Central Asian arts Literary, performing, and visual arts of Afghani¬ stan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Tibet, Turk¬ menistan, Uzbekistan, and parts of China and Russia. The term usually denotes only those traditions not influenced by the Islamic arts. Tibetan developed as a literary language from the 7th century as a result of cul¬ tural contacts with neighbouring Buddhist countries to the south, on the Indian subcontinent. Most works produced between the 7th and 13th cen¬ turies are skillful translations of Buddhist works from Sanskrit, after
which a vast body of orthodox Buddhist works of purely Tibetan origin was built up. Mongolian literature began in the 13th century with chronicles of Genghis Khan and his successors, but from the late 16th cen¬ tury Mongolian literature was profoundly influenced by Buddhism. The variety of musical styles in Central Asia ranges from the systematically organized classical music of the Turkic peoples, to the notated religious chants of Buddhists in Tibet, to the highly varied folk music styles of the Mongols, Siberians, and numerous other ethnic groups. Two main types of performance predominate throughout Tibet, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, and Mongolia: those related to shamanism and those derived from Bud¬ dhism. Music performed on drums and stringed instruments accompanied shamanistic trances. The performance of Buddhist monastic dances and morality plays is also accompanied by various drums and horn instru¬ ments. The performing arts of the Turkic peoples are very different from these other traditions because of the influence of Islam. The tribes of Cen¬ tral Asia shared, for the most part, a “nomadic” Scytho-Altaic visual art that favoured animal and hunting motifs in objects such as belts and jew¬ elry. Contacts with the Greco-Roman world and with India, Iran, and China also left their mark; Hellenistic influence culminated in the Kus- han style of Gandhara. The most important pre-Islamic influence on Cen¬ tral Asia’s visual arts, however, was Buddhism, which was reflected in the subject matter of sculptures and bas-reliefs. Nepal’s traditions in archi¬ tecture and painting were adaptations of those of India, whether the themes were Hindu or Buddhist. Buddhist religious art was gradually introduced into Tibet from the 8th century, and a distinctive Tibetan imag¬ ery was subsequently developed. See also Gandhara art; Kushan art; Scythian art.
central bank Institution, such as the U.S. Federal Reserve System, charged with regulating the size of a nation’s money supply, the availabil¬ ity and cost of credit, and the foreign exchange value of its currency (see foreign exchange). Central banks act as the fiscal agent of the government, issuing notes to be used as legal tender, supervising the operations of the commercial banking system, and implementing monetary policy. By increasing or decreasing the supply of money and credit, they affect inter¬ est rates, thereby influencing the economy. Modem central banks regu¬ late the money supply by buying and selling assets (e.g., through the purchase or sale of government securities). They may also raise or lower the discount rate to discourage or encourage borrowing by commercial banks. By adjusting the reserve requirement (the minimum cash reserves that banks must hold against their deposit liabilities), central banks con¬ tract or expand the money supply. Their aim is to maintain conditions that support a high level of employment and production and stable domestic prices. Central banks also take part in cooperative international currency arrangements designed to help stabilize or regulate the foreign exchange rates of participating countries. Central banks have become varied in authority, autonomy, functions, and instruments of action, but there has been consistent increased emphasis on the interdependence of monetary and other national economic policies, especially fiscal policies and debt management policies. See also bank; investment bank; savings bank.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Principal intelligence and coun¬ terintelligence agency of the U.S., established in 1947 as a successor to the World War II-era Office of Strategic Services. The law limits its activi¬ ties to foreign countries; it is prohibited from gathering intelligence on U.S. soil, which is a responsibility of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Officially a part of the U.S. Defense Department, it is responsible for pre¬ paring analyses for the National Security Council. Its budget is kept secret. Though intelligence gathering is its chief occupation, the CIA has also been involved in many covert operations, including the expulsion of Mohammad Mosaddeq from Iran (1953), the attempted Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba (1961), and support of the Nicaraguan contras in the 1980s.
central limit theorem In statistics, any of several fundamental theo¬ rems in probability. Originally known as the law of errors, in its classic form it states that the sum of a set of independent random variables will approach a normal distribution regardless of the distribution of the indi¬ vidual variables themselves, given certain general conditions. Further, the mean (see mean, median, and mode) of the normal distribution will coin¬ cide with the (arithmetic) mean of the (statistical) means of each random variable.
central nervous system See nervous system
Central Pacific Railroad U.S. railroad company founded in 1861 by a group of California merchants including Mark Hopkins and Leland Stan-
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ford. It was built with land grants and subsidies from the Pacific Railway Act (1862); thousands of Chinese labourers were hired to build it. Its tracks joined with those of the Union Pacific on May 10, 1869, in Prom¬ ontory, Utah, forming North America’s first transcontinental railroad. From 1884 it was leased to the Southern Pacific Co., with which it merged in 1959.
Central Park Public park, New York, New York, U.S. Located in Man¬ hattan, it occupies an area of 840 acres (340 hectares). It was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and opened in 1876; it was artificially landscaped to create an impression of wild and varied terrain. It includes footpaths and bicycle paths, athletic fields, boating lakes, and a zoo. Free public concerts and performances are frequent, notably the Shakespeare in the Park series at an open-air theatre. The Metropolitan Museum of Art adjoins the park.