Divehi people
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| c. 420,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Maldives ≈392,000 (2011) |
|
 India
|
15,000 (2007) |
 Sri Lanka
|
6,000 (2008) |
 Malaysia
|
3,000 (2008) |
 United Kingdom
|
2,000 (2006) |
 Singapore
|
1,000 (2008) |
 Pakistan
|
450 (2010) |
 Australia
|
450 (2011) |
 Egypt
|
150 (2011) |
| Languages | |
| Maldivian | |
| Religion | |
| Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Sinhalese people, Giravaaru people, Tamil people, Malayalam people, Malay people | |
|
a. ^ Excluding a smaller number of foreign nationals and ambassadors. |
|
Maldivians ( ދިވެހިން, divehin), also called Maldive Islanders, are a nation and ethnic group native to the historic region of the Maldive Islands comprising what is now the Republic of Maldives and the island of Minicoy in Union Territory of Lakshadweep, India. All Maldivians share the same culture and speak the Maldivian language which is a member of the southern group of Indo-Aryan languages. For ethnographic and linguistic purposes as well as geo-political reasons anthropologists divide the Maldivian people into 3 subgroups:
There is no historical evidence about the origin of Maldivians; there is also no indication that there was any negrito or other aboriginal population, such as the Andamanese. No archaeology has been conducted to investigate the prehistory of the islands. There is, however, a Tamil–Malayalam substratum, in addition to other later cultural influences in the islands.Bengali, Odia and Sinhalese people have had trading connections to Dhivehi people in the past.
Conjectures have been made by scholars who argue that the ancestors of Maldivian people arrived to the Maldives from North West and West India, from Kalibangan between 2500 and 1700 BC and that they formed a distinct ethnic group around the 6th century BC.
According to Maldivian folklore the main myths of origin are reflecting the dependence of the Maldivians on the coconut tree and the tuna fish. A legend says that the first inhabitants of the Maldives died in great numbers, but a great sorcerer or fandita man made coconut trees grow out of the skulls of the buried corpses of the first settlers. Therefore, the coconut tree is said to have an anthropomorphic origin according to Maldive lore. for this reason The word naashi(coconut shell) is also the word used for skull in dhivehi language. The coconut tree occupies a central place in the present-day Maldive national emblem.
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