With the eyes of a Maldivian and the words of an Englishman, the Two Thousand Isles project seeks out the less well-known side of the Maldives; the island history and culture lying somewhere between the headlines and the holidays. Click below to see what’s behind the picture, or visit the blog, where we’ve posted more than 100 stories since 2016.
Wreck Creation
The Laccadive Ridge has always acted as a trans-continental filter for all those destined to become Dhivehin. All that passed from east to west, and back again, for untold centuries would run this Indian Ocean gauntlet, with the notorious reefs absorbing traditions, travellers and trade seemingly at random…
Cast-away
From the outside, the island of Funadhoo in Gaafu Alif looks like most others in Huvadhu atoll. The ideal place to be castaway…or cast out? Beyond the beach, through the dense and sweltering jungle, lies a secret that’s been kept for almost 60 years, demonstrating the often harsh social realities of island life.
Keeping Time in Meedhoo
Ibrahim Didi sits on the steps of the tiny Fandiyaaru Miskiiy, built by the men who first brought Islam to Meedhoo, in the Maldives’ southernmost atoll; surrounded by the graves of their kin, who maintained the site for close to a thousand years afterwards. The clock inside has stopped but the history is still ticking in his mind…
Bonfire of the Atolls
Perhaps the most spectacular of these mysteries is that of the Eidu Malhi. The burning of a palm-leaf pyre, normally over a shallow reef area at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. This ritual is so obscure that it seldom happens in any two islands exactly the same way, while most don’t conduct the ritual at all, suggesting that whatever its origins, few today would agree on them…
Beyya Beys
After malicious maladies had kept foreigners away from the Maldives for centuries, the tourism boom and international aid have transformed the nation’s health since the 1970s. In Gemanafushi, however, residents can still take the short trip to see a man with a long history of curing the atoll’s ailments…
alif alif ali
Women taking a stroll around the cool evening streets of Alif Alif Rasdhoo see it. Friends talking on the beach see it. Fishermen plying the depths of Ali Huras Kandu have seen it too. Heck, even we saw it!! The light. Rising and falling in the darkness over the channel east of the island; over the 30 miles of clear Indian Ocean before North Male atoll…
Suvadive highway
If there is one country in the world that could live without cars and motorbikes, it’s probably the Maldives. In a nation that is 99 percent water, with most islands less than 0.5 square kilometres, they’re like fish out of water. However, the 5,600 or so vehicles lucky enough to reside in Addu atoll have enjoyed access to the most spectacular road in the country since 2003…
fangi factory
There’s something happening in Laamu. Something that’s both old and new at the same time. Something that tells a story about the Maldives past and its present; about where culture and economics hold hands for a bit. You can see evidence of it piled up along the jungle paths of Dhanbidhoo, propped up against the walls of homes…
maldivian idols
The Maldives is a harsh environment for history. With few material resources available and precious little room for rigorous debate, it has been almost impossible for evidence of the country’s earliest settlers to survive. But, while little evidence of the pre-Islamic period is visible, it seems likely that significant finds remain buried somewhere out in the islands…
pride of maldives
Every morning. On every island. Before the eager sun becomes too intense. The women of the Maldives come out to sweep. Stooped at 90 degrees, backs straight as a board, these ladies and the determined swish of their iloshi fathi (broom made from coconut palm branches) continue to form a vital part of daily life across the atolls…As well as a great morning workout…
message in an atoll
‘Uninhabited’, ‘desert island’, ‘castaway’; these words echo in people’s minds when they dream of washing up in the Maldives. An escape from cluttered lives, worldly responsibilities and complex social systems; the hope of discovering enlightenment in Indian Ocean isolation…But when was this mythical message first put in the bottle?
fly iruvai
Late November has become a time of modern migration. The school year ends and Maldivians head somewhere else for a change of scenery; the tourism high season starts and foreign guests flood in to do the same. But, another annual migration is also taking place at this time; another invasion of guests moving with the changing moosun…