What we used to be

Maldives is an entirely different place if you compare it now with what it used to be around 50 years back. The traditions were much different and defined . Nowadays , you see Maldivians with a more modern style of clothing and behavior and the traditional dress form can be seldom seen.   Men used to wear the mundu , a sheet of rectangular clothe worn neatly like a towel around the waist.

The women used to wear a set of dresses called the "Dhivehi Hedhun" , meaning the Maldivian Dress.(originality).

You won't see people wearing these dresses anywhere in the Maldives very often , while this was the normal dress code for the people back then. 

Maldivians nowadays wear casual clothing like T-shirts , Jeans , Shorts not unlike the rest of the world. The majority of the women wear a "buruga" or occasionally a veil that covers the face , hence called "moonu buruga" ( meaning face buruga ) .

The art of Boduberu is also , greatly affected by the modern world.  Nowadays , people play more of modern songs and tunes and even the dance has been modernized .  

Parents and grandparents , (mostly from the islands) , are the mostly know people who knew what it was like to live in those good old days. No traffic , no fear of walking  down a street alone and not much crime. In those days , education was tough , though both girls and boys went to school. They were taught up to grade 7 by the time my mother was in school , and gradually it went on , until now , where the education system is not unlike other countries.

Traditional Dance ( boduberu )

Boduberu is a great and popular dance from in the Maldives that is still flourishing . There are yearly competitions , and great rivalry between teams. Even schools open Boduberu clubs.

Along with Boduberu , people also have different forms of Dance , such as Thaara. It is derived from an ancient style from Eastern Africa.

Sports

The national sport of Maldives is Football. Well , naturally , because football is almost everywhere in Maldives.It plays a big role in a lot of people's life and you can see it almost anywhere in the Maldives. School kids playing near a park or field , matches switched on the television and of course  , the euphoria when the National Team plays.

However , Football is known widely around the world and is far from being a local sport. There are a lot of other sports that are played in the Maldives.

Bashi is a game usually played by women .

Played using a tennis racket , the goal of this game is for a player from one team to hit the ball backwards , above the net , while all the members from the other team tries to catch the ball.
Broken fingers are not rare , for obvious reasons .

This sport is still active in the Maldives , there are even championships taking place all around . 

Another sport that's active is a sport called Thimmugoli. Its sort of like baseball , except that you dont use a bat , but a stick to hit a ball as far as you can and run around the 3 ( not four , yes ) bases before they catch it. Its entirely different from  baseball with various rules , but the normal activeness is seemingly going down because of all the modern influence , which is greatly seen in Maldives. 

There are also a lot of other sports which seemingly disappeared prior to the great development in Maldives.  

Written Script

In the Maldives , we speak in the local language of Dhivehi . It is a fairly "easy to understand language" and  the written script is know as Thaana.

Heres a preview of what "Thaana" looks like :

The script has constantly gone through numerous changes over the long years . For instance , this is what "Thaana" looked like a long time.

It is a fairly old script , but easy to understand.  It has 24 letters , making it 2 letters short of the English Alphabet.


Dhivehi is also know for the huge amount of proverbs it has.

Food :D

Maldives is also know for its fishing industries , because a lot of people make a living out of fishing. This is a reason why you can expect a lot of tuna and fish on Maldivian Cuisine :D
Here are some examples :

Mashuni 

Mainly taken with roshi ( not unlike the Indian chapaati , but thinner ) but slight tastes like a little bit of chilli and lemon can be applied.











Garudhiya

In other words , fish soup.













Rihaakuru

Basically fish paste. Consumed very often , and occasionally taken with rice or roshi.












Masriha

Masriha ( meaning Fish Curry ) is a personal favourite to me , id sy. Its popular with roshi.









Kulhimas

Another dish which is served spicy ( kulhimas , in where "kulhi" means spice )

An introduction ......

The Republic of Maldives is located in the Indian Ocean , a little bit to the south of India. It is consisted of  26 atolls . It can be easily said that Maldives can be on the brink of disappearing under the sea. Global Warming has played its' role , and since the highest ground point in Maldives is 2 meters above the sea level , so its clearly evident that we may not stand a chance.

One of the main important reasons for the mass tourism in Maldives is the beautiful reefs that surround it and the luxurious resorts here and there. The tourism sector is actually plays a huge role in the economy of Maldives.

However , the economy of Maldives isn't all ups.
Maldives spends a awfully huge sum of money on fossil fuels. Most of the money is from other countries , and currently , we are under an increasing debt . The fear of the moment when we would be not be able to pay them back is always there.






Maldivian  society has been impacted a lot by the modern world , and it was quite a different place if you look back 30 - 50 years. Nowadays , there's always the talk about the old ways dying out , though there are these traditions which always blend in , even nowadays , for example if you look at sports. There are a lot of different  aspects when you look at old tradition , like sports , food , dance , language , family roles and education.

Hi there

Welcome to Hidden Island Cultures.  We are 3 high school students who study in the island country of Maldives , on our Global Perspective assignment . Our aim to basically spread as much awareness as much as we can across the globe about our culture , how it has been impacted by the modern world ,how our society was then and the how our society is now. We plan on using different mediums to do so , like blogging , video presentations and such. We would really appreciate it if you can help us spread the word. We are going to be posting here about various areas about our topic. We hope you hang around here :D . Thanks for visiting .