THE BOUNDARIES OF CENTRAL ASIA: AN EXPLORATION

High stately mountains of Khentei, Khangai and Soyon,
Forests and thick-wooded ridges- the beauty of the north
The great Gobi- the spaces of Menen, Sharga and Nomin
And the oceans of sand deserts that dominate the south
This, this is my native land
(from: 'My native land', translated from Mongolian by
G.Rinchindorj)

These were the words the Mongolian poet Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj
used to describe some of the features of `Mongolia's lovely
land'. A nation that at the time of the author's birth, in
1906, did not exist as such. The same applies to the other
parts of the region between the Caspian Sea in the west and
the mountains of Manchuria in the east.

By Ingrid Nooijens

At the dawn of this century, this huge landmass which
comprises steppe, deserts, river valleys and mountains, was
divided between vast realms: Chinese and Russians both
indulged their expansionist passions in this area. An area
where for centuries nomads (their Greek name means
`cattle-drover') and sedentary people lived side by side in a
relationship characterized by need or greed. The pastoral
nomads traded the products of their cattle for the grain and
manufactured goods of their sedentary neighbours.
Occasionally, when their appetite for luxury grew beyond the
reach of their simple economy the nomads plundered the fields
and cities of their `civilized' neighbours.
Geographically speaking, it is not easy to define the term
'Central Asia'. Some geographers call the region " Central
Eurasia" to express its location in the heart of the two
continents: Europe and Asia. The conventional borderline
between Europe and Asia in the north consists of the Ural
mountain range and the Ural River. These geographical barriers
could stop neither the Mongol hordes of Genghis Khan nor the
Russian Cossacks and other conquerors of 'the East' like
Stalin, who arbitrarily split up Centralasian peoples into
separate nations.
`Central Asia' is the area located south-east of this
conventional border; east of the Caspian Sea and beyond.A
large landmass that comprises all the features Natsagdorj
mentions in his poem to describe his Mongolian land: huge
mountains, steppe, deserts, and river valleys.

LANDLOCKED
The only common geographical feature of the area is its
complete enclosure by land. No part of the region reaches the
ocean and no part has navigable rivers leading to a sea. This
determines the climate; moderating oceanic influences are
minimal, which results in extreme aridity in the bulk of the
region. Another consequence is the total absence of
possibilities for maritime exploration or overseas trade. The
inhabitants of this region are bound to the soil. This land-
lockedness resulted in one prominent socio-economic feature of
the area: the enduring omnipresence of nomads. Pastoral
nomadism proved an adequate way of life to survive in the
extreme climate that afflicts larger parts of the region.
Nomadism is not an intermediate stage on the evolutionary path
from hunting to farming; in fact agriculture is earlier than
pastoral nomadism and farming people were major contributors
to the origin of nomadism.
Throughout the ages, the Central Asian steppe has been home to
many different nomad peoples; among them well-known and feared
people like the Huns and the Mongols.

Agriculture has been carried out around oases, where water was
readily available and the climate more moderate. At these
places famous centres like Bukhara, Khiva and Samarkand,
evolved transit stages on major medieval trade routes.
According to Denis Sinor, Central Asia is the region that lies
beyond the borders of the great sedentary civilizations. "Es-
sentially its borders are formed by a cultural barrier which
lies in the heart of man". The British writer Rudyard Kipling
described it in more gloomy terms as "the back of beyond"  As
great sedentary civilizations tend to expand, they incorporate
more and more 'barbarians', thus diminishing the territory in
which nomads live. Thus, according to this idea, Central Asia
diminished geographically with the assimilation of 'barbari-
ans'.
Indubitably, in the western part of the region, the great
empires of the Persians and Arabs left marks that cannot be
erased; the Chinese did and still try to do the same in the
eastern part. However, the common nomad past may be seen as
the unifying feature of the Centralasian region.
In brief, defining the borders of Central Asia is difficult.
For the scope of this newsletter, Central Asia may be viewed
as a group of landlocked countries and regions located east of
the Caspian Sea; where nomads used to live alongside their se-
dentary neighbours. Thus, without respect for 'official'
borderlines, Central Asia may be defined as the area
comprising, from east to west: Mongolia; the three 'Autonomous
Regions' of China: Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang-Uighur, and Tibet;
the five former Soviet Republics: Turkmenistan, Tadjikistan,
Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan; the southern part of
Siberia in the north, and the northern regions of Afghanistan
and Iran in the south.