50 Fun Facts About South Asia

Which South Asian country flies the only non-rectangular national flag, built from two stacked pennants?

Nepal's flag joins two pennants that once flew separately. Until 1962 its sun and crescent moon were drawn with human faces, which were removed to modernise the flag.

Which Indian Ocean nation is the lowest-lying country on Earth, with a natural high point of only 2.4 metres?

The Maldives averages just 1.5 metres above sea level across a double chain of 26 atolls. English borrowed the word atoll itself from Dhivehi, the islanders' language.

Which river rises in Tibet but reaches the Arabian Sea through Pakistan near the port of Karachi?

The Indus gave India its name by way of Old Persian and Greek, and its Sanskrit name, Sindhu, simply means river. Its source is a Tibetan spring called the Lion's Mouth.

Which city was purpose-built in the 1960s to replace Karachi as the capital of Pakistan?

Islamabad was planned by Greek architect Constantinos Doxiadis on a grid below the Margalla Hills. The government sat in nearby Rawalpindi until the new city was ready.

Which Asian kingdom wrote Gross National Happiness into its 2008 constitution as the goal of government?

Bhutan's fourth king coined the phrase in 1972, calling it more important than gross domestic product. The kingdom lifted its ban on television only in 1999.

Which mountain, logged by British surveyors as Peak XV, is known locally as Sagarmatha and Chomolungma?

Mount Everest took its English name in 1865 from Sir George Everest, a surveyor who never saw the peak. He objected that his name could not be written or pronounced in Hindi.

Which Indian port city, built on what were once seven separate islands, is the home of Bollywood?

Mumbai was a cluster of seven islands until the British began joining them with the Hornby Vellard causeway in 1782. The Greek geographer Ptolemy had called the place Heptanesia.

Which independence leader walked about 240 miles to the sea at Dandi in 1930 to defy the British salt tax?

Mahatma Gandhi left Sabarmati Ashram with 78 volunteers and made salt illegally on the shore at Dandi. Newspaper and newsreel coverage of the march drew worldwide attention to India's independence movement.

Which river, worshipped by Hindus as a goddess, crosses northern India to reach the world's largest delta?

The Ganges proper begins at Devprayag, where two Himalayan streams meet, though Hindu tradition takes the shorter Bhagirathi as its source. Bathing in its water is believed to remit sins.

In which Indian city on the Yamuna River did Shah Jahan build the Taj Mahal as a tomb for his wife?

Agra's white marble mausoleum employed more than 20,000 workers and artisans. Mumtaz Mahal, the wife it honours, had died giving birth to her 14th child.

Which arm of the Indian Ocean off India's east coast spawns the cyclones that strike Odisha and Bangladesh?

The Bay of Bengal produced the 1970 Bhola cyclone, which killed at least 300,000 people in what is now Bangladesh. Storms of hurricane strength are called cyclones when they form there.

Which desert, also called the Great Indian Desert, stretches from Rajasthan across the border into Pakistan?

The Thar hosted India's first nuclear test, code-named Smiling Buddha, near the town of Pokhran in 1974. It is also one of the most widely populated deserts in the world.

Which mountain pass on the old Silk Road links Peshawar in Pakistan with the Afghan border?

The Khyber carried invaders into the subcontinent from Darius I of Persia to Babur. Its summit at Landi Kotal lies just 5 km inside Pakistan.

K2, nicknamed the Savage Mountain, is the highest peak of which range on the Pakistan–China border?

The Karakoram gave K2 its name: surveyor Thomas Montgomerie sketched the range's peaks in 1856 and labelled them K1 and K2. A 1953 climber called it a savage mountain that tries to kill you.

Which plateau covers most of southern India between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats?

Deccan comes from the Sanskrit word for south. Its north-west is built from lava that poured out about 66 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous.

The Himalayas began rising when the Indian plate, drifting north from Madagascar, hit which tectonic plate?

The Eurasian plate met an India that had split from Madagascar and drifted north at about 20 cm a year. Before that, India was part of the supercontinent Gondwana.

Which mangrove forest, the largest on Earth, covers the tiger-haunted delta shared by India and Bangladesh?

