More than 165 years since correspondents from The Economist first filed reports out of Asia, the publication finally got around to running an Asia column.

Asia being such a difficult place to define (Perhaps more defined by outsiders than those born here) I was curious what the author, Dominic Ziegler, could possibly name his column.

As a student of two Asian languages (Thai and Mandarin) who spent more than a decade reporting across the region, I fully approve of Dominic’s answer: The Banyan Tree.

His explanation:

So why Banyan? A dearth of pan-Asian images speaks volumes, but the banyan tree serves better than most, for it or similar trees are found somewhere in most Asian countries. The banyan spans Asia’s spirituality and its entrepreneurialism. The Bodhi tree, under which Buddha attained enlightenment, was a banyan by another name. Gujarati merchants conducted business under it, and the Portuguese lent their name, banyan, to the tree. It stuck.

In early March, in Perak in Malaysia, the state assembly convened an emergency session under a tree. It was, said outraged national ministers, a return to the jungle, making Malaysia a laughing-stock. We beg to differ. An ancient connection exists between public business and the banyan tree, as between its huge overarching shade and its deep intertwining roots. In South-East Asia, and Java in particular, the shade was a place of learning and a site where rulers vowed justice. Those are Asian values to which Banyan will happily subscribe.