Vajidhu, ritual bleeding ceremony

Maldives Culture special report
The Dhivehi Radheef says: 'Vajidhu or vajjidhu is done by people in Maldives to fulfil a vow (nadhuru) or for other reasons. It is also a traditional entertainment. The songs of vajidhu (vajidhu vaa lavabai) are the second part of the baburunetti series of songs, played on drums and tambourines (baburu in Dhivehi means negro, or black African). When the vajidhu tambourine is played, people stab themselves with a sharp instrument until they bleed.'The Radheef implies that vajidhu is the latter part of a bigger ceremony involving percussion music and other songs. There is no mention of the use of trance techniques by people performing the ceremony.These recent photos of a vajidhu ceremony were taken in northern Maldives.

Lynching of Mohamed Amin

The closing scene of a previous and more barbaric transition of power in the Maldives. The president of the first republic Mohamed Amin Dorhimeyna Kilegefan was lynched by the mob pictured above, with the active encouragement of the regime that seized control from him in 1953. This Kilegefan died of the brutal injuries sustained in the attack. Following prolonged assaults on a horrific scale, his bloodied and fully naked body, still alive and reduced to a bag of broken bones, was thrown into one of the boats pictured above. He survived a few weeks and in that time he was tried by a self-appointed kangaroo court and sentenced to be put in irons for life. He was shackled and died in that sorry condition- a testament to how Maldivians treat their deposed leaders.