Maldives: A mosque with its graveyard. Being a Muslim country, people are buried. Tombstones with a single point on the top are those of men, while those with a rounded top are those of women (1980)

Indigenous epigraphic records dating from the late 12th century CE indicate that, in 1153, the Maldives were converted to Islam by a wandering Arab mendicant. Certainly today the islands are one hundred percent Muslim, and eight centuries of tropical monsoon and Islamic iconoclasm have left little trace of the pre-Islamic religion and culture of the islanders.

Copyright:

CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Photographer:

Andrew Forbes

Credit:

Pictures From Asia