Asian Studies in Credo Reference: South Asia

Officially Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, republic (2005 est. pop. 29,929,000), 249,999 sq mi (647,497 sq km), S central Asia. The capital and largest city is Kabul.

Officially Kingdom of Bhutan, kingdom (2005 est. pop. 2,232,000), 18,147 sq mi (47,000 sq km), in the E Himalayas, southern Asia.

Country in southern Asia, bounded to the north by China, Nepal, and Bhutan; east by Myanmar and Bangladesh; northwest by Pakistan and Afghanistan; and southeast, south, and southwest by the Indian Ocean.

Group of 1,196 islands in the north Indian Ocean, about 640 km/400 mi southwest of Sri Lanka; only 203 of them are inhabited.

Island in the Indian Ocean, off the southeast coast of India.

Independent nation (2005 est. pop. 27,677,000), c.54,000 sq mi (139,860 sq km), central Asia. Landlocked and isolated by the Himalayas. Katmandu is the capital. Around forty different languages are spoken in the kingdom of Nepal, with Nepali being the official language.

Capital of Nepal, situated at 1,370 m/4,500 ft in the southern Himalayas

Officially People's Republic of Bangladesh, republic (2005 est. pop. 144,320,000), 55,126 sq mi (142,776 sq km), S Asia.

Capital of Bangladesh since 1971 following the war of independence from Pakistan.

The national language of Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) and also spoken by the great majority in the Indian province of West Bengal

Region, 77,442 sq mi (200,575 sq km), E India and Bangladesh, on the Bay of Bengal.

Officially Islamic Republic of Pakistan, republic (2005 est. pop. 162,420,000), 310,403 sq mi (803,944 sq km), S Asia.

The country's largest and least populous province.

Capital of Pakistan from 1967 (replacing Karachi).

Largest city and former capital of Pakistan.

Province of Pakistan... It includes the strategic Khyber Pass, the site of constant struggle between the British Raj and the Pathan warriors.

Capital of Punjab prov., E central Pakistan, on the Ravi River. It is the second largest city of Pakistan.

Capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North-West Frontier Province).

Panjabi belongs to the Indo-Aryan languages and to the dialect continuum of northern India and Pakistan.

Speakers in Pakistan are known as Pathans or Afghans.

Historic region in the NW of the Indian subcontinent. Since 1947 it has been separated into an Indian state and a Pakistani province bearing the same name.

Province (1998 pop. 29,991,161), c.50,000 sq mi (129,500 sq km), SE Pakistan, roughly coextensive with the lower Indus River valley and bounded by India on the east and south and by the Arabian Sea on the southwest.

One of the Indo-Aryan Languages, Urdu is the twin of Hindi. It has the same origin in the regional language of the country around Delhi. Culturally, the two languages are a world apart.