Seen here is the 'Tharaagandu' at K.Atoll Kaashidhoo(Picture taken from kaashidhoo.net)..It is said to be the remains of a Buddhist monastry which dates back to 12th century AD.
Archaeological excavations of this Buddhist temple/monastry , by a research team, from the
University of Oslo, Norway, was begun in 1996, on the island of Kaashidhoo.These extcavations were continued in 1997 and 1998. The team was led by Professor Egil Mikkelsen of Norway. After the excavations, the ruins were covered by plastic, sand and stones to protect them from destruction.
Ivisited the place just when they discovered some corpses there .I heard that the research team will be leaving soon.that means the work will no be continued.Again after an year i went back to kaashidhoo and discovered that it was a play ground for children.they would go and pee in to the ancient well there.they would break parts of the historical remains of the temple(some kids even brought it to the house i was staying in).I was not shocked. because my house is not far from ali rasagefaanu Ziyaarai (in Male') ,which was a junk heap until it was renovated and opened for tourists in October 2002.And he was mulim mujahid..... no wonder they wont give a damn about the remains of a Buddhist temple!!
There are several other Ziyaarais or shrines of Maldivian saints and heroes which have been neglected and even destroyed by the government.You all will know the area called Lonu ziyaarai kolhu, no more ziyaarai is there now.They even stopped Maldivian cultural festivals like Maaloodhu.My said that the giraavaru people practiced their traditional thaarajehun and vajidhuvun until it was banned by the government.
And then there is Dhivehi language.so many words used in different islands..are lost day after day...i dont think any effort is made to collect these words and document em(even jaa have done more than what they do by giving us the radheed free).and i thnak maldivesroyalfamily.com and maldivesculture.com for all the information ive got from them about my country,its culture and heritage.
Bodu beru is some thing almost all maldivians like...but no work is done to promote it.,they keep on saying youth are going more and more western and no one is interested in maldivian culture.
talking about history..i guess yo will know that maldivian history is re-written in a way some one wanted it to be.ive already mentioned what he did to maldivian historian , shafeeq.
and.i dunno.i was just watching TVM there was this seminar about culture going on.The brother in law of Gayom; Abbas Ibrahim -who is the 'president' (lol) the National Centre for Linguistic and Historical Research thanked gayom for many things and then awarded him something, apparently for being the savior of maldivian culture.After sometime the gayom himself was speaking about maldvian culture.he started by saying that Quran Mushaf (printed copies of the Quran) are the biggest maldivian heritage as we are muslims...and after sometimes i thought i was in Islam class.he was talking about mushaful uthman and mushaful imaam and about how the Quran was revealed and how it was collected.how some prints of the Quran were burnt and one single copy was made the canonical print.and how it was sent to syria,egypt,and many other countries.and i dunnno what happened next i have started writing this post by that time.
phew!so much about maldivian history,heritage and culture..If you are interested in maldivian heritage, I think you would find this [pdf] interesting.