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Article: THE MALDIVES AT A GLANCE.(Main)
- Article from:
- Albany Times Union (Albany, NY)
- Article date:
- November 3, 1988
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1988 Albany Times Union. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: The Associated Press
THE PEOPLE-Almost all of the country's 182,000 people are Sunni Moslems, the mainstream sect of Islam. The Maldivians were once Buddhists but converted to Islam in the 12th century. Today Islam is the state religion, and liquor is forbidden except on islands reserved for foreign tourists. The people are descendants of Veddas, Sinhalese and Dravadians from India and Sri Lanka, and Arab and Negro settlers. The official language is Divehi, an ancient form of the Sinhalese spoken today in Sri Lanka, but English is widely used. The literacy rate is 83 percent, one of the highest in South Asia.
THE LAND - The nation is an ...