

Scholars or historians of the Qing dynasty, such as those who compiled the New Qing History, often use the term "Inner Asia" when studying Qing interests or reigns outside China proper,<ref>New Qing Imperial History: The Making of Inner Asian Empire at Qing Chengde, ed. Ruth W. Dunnell, Mark C. Elliott, Philippe Foret and James A. Millward</ref> although previous Chinese dynasties like the Han, Tang, and Ming dynasties also expanded their realms and influences into Inner Asia.

According to Morris Rossabi, Inner Asia is composed not only of the five Central Asian countries, which includes Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan, but also includes Afghanistan, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Manchuria, and parts of Iran.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The Committee on Inner Asian and Altaic Studies of Harvard University defines Inner Asia as a region consisting of West Turkestan, East Turkestan (i.e., Xinjiang), Eastern Iran, Northern Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, and northwestern Yunnan.<ref name="harvard" />

The Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit at the University of Cambridge defines Inner Asia as "an area centred on Mongolia and extending across the region of the great steppes to the Himalayas", including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, East Turkestan, Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Altai, Tuva, Buryatia, and Chita.<ref name="cambridge" />

In other languages

In French, Template:Lang can mean either "Central Asia" or "Inner Asia", while Mongolia and Tibet are grouped as Template:Lang (Template:Literal translation).<ref name="auto">Template:Cite web</ref>

The terms meaning "Inner Asia" in the languages of Inner Asia itself are all modern translations of terms in European languages, mostly Russian.<ref name="auto" />

Related terms

Central Asia

"Central Asia" normally denotes the western part of Inner Asia; that is, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, with Afghanistan sometimes also included as part of Central Asia. However, the Library of Congress' subject classification system treats "Central Asia" and Inner Asia as synonymous.<ref name="auto"/>

Central Eurasia

Historian Morris Rossabi posits that the "Inner Asia" is the established term for the area in relevant literature. Historian Denis Sinor believed the term was deficient, particularly as it implies an "Outer Asia" that in fact has no agreed-upon meaning or common usage. As an alternative, Sinor proposed the neologism "Central Eurasia" to emphasize the region's history in transcontinental exchange, e.g., as territories of the Silk Road.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> According to Sinor:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The definition that can be given of Central Eurasia in space is negative. It is that part of the continent of Eurasia that lies beyond the borders of the great sedentary civilizations.... Although the area of Central Eurasia is subject to fluctuations, the general trend is that of diminution. With the territorial growth of the sedentary civilizations, their borderline extends and offers a larger surface on which new layers of barbarians will be deposited.

Origin of Inner Asian studies

Gustav Kreitner, Béla Széchenyi, and Lajos Lóczy led an expedition to Inner Asia in 1877–1880.

Central Europe is the birthplace of Inner Asian studies in the West. Hungarian explorers and scholars of the early 19th century traveled to Inner Asia with an attempt to uncover their own Magyar prehistory. The linguist Sándor Kőrösi Csoma (1784 – 1842) was the first among these explorers; he later became a founder of Tibetology. Count Béla Széchenyi led a scientific expedition to Inner Asia in 1877–1880; he later founded the Hungarian journal Turán in 1913. The term "Inner Asian studies" (Template:Langx; Template:Langx) first appeared in the masthead of Turán.<ref name="auto" /> The periodical's name refers to the historical region in Central Asia known as Turan.

In the first two decades of the 20th century, Hungarian-British archaeologist Aurel Stein made important discoveries over the course of his four expeditions to Inner Asia. In 1928, Stein published Innermost Asia: Detailed Report of Explorations in Central Asia, Kan-su and Eastern Iran, Carried Out and Described under the Orders of H.M. Indian Government in four volumes. In 1940, the first academic chair for Inner Asian studies was established by the Hungarian Orientalist and linguist Lajos Ligeti at the University of Budapest.<ref name="auto" />

See also

• Western Regions
• Nomadic empire
• Eurasianism
• Indo-Pacific Asia, the rest of Asia
• Pan-Mongolism
• Turco-Mongols
• Turanism
• Tartary
• Division of the Mongol Empire
• Southern Russia
• North Russia
• Yuan dynasty in Inner Asia
• History of Manchuria
• History of Mongolia
• History of Tibet
• History of Xinjiang

References

Sources

• Di Cosmo, Nicola. 1999. "State Formation and Periodization in Inner Asian History". Journal of World History 10 (1). University of Hawai'i Press: 1–40. State Formation and Periodization in Inner Asian History.
• Rogers, J. Daniel. 2012. "Inner Asian States and Empires: Theories and Synthesis". Journal of Archaeological Research 20 (3). Springer: 205–56. Inner Asian States and Empires: Theories and Synthesis.

External links

• The Association for Asian Studies (AAS): The China and Inner Asia Council (CIAC). Template:Webarchive
• Indiana University at Bloomington: Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies (RIFIAS).
• University of Cambridge: Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit (MIASU).