Ep. 105: Central Asia – The Five Stans
Intro
Hello and Welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.
I’m Jans your Mnemonic Man and today's episode is on the five “stans” of central Asia. Not well known by most, except for probably Kazakhstan thanks to Sacha Baron Cohen and his movie Borat, the “stans” gained independence in the early 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The “stan” part of the name of these and other countries actually means “land of” or “place of” in Persian.
With a diverse mixture of cultures and rich history of civilisations and empires the “stans” were an integral part of the ancient Silk Road trade, linking the far east with the far west and beyond.
Today’s mnemonic is on the five “stans” of Central Asia in order of north to south, and east to west.
So, with that being said, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.
Wikipedia Summary
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to Western China and Mongolia in the east,[4] and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan,[5] which are colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as the countries all have names ending with the Persian suffix "-stan", meaning "land of".[6]
In the pre-Islamic and early Islamic eras (c. 1000 and earlier) Central Asia was inhabited predominantly by Iranian peoples,[7][8] populated by Eastern Iranian-speaking Bactrians, Sogdians, Chorasmians and the semi-nomadic Scythians and Dahae. After expansion by Turkic peoples, Central Asia also became the homeland for the Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Tatars, Turkmen, Kyrgyz, and Uyghurs; Turkic languages largely replaced the Iranian languages spoken in the area, with the exception of Tajikistan and areas where Tajik is spoken.
Central Asia was historically closely tied to the Silk Road trade routes,[9] acting as a crossroads for the movement of people, goods, and ideas between Europe and the Far East.[10][11][12] Most countries in Central Asia are still integral to parts of the world economy.[13]
From the mid-19th century until almost the end of the 20th century, Central Asia was colonised by the Russians, and incorporated into the Russian Empire, and later the Soviet Union, which led to Russians and other Slavs emigrating into the area. Modern-day Central Asia is home to a large population of European settlers, who mostly live in Kazakhstan; 7 million Russians, 500,000 Ukrainians,[14][15][16] and about 170,000 Germans.[17] Stalinist-era forced deportation policies also mean that over 300,000 Koreans live there.[18]
Central Asia (2019) has a population of about 72 million people, in five countries: Kazakhstan (pop. 19 million), Kyrgyzstan (7 million), Tajikistan (10 million), Turkmenistan (6 million), and Uzbekistan (35 million).[19]
Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Asia]
Mnemonic
Central Asia – The Five Stans Mnemonic – KKUTT (north to south and east to west)
(Picture the Five Stans used as a shortcut between Russia and other Asian Countries)
1. Kazakhstan
2. Kyrgyzstan
3. Uzbekistan
4. Tajikistan
5. Turkmenistan
Five Fun Facts
1. Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world and is home to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the world’s first and largest space facility, which is leased to the Russians until 2050. Almaty which means “place full of apples” used to be the capital. This was renamed in 1998 to Astana which means “capital city” in Kazakh.
2. Kyrgyzstan is one of the least crowded countries in the world with only 29.5 residents per square kilometre of land. Gold is the major export followed by dried legumes.
3. Uzbekistan is one of two double landlocked countries in the world with the other being Liechtenstein. It is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of cotton.
4. Tajikistan is extremely mountainous with mountains covering over 90% of the country. The capital is Dushanbe and means “Monday” in Tajik.
5. Turkmenistan was formerly known as Turkmenia, and Ashgabat which is the capital means “city of love”.
Three Question Quiz
Q.1. How many Asian countries end with the suffix -stan?
Q.2. Afghanistan is bordered by three -stans to the north. Name them from west to east?
Q.3. What body of water borders Turkmenistan? Options are the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea or the Persian Gulf
Bonus Q. Uzbekistan borders the Aral Sea. What has caused this sea to shrink to approximately one-tenth of its former size? Options are global warming, an earthquake opened underground fissures or rivers were diverted for irrigation projects
Bonus Q. What happens when Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Ukraine and Latvia get back together?
Mnemonic Recap
Central Asia – The Five Stans Mnemonic – KKUTT (north to south and east to west)
(Picture the Five Stans used as a shortcut between Russia and other Asian Countries)
1. Kazakhstan
2. Kyrgyzstan
3. Uzbekistan
4. Tajikistan
5. Turkmenistan
Three Question Quiz Answers
Q.1. How many Asian countries end with the suffix -stan?
A. Seven. Add Pakistan and Afghanistan to the five in the mnemonic
Q.2. Afghanistan is bordered by three -stans to the north. Name them from west to east?
A. Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan
Q.3. What body of water borders Turkmenistan? Options are the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea or the Persian Gulf
A. The Caspian Sea
Bonus Q. Uzbekistan borders the Aral Sea. What has caused this sea to shrink to approximately one tenth of its former size? Options are global warming, an earthquake opened underground fissures or rivers were diverted for irrigation projects
A. Rivers were diverted for irrigation projects, which has destroyed fishing industry, created ship graveyards and caused water pollution. Hopefully the Aral Sea Basin Program can go some way to remediating these problems.
Bonus Q. What happens when Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Ukraine, and Latvia get back together?
A. A Soviet reunion!
Word of the Week
agog
[ uh-gog ]
adjective
highly excited by eagerness, curiosity, anticipation, etc.
Example
I have just booked my flight to the Five Stans and are both agog and nervous at the same time.
Extracted from: [https://www.dictionary.com/]
https://www.themnemonictreepodcast.com/
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-mnemonic-tree-podcast/id1591795132
https://open.spotify.com/show/3T0LdIJ9PBQMXM3cdKd42Q?si=fqmaN2TNS8qqc7jOEVa-Cw
References