Talk:Central Asia

The train fares on this page are out of date. If anyone knows more up-to-date ones that would be great. (WT-en) Professorbiscuit 19:47, 26 Oct 2004 (EDT)

Is Turkmenbashi a place? I thought it was Niyazov's title, Head of the Turkmen. -(WT-en) phma 18:09, 11 Apr 2005 (EDT)
Never mind, I found it on the map. -(WT-en) phma 18:13, 11 Apr 2005 (EDT)

Turkmenbashi is as well a place as a title of the president.It had a russian name before the name change.202.47.226.198 19:23, 11 Apr 2005 (EDT)

Eat

i am not familiar with food here

Map needs Afghanistan

This map needs Afghanistan on it - it's definitely part of Central Asia... (WT-en) Cacahuate 10:30, 18 December 2006 (EST)

shit happens - make over the map...

quote: In modern contexts, all definitions of Central Asia include these five republics of the former Soviet Union: Kazakhstan (pop. 16.6 million), Kyrgyzstan (5.5 million), Tajikistan (7.6 million), Turkmenistan (5.1 million), and Uzbekistan (29.5 million). and another more reliable source.

Mongolia

Mongolia is Central Asia as well. Arguably so is East Turkestan and possibly even TIBET, but they are not independent states so we can safely leave them as part of China and thus "East Asia".

But no way is Mongolia getting left in East Asia. That is some ludicrous shit. I am changing this page to include it.

Let's keep this discussion in one place → Talk:East Asia. (WT-en) Jpatokal 12:31, 17 March 2008 (EDT)

turkmenistan

Turkmenistan especially Ashgabat needs to be expanded urgently it is very substandard.

Get to work! (WT-en) Jpatokal 02:14, 30 October 2009 (EDT)

Central Asia - 5 stans

Is there anything useful in that article that should be moved here, or to any of the country-level articles, or should it simply be deleted? Ikan Kekek (talk) 10:20, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

Move Merv?

Merv is currently listed under "Other destinations" as:

• Merv — the most famous of Turkmenistan's many ruined medieval Silk Road cities.

I'd like to move it to the Cities section. To do that, we'd need to remove one of the current list of cities; I suggest Astana. We currently have:

• Almaty — Kazakhstan's former capital is an infinitely more preferable destination than ad hoc Astana.
• Astana — Kazakhstan's dreary, cold northern capital.

I see no problem dropping Astana from the list, especially if we make the mention in the Almaty line a link. Other opinions? Pashley (talk) 15:35, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

Page banner

Current banner.

Suggested banner 1; mountains of Afghanistan, used for Hindu Kush.

Suggested banner 2; currently used for Bukhara.

Suggested banner 2b; Bukhara.

Suggested banner 3; Kazakhstan.

Suggested banner 3b; Kazakhstan.

Suggested banner 3c — the guy's right in the middle

Suggested banner 4; currently used for Altai (Kazakhstan).

Suggested banner 5; Shah-i-Zinda, Samarkand.

Suggested banner 6, a yurt camp in Issyk Kul.

The current banner has poor photographic and aesthetic quality. I have made a new suggestion. /Yvwv (talk) 19:05, 8 September 2017 (UTC)

Still looking for something more vivant; maybe with representative architecture? /Yvwv (talk) 19:10, 8 September 2017 (UTC)

I think that unlike Asia, we can focus on something more cultural? --Andrewssi2 (talk) 19:50, 8 September 2017 (UTC)

Second suggestion, a banner from Bukhara. /Yvwv (talk) 20:04, 8 September 2017 (UTC)

I don't like the cropping of the dome in that banner. The second picture is beautiful, but when I think of Central Asia, the first thing that I think of is "Steppes of Central Asia" and the second is indeed the blue-tiled mosques and tombs of Sufi saints in places like Bukhara and Samarkand. So far, I'm not satisfied but would certainly approve of swapping out the current banner for #2 right away. Ikan Kekek (talk) 20:45, 8 September 2017 (UTC)

Third candidate added. /Yvwv (talk) 20:52, 8 September 2017 (UTC)

Thanks a lot, but the mountains in Afghanistan picture still wins on beauty and photographic quality. Ikan Kekek (talk) 20:56, 8 September 2017 (UTC)

Regardless of the quality of the original picture or how well they are cropped, I think we have far too many snowy-mountains-from-a-distance banners for region guides. As with the distant skyline banner proposals for large cities around the world that are often strongly (and I think, rightly) opposed, these mountain banners are indistinguishable and don't really tell anything. And in this particular case, while having its fair share of them, Central Asia is not particularly known for its mountains nor is most of the region dominated by them.

So although their crops leave much to be desired, I think I liked the suggested banner #3 most, #2 coming a close second — isn't Central Asia all about lonely horseman on endless steppelands and blue domed Silk Road cities? Vidimian (talk) 23:14, 8 September 2017 (UTC)

Number 3 (the herdsman on the steppes) would win on character, absolutely. Maybe we should go with it, yeah. Ikan Kekek (talk) 23:21, 8 September 2017 (UTC)

Added a differently cropped version of banner 3, with the horizon a bit above center. /Yvwv (talk) 23:37, 8 September 2017 (UTC)

We could look for new banners to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, too. The current wide-angle photo of Registan in the Uzbekistan article looks like an opening shot from MTV Cribs; and would probably look better in the Samarkand article (which has a fuzzy banner now). /Yvwv (talk) 01:47, 9 September 2017 (UTC)

I agree that plain snowy mountains are not the way to go—they're generic and don't make me think "Central Asia". The horseman picture (3, 3b) does kind of remind me of a book I read that took place in Kyrgyzstan, though the picture isn't that interesting or exciting. I also like 2, which I gather is culturally representative—the crop doesn't bother me the way it seems to bother Ikan Kekek. And 4 is a nice picture, with horses and mountains. So my top choices are 2, 3b, and 4, in no particular order. —Granger (talk · contribs) 03:43, 9 September 2017 (UTC)

By the way, see other ongoing banner discussions: Talk:Rome, Talk:South Asia, Talk:Plains (India), Talk:Bangladesh, and Talk:Kashrut. /Yvwv (talk) 04:22, 9 September 2017 (UTC)

I really liked the domes at #5, but on a second thought, it looks more like Uzbekistan or the Silk Road than Central Asia.

