The Maldivians or Maldives Islanders - have called this paradise their home for millennia. Early settlers are known to have arrived from the Malabar coast of India and south west Sri Lanka - explaining the strong Tamil-Malayali strains in the local language and culture today. But through history, this island nation has traversed through a Buddhist period, an Islamic period, to finally a colonial rule that ended with independence from the British in 1965. So who is the modern day Maldivian? And what makes up their cultural DNA? What are their hopes and aspirations in an ever-evolving island nation that has transcended the rise and fall of dynasties, religions and more recently, sea-levels? I traveled to the quirky, pint sized capital of Malé, to find out for the January 2020 issue of Vogue Arabia.