The Sundarbans probably take their name from the sundari, the mangrove tree that dominates the forest. Four of its protected areas are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Which river is called the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet and the Jamuna in Bangladesh, with Assam lying in between?

The Brahmaputra has a rare male name among the subcontinent's mostly female rivers. Explorers proved it was the same river as the Tsangpo only in 1884–1886.

Which Indian state, whose name means 'abode of clouds', holds Mawsynram, reputedly the wettest place on Earth?

Meghalaya's southern Khasi Hills record about 12,000 mm of rain a year, and villagers there grow living bridges from tree roots. British officials nicknamed it the Scotland of the East.

The summer monsoon usually makes its first landfall on mainland India around 1 June in which coastal state?

Kerala gets the first burst of rain, and the winds then take until mid-July to cover the whole country. The same coast's spices drew Portuguese traders in the 15th century.

Which Himalayan capital, standing at about 1,300 metres, lies in a valley with seven UNESCO-listed monument zones?

Kathmandu takes its name from Kasthamandap, a pavilion named with the Sanskrit words for wood and pavilion. Legend says a bodhisattva drained the lake that once filled the valley with a sword cut.

Which city on the Buriganga River became a national capital in 1971, when East Pakistan became Bangladesh?

Dhaka was once the hub of the muslin trade and one of the most prosperous cities in the world. From 1947 it had been the administrative capital of East Pakistan.

Which city, the capital of Afghanistan, stands almost 1,800 metres up in a narrow valley of the Hindu Kush?

Kabul was captured in 1504 by Babur, who made it his headquarters, and his tomb still lies in the city's Bagh-e Babur gardens. It is one of the highest capital cities in the world.

Which capital city, designed by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, replaced Calcutta as the seat of British India?

New Delhi had its foundation stone laid by King George V in 1911 and was inaugurated in 1931. Just sixteen years later it became the capital of an independent India.

Which port city remains Sri Lanka's executive capital although the legislature moved to nearby Kotte?

Colombo's name was first recorded by Portuguese explorers in 1505 and may come from Sinhala words for a harbour with leafy mango trees. It is still the country's most populous city.

Which Pakistani city on the Ravi River is home to the Badshahi Mosque, the Shalimar Gardens and a famous Walled City?

Lahore is a UNESCO City of Literature and the centre of Pakistan's book publishing. Its fort and the Shalimar Gardens are both World Heritage Sites.

Which north Indian city, also called Benares or Kashi, is central to Hindu rites of pilgrimage, death and mourning?

Varanasi is one of the world's oldest continually inhabited cities. Its ancient name, Kashi, was shared with a kingdom of the first millennium BCE.

Which Indian city, whose name means 'pool of nectar', is home to the Golden Temple, the holiest site in Sikhism?

Amritsar's Golden Temple offers every visitor a free vegetarian meal from its community kitchen, whatever their faith. Its sanctum was overlaid with gold leaf in 1830.

Which Indian hill town has hosted the 14th Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile since 1960?

Dharamshala took in the Tibetan administration in May 1960, a year after the Dalai Lama fled Tibet and first set it up in Mussoorie. His residence sits about 1,830 metres up.

Which shallow strait, named after an 18th-century governor of Madras, separates southern India from Sri Lanka?

The Palk Strait is only a few metres deep near Adam's Bridge, the chain of shoals that almost joins the two countries. Temple records suggest storms broke that land link in 1480.

Which leader became India's first prime minister in 1947 after giving the midnight 'Tryst with Destiny' speech?

Jawaharlal Nehru held the office for more than 16 years and helped found the Non-Aligned Movement, for nations that joined neither Cold War bloc. His speech promised that India would awake to life and freedom.

Which London-trained barrister led the All-India Muslim League and became Pakistan's first governor-general in 1947?

Muhammad Ali Jinnah is revered in Pakistan as Quaid-e-Azam, the Great Leader. He held the new office for barely a year, dying in September 1948.

Who, as the last Viceroy of India, brought the British withdrawal forward from June 1948 to August 1947?

Louis Mountbatten then stayed on as the first governor-general of independent India. An uncle of Prince Philip, he had been Supreme Allied Commander in South East Asia late in the Second World War.

Which British lawyer drew the 1947 border between India and Pakistan in five weeks, never having visited before?

