Question | Answer |
Himalaya Mountains | A mountain range in South Asia that includes Mt. Everest, the worlds 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, 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 surrounding a lagoon. |
Monsoon | A seasonal wind, especially in South Asia. |
Cyclone | Violent storm with fierce winds and heavy rain; the most extreme weather pattern of South Asia. |
Hinduism | The dominant religion of India. |
Ganges River | A river in South Asia; an important water resource flowing more than 1,500 miles from it's source in Himalayan 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 tide. |
Mughal Empire | The Muslim empire established |
Raj | The period of British rule in India, which lasted for nearly 200 years, from 1857-1947. |
Nonviolent Resistance | A movement that uses all means of protest except violence. |
Land Reform | The process of breaking up large landfoldings to attain a more balanced land distribution among farmers. |
Green Revolution | An agricultural program launched by scientists in the 1960s used to develop higher-yielding grain varieties and improve food production 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, lasting from 2500 B.C. to 1500 A.D. |
Partition | Seperation/division into two or more territorial units having a seperate political status. |
Kashmir | A region of northern India and Pakistan over which several destructive wars have been fought. |
MicroCredit | A small loan available to poor entrepeneurs to help small businesses grow and raise living standards. |
Entepeneur | A person who starts and builds a business. |
Ramadan | An islamic practice of month-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 person of Tibetan ancestry in Nepal, who serves as the traditional mountain guide of the Mount Everest region. |
Siddhartha Gautama | The founder of Buddhism and known as the Buddha, birn in southern Nepal in sixth century B.C. |
Mandala | In Tibetan Buddhism, a geometric design that symbolizes the universe and aids in meditation. |
Sinhalese | An Indo-Aryan people who crossed the straight seperating India and Sri Lanka in the sixth century B.C. and who created an advanced civilization there, adopting Buddhism. |
Tamils | A Dravidian Hindu, who arrived in Sri Lanka in the fourth century, settling in the north while the Sinhalese moved further south. |
Sultan | A ruler of a Muslim country. |
Basic Necessitites | Food, clothing, and shelter. |
Illiteracy | The inhability to read or write. |
Summer Monsoon | The season when winds blow from the southwest across the Indian Ocean toward South Asia, from June-September, with winds stirring up powerful storms and casuing severe flooding. |
Winter Monsoon | The season when dry winds blow from the northeast across the Himalaya Mountains toward the sea from October-February, sometimes causing drought. |