ABSTRACT
One of the questions those of us who work in Asian history often ask ourselves is: Is there such a thing as “Asia”? The word exists, although as a modern Western neologism; the concept exists, albeit with countless variations; and the space it occupies exists, though who belongs in it is far from an easy matter to resolve. The one truly unifying element is Buddhism, though even in this case we find rather different Buddhisms in India and China (as different as Judaism and Christianity), and “Asia Minor” has been immune to virtually any Buddhist influence. If we insist, as we should, that a cultural and geographical designation reflect the internal cultural and geographical conceptions as such, then “Asia” really does not work.
