Buddhism in Maldives?

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Rakshasa
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Joined: Wed Oct 03, 2012 6:29 am

Buddhism in Maldives?

Post by Rakshasa »

I was recently locating Maldives in the world map and reading about its history. I was pretty surprised by knowing that before being Islamicized, the Maldivian people followed Buddhism (even Mahayana and Vajrayana, though Theravada was dominant). Since ethnically, they are related to the Sinhalese and the Tamil people, it makes sense that they were Buddhists. Even the famous Moroccan traveler Ibn Batuta was known to have visited the place. This is very fascinating, since the Maldives islands are about 700 km from India and Sri Lanka in the middle of nowhere in the Indian Ocean. So I wonder how was Buddhism transmitted to these islands and what kind of Buddhism existed there,

Anyone has any more info about it?
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Aemilius
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Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 11:44 am

Re: Buddhism in Maldives?

Post by Aemilius »

See discussion in Dharmawheel http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.ph ... madagascar
There were ancient searoutes between India and the horn of Africa. There is archeological evidence of indian cultural precence in ancient Zimbabwe. The history of the african state of Zimbabwe, before the colonial period, is noteworthy in this context. The name Zimbabwe could actually come from the sanskrit name Sambhava, etc...
svaha
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Sarvē mānavāḥ svatantrāḥ samutpannāḥ vartantē api ca, gauravadr̥śā adhikāradr̥śā ca samānāḥ ēva vartantē. Ētē sarvē cētanā-tarka-śaktibhyāṁ susampannāḥ santi. Api ca, sarvē’pi bandhutva-bhāvanayā parasparaṁ vyavaharantu."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1. (in english and sanskrit)
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Aemilius
Posts: 4604
Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 11:44 am

Re: Buddhism in Maldives?

Post by Aemilius »

There was a brief period of democracy in Maldives, that made the archeological study of Buddhist artefacts possible.
However, it ended in 2012 in an islamic coup.
http://www.chakranews.com/invaluable-hi ... amic-group
http://www.jstor.org/stable/43553815?se ... b_contents
svaha
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Sarvē mānavāḥ svatantrāḥ samutpannāḥ vartantē api ca, gauravadr̥śā adhikāradr̥śā ca samānāḥ ēva vartantē. Ētē sarvē cētanā-tarka-śaktibhyāṁ susampannāḥ santi. Api ca, sarvē’pi bandhutva-bhāvanayā parasparaṁ vyavaharantu."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1. (in english and sanskrit)
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