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Asia is the largest continent in the world, and it has some of the oldest religious and philosophical traditions. There are several reasons why we need to study Asia. Historically, Asian cultures such as those of India and China provide the longest sustainable examples of pluralistic cultures, potentially useful models for the world. Secondly, for the last two centuries, the world has embraced many Asian cultural elements, such as Emerson, the Beatles, Dr. Martin Luther King, Yoga, Vegetarianism, and new words such as guru, mantra, pundit, karma, and nirvana, are some examples of these connections. Thirdly, today’s economic and political globalization demands that we better understand cultures that provide many products and services. Fourthly, Asian people are not just located in the “Far East” but they can now be found in almost every corporation, college, and corner worldwide. And finally, studying Asian (or any non-Western) cultures can provide new ways to study the Western cultures in terms of the latest ways of defining long-accepted categories such as “god”, “religion”, “philosophy”, “secular”, “culture”, “science”, and “history”.