I have added a third crop of the horseman of the steppes banner, taking the guy right in the centre (although its colours look less flashy than the previous suggestions of the same picture — any idea on how to fix that Yvwv?). Vidimian (talk) 12:35, 9 September 2017 (UTC)

I have added another proposal, a different take on the common regional culture (perhaps except Afghanistan, which is an outlier in the region anyway): a yurt (wp) camp in Issyk Kul, Kyrgyzstan. Vidimian (talk) 13:11, 9 September 2017 (UTC)

The Mongol Empire needs a new banner, as the previous banner violated copyright. /Yvwv (talk) 16:42, 9 September 2017 (UTC)

The colors of the horseman banner have been adjusted through a contrast filter. I use "Levels" on GIMP. /Yvwv (talk) 22:05, 9 September 2017 (UTC)

I like the composition of 3c. Since there's general agreement to avoid mountains, maybe we can go with that. Ikan Kekek (talk) 07:27, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

Inserted banner 3b as a preliminary choice. Would you rather prefer another? /Yvwv (talk) 14:24, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

I'm fine with that. Ikan Kekek (talk) 06:23, 12 September 2017 (UTC)

National Geographic article

5 Underrated Destinations in Central Asia Pashley (talk) 12:38, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

Irrelevant(?) text

This text is currently at the end of Central_Asia#Countries:

in fact, most Mongolian citizens identify as Central Asians rather than East Asians.

It was added by User:The dog2, then deleted by User:136.158.35.0, and restored by User:SHB2000.

I want to delete it again. Earlier in the paragraph we have "Various other regions — Mongolia, ... — have cultures that are largely Central Asian and are sometimes included as well", and I think that is all that need be said.

Other opinions? Pashley (talk) 04:45, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

To be fair, I don't have an opinion on this. I reverted it because that IP blanked it for no good reason, but I think it should be given a simple mention (which currently remains), somewhat like how NZ is mentioned in Polynesia. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 05:11, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

Similar text was added in Mongolia with the same insert-delete-restore sequence from the same three people. I'd keep it there but delete it here. Pashley (talk) 07:54, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

In some ways, Mongolian culture is Central Asian. For instance, the Mongolians were traditionally nomads, much like the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz. And horses are a big part of Mongolian culture, just as they are a big part of Kazakh culture. The dog2 (talk) 16:50, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

See wikipedia:Central_Asia#Definitions. UNESCO has a very broad definition, including Mongolia, Western China and much of Asian Russia. /Yvwv (talk) 17:04, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

Also, given how a discussion back on Wikitravel to define the boundaries between "Central Asia" and "East Asia" went, I won't be surprised if Mongolians find it offensive to be referred to as East Asian. The animosity against China is very real among Mongolian citizens. If you understand Chinese, there is a Chinese vlogger who went to Mongolia, and said that the Mongolians were noticeably upset to hear him speaking Mandarin. The dog2 (talk) 17:16, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

But should Wikivoyage spend time debating this issue when the only support for this being a problem is anecdotal? Of course not. "I wouldn't be surprised if..." is not a reason to do anything. The views of one Chinese vlogger who may or may not have a political agenda is not the basis for any change in Wikivoyage. Just leave it alone. Wikivoyage should not be a home for idiosyncratic notions. Ground Zero (talk) 02:19, 12 February 2022 (UTC)

Replying to several comments above:

User:The dog2: No-one is denying the cultural link, in fact we mention it. My quarrel is with the extra comment.

User:Yvwv: We give approximately the UNESCO definition. Before the addition, the paragraph in question was:

Much of Central Asia was once ruled by the Persian Empire and some definitions of the region would include Persia, now called Iran. Various other regions — Mongolia, Western China (Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia), and parts of Russia (Buryatia, Chuvashia, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Tuva, Altai, Khakassia) — have cultures that are largely Central Asian and are sometimes included as well.

User:Ground Zero. Exactly! Pashley (talk)

Wholly agree with Pashley that the added text may prove to be irrelevant. As the added text can also be redundant considering that Mongolia is already mentioned earlier in the paragraph. The same can be said regarding the added text that was also included in the Mongolia and East Asia pages. Also, is there a specific source that backs up the added text? Datu Hulyo 11:03, 13 February 2022 (UTC)

This is a travel guide, not an encyclopedia, so we do not require sources. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 11:36, 13 February 2022 (UTC)

Sources are not cited in articles, but if there is questionable text, whoever added it should be willing to give a reference here on the talk page. Ikan Kekek (talk) 11:39, 13 February 2022 (UTC)

Agree with @Ikan Kekek. The added text is questionable because one cannot claim with authority that most Mongolians identify as Central Asians rather than East Asians. Thus, a reference must be given here to maintain a level of objectivity so readers can be well-informed. If a solid reference cannot be provided for the edits to the Central Asia, East Asia, and Mongolia pages, then the questioned text should be removed. Datu Hulyo (talk) 16:22, 13 February 2022 (UTC)