Gaddhoo (Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll)

Maldives Island
ImageExists=No
island

island=Gaddhoo
atoll=Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll
location=
population=2688
length=875 m
width=580 m
male-distance=437 km
island_chief=Mr. Mohamed Shaheedh
phone= [phone]
fax= [phone]

Gaddhoo or Gadhdhoo or Gaddu (Dhivehi: ގައްދޫ) is one of the inhabited islands of Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll.

Gaddu Kunaa

The local women of Gaddu Island weave beautiful mats with patterns in three colors, off-white, yellow and black. These mats are woven using the strands of the bark of Hybiscus tiliaceus (the same tree which is used for making tapa cloth in Polynesia and a kind of local grass called 'hau', which may be dyed in yellow or black. There are two qualities, thinner mats woven with simple knot, or thicker, good-quality mats woven bu means of more complex knots.

Traditionally the best Gaddu mats were used by the Maldive Royal House in Malé. Part of the annual tribute from the Huvadu Atoll Chief to the royal court, used to be in the form of Gaddu mats.

Nils-Finn Munch Petersen and Annegrethe Ottovar, two Danish anthropologists visited this island in the 1970s and made extensive resarch about its mat production and the patterns used on them.

The production of these mats has suffered much from the reckless activity of intermediaries. While a great price is fetched from the tourists, the women who wove them in Gaddu Island received just a small fraction of the amount. Consequently, production and quality declined during the 1980s and have not recovered since. Young girls refused to go through the difficult and long period of apprenticeship because of the low revenue that could be expected in the future.

References

* Ottovar, Annagrethe & Munch Petersen, Nils Finn. "Maldiverne; Et Øsamfund I Det Indiske Ocean". Kunstindustriemuseet. Copenhagen 1980.