10 Surprising Facts About Asia

Herewith wowzers from the Asian continent.

1. The world's largest flower, the Rafflesia, is found in Southeastern Asia. The Rafflesia can be found growing on the forest floors of Indonesia, Malaysia, Borneo, Java, Sumatra, and southern Thailand. The Rafflesia is one of the rarest plants in the world and is on the verge of extinction. The Rafflesia has no leaves, has hardly any stem, and five speckled petals.

This flower can have a diameter of up to 106 cm and weigh up to 10 kg. The Rafflesia has a penetrating repulsive smell, like that of rotting meat. For that reason, many of its local names translate as 'corpse flower'. Its enticing aroma of rotten flesh attracts flies and other insects.

2. The sale of tobacco is banned in only one country in the world - Bhutan, which is found in south Asia.

In Bhutan, the law prohibits all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion, sale and sponsorship.

3. The world's most spoken language is Mandarin Chinese, which boasts of over 960 million speakers.

4. Asia is home to two of the three largest economies in the world, China and Japan. China is the second largest economy in the world with 14.84% of the world's economy.

Japan is the third largest, with 5.91% of the world's economy.

5. Indonesia is the world's largest archipelago. The Malay Archipelago consists of more than 17,000 islands of Indonesia, and 7,000 islands of the Philippines.

6. North Koreans celebrate the birthday of Kim Jong II's mother on December 24, in place of Christmas.

7. India is the largest mango producer in the world. In 2016, India produced 19 million tons of mangoes, which is approximately 40% of the total amount produced that year.

8. There are only two countries in the world that have a population of above 1 billion people, India and China, both found in Asia.

China has the world's largest population (1.4 billion), and India closely follows with 1.3 billion.

9. Japan has the longest life expectancy in the world. According to the latest WHO data (2015), the average life expectancy for females is 86.8 years and 80.5 years for males.

10. In the states of Karnataka and Maharashtra, India, the people follow a ritual of throwing babies from a 50 feet temple into a blanket.

It is believed that the screams of the babies give them good luck, safety and health.

Comments

Princess Qajar - The Revolutionary Persian Princess

Zahra Khanom Tadj es-Saltaneh commonly referred to as Princess Qajar was a princess and memoirist of the Qajar Dynasty. Princess Tadj was one of the best known daughters of the Persian king, Naser al-Din Shah Qajar who ruled Persia from 1848 to May 1896. The Persian princess was born on February 4, 1883 and died on January 25, 1936, in Tehran, at the age of 52. Princess Qajar revolutionized beauty standards with her full look and ragged unibrow, and her unmistakably evident mustache. She was a true epitome of beauty at her time. Princess Qajar was declared a symbol of beauty in Persia and was coveted by many men. Thousands of men wanted to marry her, 13 of whom committed suicide upon being rejected by the princess. Princess Qajar eventually married Amir Hussein Khan Shoja'-al Saltaneh and had they had four children - two boys and two girls. They later got divorced in 1907 after enduring an unloving arranged marriage - she married Khan when she was 13. The princess argued f...

The Lehman Brothers Scandal (2008)

Company Background : Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was a firm specialized in the provision of global financial services. It was founded in Montgomery, Alabama, in the United States of America. The company had headquarters in New York City, New York, in the U.S. It ceased operations in 2008. The founders were: Henry Lehman, Emmanuel Lehman and Mayer Lehman. What Happened? Lehman Brothers hid over $50 billion in loans disguised as sales. They allegedly sold toxic assets [1] to Cayman Island Banks with the understanding that they would eventually be rebought. How they were caught : Their bankruptcy led to the discovery of the fraud. They filed for bankruptcy in 2008, which is the largest bankruptcy ever recorded. Their case was larger than that of Enron, Washington Mutual, WorldCom and GM combined. On September 15, 2008, Lehman brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection (Montgomery, n.d.) . Their bankruptcy filing came in as a blow to the financial indu...

The finger-cutting tradition of Indonesia's Dani tribe

The death of a loved one is always an extremely painful thing to bear, and people of different cultures grieve in diverse ways, some more unique than others. A typically unique way of grieving is that of the Dani (an Indonesian tribe). Finger-cutting is a fundamental part of grieving for women of the Dani tribe, and pertains to their women only. According to The Globe and Mail, an estimated 250,000 Dani tribe members live in a town named Wamena, in the extremely remote central highland area of Papua Province. Wamena is only accessible by plane. Upon the death of a loved one, the top joint of one of a woman's fingers would be amputated, and smear ashes and clay across their faces. Prior to amputation, a string would be firmly tied to the upper half of the woman's finger for 30 minutes, to cause numbness. This was to reduce the pain from amputating the tip. In most cases, the responsibility of cutting off the top joint of the finger is assigned to one of the woman's...

Raissa's Blog - Best of Sports, Culture, and Entertainment

Search This Blog