Question | Answer |
Himilaya Mountains | A mountain range in South Asia that includes Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain peak |
Subcontinent | a landmass that is like a continent, only smaller, such as South Asia, which is called the Indian subcontinent |
Alluvial Plain | land that is rich farmland, composed of clay, silt, sand, or gravel deposited by running water |
Archipelago | a set of closely grouped islands |
Atoll | a ringlike coral island or string of small islands surrounded by a lagoon |
Monsoon | a seasonal wind, especially in South Asia |
Cyclone | a ciolent storm with fierce winds and heavy rain; the most extreme weather pattern of South Asia |
Hinduism | the dominant religion in India |
Ganges River | river in South Asia; an important water resource flowing more thatn 1,500 miles from its source in a Himilayan glacier to the Bay of Bengal |
Storm Surge | high water level brought by a cyclone that swamps low-lying areas |
Estuary | a broadened seaward end of a river, where the river's currents meet the ocean's tides |
Mughal Empire | the Muslim empire established by the early 1500s over much of India, which brought with it new customs that sometimes conflicted with those of native Hindus |
Raj | rhe period of British rule in India, which lasted nearly 200 years, from 1857-1947 |
Nonviolent Resistance | a movement that ises all means of protest except violence |
Land Reform | the process of breaking up large landholdings to attain a more balanced land distribution among farmers |
Green Revolution | an agricultural program launched by scientists in the 1960s to develop higher-yeilding grain varieties and improve foodproduction by incorporating new farming techniques |
Caste System | the Aryan system of social classes in India and one of the cornerstones of Hinduism in which each person is born into a caste and can only move into a different caste through reincarnation |
Indus Valley Civilization | the largest of the world's first civilizations in what is now Pakistan; this was a highly developed urban civilization, lastinf from 2500 b.c. to about 1500 b.c. |
Partition | separation; division into two or more territorial units having separate political status |
Kashmir | a region in northern India and Pakistan over which several distructive wars have been fought |
Microcredit | a small loan available to poor entrepeneurs, to helo small businesses grow and raise living standards |
Entrepeneur | a person who starts and builds a business |
Ramadan | an Islamic practive of onth-long fasting from sunup to sundown |
Constitutional Monarchy | a government in which the ruler's powers are limited by a constitution and the laws of a nation |
Sherpa | a personof Tibetan ancestry in Nepal, who serves as the traditional mountain guide of the Mount Everest region |
Siddhartha Guatama | the founder of Buddhism and known as the Buddha, born in southern Nepal in the sixth century b.c. |
Mandala | in Tibetan Buddhism, a geometric design that sybolizes the universe and aids in meditation |
Sinhalese | an Indo-Aryan people who crossed the strait separating India and Sri Lanka in the sixth century b.c. and who created an advanced civilization there, adopting Buddhism |
Tamil | a Dravidian Hindu, who arrived in Sri Lanka in the fouth century, settling in the north while the Sinhalese moved further south |
Sultan | a ruler of a Muslim country |
Basic Necessities | food, clothing, and shelter |
Illiteracy | the inability to read or write |
Summer Monsoon | the season when winds blow from the southwest across the Indian Ocean toward South Asia, from June through September, with winds stirring up powerful storms causing severe flooding |
Winter Monsoon | the season when dry winds blow from the northeast across the Himalaya Mountains toward the sea from October through February, sometimes causing drought |