South Asia: Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Islands of the Indian Ocean - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 266

Dry during the northeast monsoon, the islands experience
heavy precipitation with the southeast monsoon—from
April to October. Although coral reefs serve as breakwaters,
they could not protect the islands from death and destruc-
tion caused by tsunamis in 1991 and 2004. The force of the
wave in 2004 flooded most of the islands, and two-thirds of
Male (the capital) was submerged (Figure 9-13).
Hills and rivers are nonexistent in Maldives.
Breadfruit trees and coconut palms shade expanses of
dense scrub, shrubs, and flowers. Soils are poor, and
only about 10 percent of the land is cultivated.
Agriculture, mainly taro, a starchy root crop, plus
bananas and coconuts, is concentrated on the highest island
of Fua Mulaku. At an elevation of 9 feet (about 3 m), its
fresh groundwater is less prone to the intrusion of salt
water. However, with global warming and rising sea levels,
all the islands are experiencing a depletion of fresh
groundwater. This situation threatens their existence.
Situated on historical maritime routes, Maldives
became inhabited by diverse ethnic and linguistic groups
including Dravidians from the subcontinent, Sinhalese
speakers from Sri Lanka, Arabs, Australians, and
Africans. Maldivians speak Dhivehi, derived from an ar-
chaic form of Sinhalese. The word atoll is Dhivehi.
Maldives was once the major source of cowrie shells,
widely used as currency in Asia and East and West Africa.
The renowned explorer Thor Heyerdahl discovered that
Maldives was integral to the trade routes of the Egyptian,
Mesopotamian, and Indus V alley civilizations as early as
2000 BC .He postulated that the first settlers were the Redin,
sun-worshipping seafarers. Even today , many mosques in
Maldives are oriented to the east rather than to Mecca.
Islam of the Sunni school was introduced by Arab
traders in the twelfth century and quickly replaced
Buddhism, established by Sri Lankans in the fourth
century . Both civil law and Islam-inspired law or sharia
are used. Under sharia , the testimony of one man equals
that of two women. However, women do not veil, nor are
they rigidly secluded.
In 1558, the Portuguese became the first Europeans
to occupy Maldives, administering it from their colony at
Goa. The Dutch followed in the seventeenth century but
were subsequently forced out by the British. Maldives
was a British protectorate from 1887 until it achieved
independence in 1965. It became a republic in 1968. In
1988, a mercenary coup was squelched after military
intervention by India. This move symbolized India' s
hegemony over Maldives.
About 30 percent of Maldives' 359,000 people are
concentrated in Male, which is just seven-tenths of a
square mile (2.59 km 2 ). High birthrates and lack of an

recover their means of livelihood (Figure 9-12).
This has been very successful and loan repayment
has been 100 percent.
Housing has been rebuilt in most areas with the
exception of the war-torn north, where progress is
much slower. While 150,000 families lost their
livelihoods after the tsunami, about 75 percent have
regained their main source of income. Clearly , there
is still much to be done.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?
New elections after the war' s end brought the same
government into power. The country is now called the
Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. The govern-
ment is working on rehabilitating the north and east,
removing land mines, and relocating and housing dis-
placed people. It is doubtful that the Tamils will get their
own state, but they may gain some degree of autonomy .
Since the United States and other Western countries
were critical of the government' s handling of the civil war,
Sri Lanka is deepening ties with other Asian countries such
as India, Myanmar, Iran, and China. China is now the
country' s largest investor, overtaking even the World Bank
and the Asian Development Bank. Foreign funding will un-
derpin rebuilding, road, rail, power, and port development.
As of 2010, the economy , crushed by a slump in
garment exports and tourism because of the war, is picking
up. The New Y ork Times has named Sri Lanka as its top
tourist destination for 2010. Annual remittances, mostly
from Sinhalese and Tamil workers in Arab countries,
have rebounded. The Sri Lankan stock market has risen
to be one of the best performing in the world.

More Islands of the Indian Ocean

Four island groups punctuate the Indian Ocean near the
subcontinent: the Maldives and Laccadives to the west,
and the Andaman and Nicobar to the east. Only the
Maldives is independent. The latter three island chains
belong to India. Virtually all of these islands were devas-
tated in the 2004 tsunami. Thousands were killed and
the damage to infrastructures is inestimable.

MALDIVES
T Twenty-seven atolls including 1,200 islands known as
Maldives are located atop a submarine ridge rising from the
depths of the Indian Ocean. Each atoll is a ring-shaped,
coral reef supporting 20 to 60 islands with 5 to 10 inhabited.