Maldivians have always been a peaceful people, described as civilized and hospitable by seafarers visiting the islands, even in the days of old when traditionally the livelihood of men were dependent on fishing, for no livestock is found on the land, and women hovered over marital affairs, and indulged in traditional handicrafts that include matt-weaving and beautiful lacquer-work, and most of their livelihoods were weaved around the sea. These traditions however rare today is still survived by some talented craftsmen and women who make these (matts are weaved exclusively by women) and if you’re lucky enough to visit the Maldives, pick up one, as a souvenir. A homage to an art passed through the generations, and its practitioners. Now onto the history, of the children of the sea.

Now, Our past is a tumultuous one, with very little, surviving the hands of time and with much left to be desired and uncovered because in all honesty, there is a veneer of mystery shrouding the pre-Islamic period of the Maldives, and few sources like Lomafanu( copper plates, with engravings on it in the ancient texts) that are telling, of our past and we regret to inform you, as fascinating as it may have been to find out how our ancestors lived, and where exactly they come from – there hasn’t been effort deserving of the enormously important assignment, put into finding out more, over the centuries but we’re not here to point fingers. We’re here to tell you, how colourful of a past the Maldivians had. From the scattered bits we’ve been able to decipher, read and have heard in our youths we pledge to shed some light unto the past, and tell you a stories or two. Let’s just say; it is by no stretch of the imagination; an ordinary past what the Maldivians had, filled with coral stone temples that face the sun stories of kings that negotiate with sea-demons, island societies ruled by woman and money that you could walk up to the beach and simply collect in a basket. Forget money that grows on trees, we had money that washed ashore.

Whether you grew up in the fortitudes of the capital city that’s worked over time, to cope with the fast economic growth, modernization and the other many such demands of the 21st century or even whether if you grew up in a unperturbed island where life is peaceful, slow and quaint, and all matters of fact and philosophy, is largely left to the authority of the elders; you’ve heard the ’stories’ that breathe life back into a rich historic milieu connecting us all, instilling a sense of wonder, every time you hear it. These are the stories we’ve heard a hundred times, when we were little more than children playing barefoot on the white sand roads, in between coral stone aisles. The Maldivian past constitute of fascinating historical happenings and events that mark a vivid journey…

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