| A | B |
|---|
| archipelago | a chain of islands, like Japan |
| monsoon | seasonal winds that bring rain clouds |
| Mount Everest | the highest mountain peak of all, part of the Himalayas |
| sultan | supreme ruler who governed an empire |
| grand mufti | a religious leader who interpreted the laws of Islam and applied them to life in the Ottoman empire |
| Taj Mahal | one of the most beautiful buildings ever made, it was a special tomb built for a wife of an emperor |
| Akbar | the ruler under which much of the Mogal empire grew |
| Mekong River | a highway of ships and goods since ancient times |
| Tonle Sap | "Great Lake", a part of the Mekong River that starts to flow backwards during monsoon rains |
| Jayavarmann II | one of Cambodia's first kings, he claimed to be a human form of the god Shiva |
| Grand Canal | it connected the Huang and Chang rivers and with Kublai Khan's expansion, connected the new capital city of Beijing |
| Genghis Khan | united Mongol communities to conquer China |
| Kublai Khan | the grandson of Gengis Khan, he made tax collection easier by establishing paper money |
| the Forbidden City | where Ming emperors lived, a walled city containing almost 1000 stately palaces, libraries, temples and gardens |
| generalization | a statement that points out a common feature shared among different things |
| Shinto | a religion, its name means "the way of the gods" |
| shogun | military commander |
| samurai | soldiers who protected the lords and their lands |
| Tokugawa leyasu | ruled Japan after the Shoguns had lost much of their power |
| Edo | the Tokugawa capital city, now known as Tokyo, where all the lords had to live |
| Kyoto | the emperor's capital city |
| Lady Murasaki Shikibu | wrote "The Tale of Genji", thought to be the world's first novel |
