"The first Christian funeral in the Maldives in recent times. VM Gerse was a teacher at a government-run English-medium boys’ school who died in late 1964. Previously he was a teacher at the prestigious Royal College in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Here, the funeral procession makes its way to the cemetery on Sosun Magu. Students carried floral tributes in the shape of crosses. Forty six years later in 2010, an expatriate Christian teacher was threatened to be dragged off a Maldive island for drawing a compass on a map in a geography lesson, which the authorities mistook for a cross. Civilisation has definitely regressed in the Maldives. (Photo with the kind permission of Mr. Ahmed Wajeeh)
There were, of course other Christian burials in the Maldives of mainly Royal Navy personnel. I believe a couple of graves were marked by crosses on Funadu Island off Male. The crosses stood there for a long time, but I am sure they have now been demolished in the name of Islam. Although Royal Navy burials were conducted by the RN itself, the Sultans had authorised them and given land for the purpose. The crosses were tolerated by the Sultans and their governments. The Gerse funeral was authorised and conducted by the Maldive authorities. The Christian rites were solemnised by his collegues, JV Hill and JV William. Mr. Hill was the principal of Majeediya School in Male where Mr Gerse taught and both of them worked together for years at Royal College in Colombo.
There may still be Allied war graves on Gan island in Addu Atoll from Wolrd War II. At one time they were also marked by crosses."
via chris abdul wahab facebook
No comments:
Post a Comment