Map of Inner Asia, showing the extent of the area studied by the Sinor Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies, located at Indiana University in the United States
Map of Inner Asia, showing the extent of the area studied by the CIAS at the University of Toronto.
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.[1]
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.[5]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.[6]
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.[10] According to Sinor:[11]
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.
Central Europe is the birthplace of Inner Asian studies in the West. Hungarian explorers and scholars of the early 19th century travelled 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" (Hungarian: belső-ázsiai kutatások; German: innerasiatische Studien) first appeared in the masthead of Turán.[9] The periodical's name refers to the historical region in Central Asia known as Turan (see Turanism).
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.[9]
↑ 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
↑ Rossabi, Morris. "Central Asia: A Historical Overview". Asia Society.
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