Fua Mulaku. Reise zu den vergessenen Kulturen der Malediven

by Thor Heyerdahl

Russian Book. Amfora. 383. 2016. Hardcover.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Travel

344 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Thor Heyerdahl (October 6, 1914, Larvik, Norway – April 18, 2002, Colla Micheri, Italy) was a Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer with a scientific background in zoology and geography. Heyerdahl became notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition, in which he sailed 4,300 miles (8,000 km) by raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. All his legendary expeditions are shown in the Kon-Tiki Museum, Oslo.

Thor Heyerdahl was born in Larvik, the son of master brewer Thor Heyerdahl and his wife Alison Lyng. As a young child, Thor Heyerdahl showed a strong interest in zoology. He created a small museum in his childhood home, with a Vipera berus as the main attraction. He studied Zoology and Geography at University of Oslo. At the same time, he privately studied Polynesian culture and history, consulting what was then the world's largest private collection of books and papers on Polynesia, owned by Bjarne Kropelien, a wealthy wine merchant in Oslo. This collection was later purchased by the University of Oslo Library from Kropelien's heirs and was attached to the Kon-Tiki Museum research department. After seven terms and consultations with experts in Berlin, a project was developed and sponsored by his zoology professors, Kristine Bonnevie and Hjalmar Broch. He was to visit some isolated Pacific island groups and study how the local animals had found their way there. Just before sailing together to the Marquesas Islands in 1936, he married his first wife, Liv Coucheron-Torp (b. 1916), whom he had met shortly before enrolling at the University, and who had studied economics there. Though she is conspicuously absent from many of his papers and talks, Liv participated in nearly all of Thor's journeys, with the exception of the Kon-Tiki Expedition. The couple had two sons; Thor Jr and Bjørn. The marriage ended in divorce and in 1949 Thor Heyerdahl married Yvonne Dedekam-Simonsen. They in turn had three daughters; Annette, Marian and Helene Elisabeth. This marriage also ended in divorce, in 1969. In 1991 Thor Heyerdahl married for the third time, to Jacqueline Beer (b. 1932).

Thor Heyerdahl's grandson, Olav Heyerdahl, retraced his grandfather's Kon-Tiki voyage in 2006, as part of a six-member crew. The voyage, called the Tangaroa Expedition, was intended as a tribute to Thor Heyerdahl, as well as a means to monitor the Pacific Ocean's environment. A film about the voyage is in preparation.
--from Wikipedia

Reviews

[David Corleto-Bales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thor Heyerdahl is one of the people whose lives I would have liked to have lived. A famous writer and adventure explorer, Heyerdahl from Norway became noted in the 1940s with his experiment of sailing from Peru to Polynesia in a balsa wood and reed sailboat, (immortalized in "Kon-Tiki") thus proving that it was at least possible for South American Indians to have populated parts of the Pacific. In the early 1980s he became fixated with a new mystery: that of the earliest inhabitants of the Maldive Islands, a collection of coral atolls in the Indian Ocean south of India and Sri Lanka. The Maldives is a devoutly Muslim country but archaeological evidence suggested that Buddhist traders from the continent had settled there a thousand years before Islam leaving behind temples and artifacts, most of which were destroyed by Islamic fanatics. Heyerdahl went to the Maldives in 1982 after being sent a photo of a Buddha statue unearthed on one of the atolls. While there, however, he found evidence of an even earlier civilization, one that was lost to the distant past and that appeared to worship the sun. Called the "Reddin" people, little or nothing was previously known of them and Heyerdahl was able to make some connections between the mysterious Reddin and other sun-worshipping groups in Morocco, Peru and Mexico. A lot of jungle-tromping, curry-eating and mystery in this one. He was a truly great man.

[Conrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in the heart of the Indian Ocean, more than 1,000 small islands make up the Maldives and while they might seem insignificant they were actually at the crossroads of international trade and travel in ancient days. In their pre-moslem days they were variously inhabited by, Buddhists, Hindus, Tamils and even an earlier people known only as Redin who brought their skills as builders and stone workers to the islands.
As Thor Heyerdahl and his associates began to peel back the layers of history more of the early history of the islands was uncovered and subsequent investigations in the Indus Valley and elsewhere helped to tie it all together, although the identity and origins of the Redin still remain a mystery.
There are some significant tie-ins to his other works of exploration. On one island they found a stone with 12 angles very similar to the famous one found in a wall in Cusco, Peru. Cotton was originally cultivated in the Indus Valley in the northwest of India and some of the finest cotton was grown, spun and woven in the Maldives long before it was ever grown in Egypt or Mesopotamia. In Central and South America the wild cotton that grew there was no good for spinning, however it has been shown, through genetic testing, to have been crossed with the domestic Asian variety to create a new strain that could be spun and woven - and this burst on the scene and spread rapidly across the continent in a relatively short period of time. The only explanation is that it was introduced by man - but how and when? It is possible that reed ship sailors from the Indus Valley sailed via the Maldives around India and Africa, across the South Atlantic all the way to Central America using the ocean currents just as Heyerdahl did in his reed ship (the Ra expedition).
Hindu writings state that before the sudden birth of the great civilizations of the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia there was another older civilization that passed away. Again, it is lost in the mist of antiquity but it could be that those were the Redin or their progenitors. Fascinating stuff!

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a hard time finding a book on the Maldive Islands, for the South Asian Challenge. Apart from tourist guides, my local library had basically only The Maldive Mystery. But that was also a great opportunity to finally read something by Heyerdahl.

I know he is sometimes criticized, and I understand, as I felt frustrated sometimes by repetitions in this book, and mostly because at the end of the book, I never got the real final answer that seemed to be originally promised.

Nevertheless, I found The Maldive Mystery very interesting: invited by...

to read my full review, please go to:
http://wordsandpeace.com/2012/05/04/2...

[Raluca Sandu · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars but closer to 5 :-)

This is one of the most interesting books I have read in my life.

After reading it, I found out so many things about the Maldives and the Maldives' history! If you're passionate about these islands, and want to find out more about their history, I highly recommend this book. It was not easy to get through with its reading (I had the feeling I read 1000 pages, not 330), and I took ages to finish it, but I loved it.

And I found out that one of the shells I brought from there is actually called a cowry and used to be Maldives' currency until not that long ago :-) :-) :-)

[Dhonbefushi · Rating 2 out of 5]

it is about maldives

[Scott Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful mix of archaeology and adventure. I found it difficult to put down.

[Carolyn Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars - marked down because of the weird cover. But what was inside was fascinating. I've read a Kon Tiki and the Ra and Aku Aku, but didn't know this book was out there until I came upon it by chance at a thrift store. Now I'll hunt for more on his expeditions.

[Hudhoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent

[Sarah Yarbrough · Rating 5 out of 5]

I own and LOVE all the Thor Heyerdahl BOOKS they are true adventures. It is archeology brought to life. I recommend all of his books.