Kuruhinna Tharaagandu monastery, (on) Kaashidhoo Is., Kaafu, MV

Raw data

"Kaashidhoo […] is one of the inhabited islands of Kaafu Atoll. It is located at the northern tip Malé atoll and is the fifth biggest island in the entire Maldivian archipelago. […]
Lat 4.955556, Long 73.464722
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaashidhoo_(Kaafu_Atoll)

"Clarence Maloney examined 900 Maldivian islands and other geographical names and found that 'only four have Arabic or Islamic names, so it is clear that the whole country was populated and brought within a single civilisational system before Islam (1153), during the Buddhist period, or even earlier.' […] Communities of villagers built Hindu/Buddhist temples, and the Vajrayana or Tantric cults seemed to predominate." - O'Shea (1998-2009)

Maldives - administrative subdivisions
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Atolls_of_the_maldives.png

Input by: tmciolek, Sep 17, 2012

Final data (and their sources)

Last updated: 14 Jan 2013

Lat/Long coordinates' accuracy:
The monastery in question is assumed to be situated actually no farther than 200 m from the point defined by the coordinates below.

Location of Kuruhinna Tharaagandu monastery, MV.

General location of the Kuruhinna Tharaagandu monastery, MV.
Lat 4.95646 Long 73.46304
Mapping & images: Falling Rain Genomics (http://www.fallingrain.com), 2012.


Google Map link:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=4.95646+73.46304+(Approx.%20loc.%20of%20the%20Kuruhinna%20Tharaagandu%20monastery,%20MV)&ll=4.95646,73.46304&spn=05.0,05.0&t=k&hl=en


Final data - explanatory notes

1. Monastery's name

  • Kuruhinna Tharaagandu monastery

2. Monastery's modern country & province

  • Maldives:Kaafu, Kaafu Atoll

3. Monastery's alternative/historical names


4. Monastery's lat/long coordinates

  • Approx., Lat 4.95646 Long 73.46304 - based on the visual identification of the KuruHinna Tharaagandu ruins in satellite imagery, maps.google.com - tmciolek, 17 Sep 2012.

5. Other known nearby Buddhist monasteries

  • [missing data]

6. Modern name of the known nearest city, town, or village


7. The settlement's alternative/historical names

  • [missing data]

8. The settlement's coordinates


9. Monastery's major Buddhist tradition

  • Vajrayana - O'Shea (1998-2009)

10. Monastery's Buddhist sub-tradition

  • [missing data]

11. Date-early

  • MBM chrono-tag: <=0200 - tmciolek 14 Jan 2013
  • <=0200 0200-32c 0233-66c 0267-99c 0300-32c 0333-66c 0367-99c 0400-32c 0433-66c 0467-99c 0500-32c 0533-66c 0567-99c 0600-32c 0633-66c 0667-99c 0700-32c 0733-66c 0767-99c 0800-32c 0833-66c 0867-99c 0900-32c 0933-66c 0967-99c 1000-32c 1033-66c 1067-99c 1100-32c 1133-66c dated-el

12. Date-intermediate

  • AD 345 - Hassan et al. (2012:55)

13. Date-late

  • MBM chrono-tag: 1133-66c - tmciolek 14 Jan 2013

14. Details of contacts with other monasteries

  • "The loamafanu (copperplate government records used Maldives from at least the 12th century) were written in the curly Evela form of the Dhivehi akuru or old Maldivian alphabet, which has strong similarities with the Tamil Grantha script of the 7th century Pallava and Pandya dynasties. In certain documents, a form of old Nagari or Protobengali script is present, which shows that there are contacts with the centers of Buddhist learning of Nalanda, Ratnagiri and Vikramasila. These must have taken place from the 8th century onwards, when Buddhist culture revived and flourished in Eastern India owing to the patronage of the Pala kings of Bengal.'" - O'Shea (1998-2009)

15. Type of evidence regarding the monastery

  • archaeological

16. Additional notes

  • [missing data] (incl. details of the size of the monastic population)

17. Corrections & addenda to this page were kindly provided by

  • [missing data]

18. Available Printed Literature

  • [bibliographical details of the Book/Article 1]
  • [bibliographical details of the Book/Article 2]
  • [bibliographical details of the Book/Article 3]

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