Radcliffe divided land that was home to 88 million people, then destroyed all his papers before he left India. His boundary was published two days after independence.

Which former princely state, claimed in full by both India and Pakistan, has led to three wars since 1947?

Kashmir was divided by a UN-mediated ceasefire after the first war, along what became the Line of Control. India's claim rests on an instrument of accession signed in 1947.

Which region, whose name means 'five waters' in Persian, was split between India and Pakistan at the 1947 Partition?

Punjab was cut into western and eastern halves in 1947, and India divided its share again in 1966, creating Haryana and passing the hill districts to Himachal Pradesh. The Mahabharata already speaks of a land of five rivers.

Sri Lanka gained independence from Britain in 1948 under which name, which it kept until 1972?

Ceylon remained a dominion sharing the British monarch until 1972, when it became a republic named Sri Lanka. An older Arabic name, Serendip, gave English the word serendipity.

Which coastal territory did Indian forces seize in 36 hours in December 1961, ending 451 years of Portuguese rule?

Goa fell in an operation code-named Vijay, the Sanskrit word for victory. Two smaller Portuguese enclaves, Daman and Diu, were taken at the same time.

Who became the world's first elected woman prime minister in 1960, a year after her husband was assassinated?

Sirimavo Bandaranaike served three times as Sri Lanka's prime minister, the last term ending in 2000. Her opponents had dubbed her the Weeping Widow.

Which Himalayan kingdom of priest-kings called Chogyals joined India as its 22nd state after a 1975 referendum?

Sikkim's monarchy had lasted since 1642, when the first Chogyal was consecrated by three lamas. It is the least populous of India's states.

Which empire, founded by Babur in 1526, reached its greatest extent across the subcontinent under Aurangzeb?

Mughal is the Indo-Persian form of the word Mongol, and Babur was a Timurid prince from Central Asia. He won his throne at the First Battle of Panipat.

Which Pakistani schoolgirl from Swat survived a Taliban shooting in 2012 and later shared the Nobel Peace Prize?

Malala Yousafzai was 11 when she began blogging for the BBC under the pen name Gul Makai about life under the Taliban. She was named after Malalai of Maiwand, an Afghan folk heroine.

Which currency name, shared by India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, comes from a Sanskrit word for wrought silver?

Rupee goes back to the silver rupiya issued by the ruler Sher Shah Suri in the 1540s. Indonesia's rupiah is a cognate of the same word.

Which diamond, on display at the Tower of London, is claimed by India, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan alike?

The Koh-i-Noor was surrendered to Queen Victoria in 1849 by Duleep Singh, the boy maharaja of the Sikh Empire. Since reaching Britain it has been worn only by female members of the royal family.

Which poet, the first Asian to win a Nobel Prize, wrote the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh?

Rabindranath Tagore won the 1913 literature prize, then gave up his British knighthood in protest at the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Sri Lanka's anthem was also inspired by his work.

In which Afghan valley did the Taliban destroy two giant cliff-carved Buddhas, one 55 metres tall, in March 2001?

Bamiyan's Buddhas stood in niches 58 and 38 metres high. The Taliban leader Mullah Omar ordered every statue in the country destroyed so that no one could worship them in future.

Which Buddhist cave complex in Maharashtra was stumbled upon in 1819 by a British officer on a tiger hunt?

Ajanta's caves had been swallowed by jungle before a cavalry officer named John Smith came across them. Their murals form the largest surviving body of ancient Indian wall painting.

Which glacier, seized by Indian troops in 1984, is known as the highest battleground on Earth?

Siachen has cost more soldiers' lives through harsh weather than through combat. India's Operation Meghdoot took the heights in April 1984, days before a planned Pakistani operation could.

Which Bangladeshi bank pioneered collateral-free loans for the rural poor and shared the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize?

Grameen means rural or village, and the idea began when its founder, Professor Yunus, lent just 27 dollars to 42 people after the 1974 famine. It became an independent bank in 1983.

Which thin strip of Afghanistan, drawn in the 1890s to keep the Russian and British empires apart, touches China?

The Wakhan Corridor is only about 18 km wide at its western entrance. It was shaped so that Russian territory, now Tajikistan, would not touch British India, now Pakistan.