Isdhoo (Laamu Atoll)

For other islands see Isdhoo

Isdhoo or Isdū (according to the Admiralty Charts)(Dhivehi: އިސްދޫ) is one of the inhabited islands of Haddummati Atoll, administrative code Laamu. This island has large ruins from the historical Maldivian Buddhist era.

Isdū Lōmāfānu

Lōmāfānu are ancient royal edicts written on copper plates. Lōmāfānu edicts were etched on long copper plates held together by a ring of the same metal. The lōmāfānu were written in the curly Evēla form of the Divehi akuru or old Maldive alphabet and they are very important documents in the History of the Maldives. The oldest lōmāfānu that have hitherto been found and preserved are from Male’, the royal capital, and from the islands of Isdū and Dambidū in Haddhunmathi Atoll, where there were large Buddhist monasteries. These copperplates were issued at the end of the twelfth century AD. These (lōmāfānu), make it clear that the general conversion from Buddhism to Islam was ordered by the king. Thanks to the lōmāfānu it is also known that the monasteries in Haddummati Atoll were of great importance in the ancient Buddhist Kingdom of the Maldives.

According to the Isdū lōmāfānu, monks from monasteries of the Southern Atoll of Haddummati were brought to Male’ and beheaded.

References

• H.A. Maniku & G.D. Wijayawardhana, ‘Isdhoo Loamaafaanu’. . Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka. Colombo 1986.