The work examines the representations of Asia or the Asia motif in Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, The Magic Mountain, and The Transposed Heads. Following the methodological guideline of comparative imagology, the analysis shows that 'Asia' is portrayed in the examined works as both archaic and hostile to culture on one hand. On the other hand, this projection of Asia is used to critique the decline of one's own culture. In Death in Venice and The Magic Mountain, the Asian element serves as a cipher for the threat to Western culture posed by the instinctual. However, in The Transposed Heads, Mann employs Asian elements to critique the misuse of myths during the Nazi era.