Dhon Hiyala and Ali Fulhu - Maldives legendary love story -- Hilath's Home Page

Legendary Local Love Story -- Revisited

By Noora Ali

(This article appeared in The Evening Weekly on 28 Sept 2003)

HULHUDHELI, Dhaalu Atoll -- The legendary love story of 'Dhon Hiyala and Ali Fulhu' is not a new story to Maldivians. The story of Dhon Hiyala the 'Fai'mini' (a unique and unusual beauty and personality) and Ali Fulhu the jewellery maker from the island of Hulhudheli is one deserving such legendary status, it's a love story which is believed to have happened in 1442 and is like no other we have heard before.

They story is about Dhon Hiyala a 'Fai'mini' from the island of Buruni who was brought up inside the protected interior of a palace concealed from people and grew up without ever seeing the sky or the outside world. The story goes on to reveal how Dhon Hiyala and Ali Fulhu were born at the same time in different islands and how he dreams of Dhon Hiyala and makes a journey in a boat made of black coral and through very interesting circumstances gets to see Dhon Hiyala in person. From there they both fall in love and the story carries on with unusual twists and turns and finally comes to the confrontation which forces Dhon Hiyala to dramatically commit suicide with Ali Fulhu following in her footsteps shortly.

The island of Hulhudheli is where Ali Fulhu is said to originate from; there are roads and other sights which confirm that a part of the story is based upon this island. However there seems to be no one who could confirm the entire truth of the story and when you walk around and talk to the people of Hulhudheli everyone seems to agree that the story is based upon actual events but they do not believe that the entire story is true.
Finally I found the one person in Hulhudheli who is said to be most knowledgeable in relation to the story; he is the current magistrate and guarantees an interesting insight into the story.

"Yes, we have places in this island which the story talks about like the entrance to the island where Ali Fulhu spent time catching bait fish, this place is mentioned in the book, it is called Maanu entrance. Then there is the road which we still refer to as 'Foo Elhi - Magu' where Hawwa Fulhu an admirer of Ali Fulhu sat performing 'fanditha' (charms). Also there is a spot in the island where according to people Ali Fulhu stationed himself with his jewellery making equipment. As you can see we are still an island full of jewellery makers," he adds smiling.

The island of Hulhudheli is still famous through out the country for their exceptionally talented jewelers. The magistrate takes his time and talks about jewellery making for a while and gets back to the story of 'Dhon Hiyala and Ali Fulhu.'

"There is also a beach area in this island where the black coral is said to have washed onto shore with which the boat of Ali Fulhu was constructed. The most important piece of evidence in relation to this story is the tomb stone of Ali Fulhu's father with his name engraved on it; the stone has been recently damaged and broken, though remnants of the grave could still be seen here in the island," says the magistrate.

'Dhon Hiyala and Ali Fulhu' is one local love story which has been read and heard through generations and has been conjuring up a healthy amount of curiosity and speculation as to it being reality or fantasy.

It is said that in the island of Buruni the area where Dhon Hiyala (aka Buruni Kamana) lived is marked and the places mentioned in the story by the likes of Komas, Kunaha, and Heena grounds still exist in the island. Also tombs believed to be of these two lovers exist in the island of Kandoodhoo, an island not too far away from where they committed suicide near the uninhabited island of Kaalhufushi.

It is hard to do justice to the story of 'Dhon Hiyala and Ali Fulhu' without reading it; the story has to be enjoyed with its detailed depiction of Maldivian island life, spiced up and coloured with a heady mixture of poignant and romantic twists and also there is the much talked about fantasy woven into the fabric of reality with a smooth and mysterious evenness to it.

Dhon Hiyala: A "sequel"

(A short story by K.J. for "Joos Petty" magazine, www.msa-uk.org)

My name is Dhon hiyala. Yes, the Dhonhiyala in the story Dhonhiyala aai Alifulhu. You might be surprised to hear from me like this. After all I am supposed to be dead, aren’t I? Well, I am not. And Alifulhu survived, too. How can you expect us to die so easily with all the magic powers that we have? What I am trying to tell you is that the ending of the story isn’t quite true and it was just an illusion I created. Don’t tell me that you don’t believe that I can make myself invisible or appear as someone else. It may not be written in the story but surely you must have read about me walking across the sea! So anything is possible, you see!

Anyway, we escaped. Hand in hand we ran across the seas and ended up in some faraway island in the North. Through all the suffering and the struggle my looks had changed but still I remained a beautiful woman, though not as beautiful as I had been. My skin had grown coarse and sun burnt. My eyes remained slightly red after all the crying I did (very secretly) and I had grown so skinny that my wrists remained no more giyulhu athukuris. In other words, I was more a normal woman than a faiymini and I was glad about it. Alifulhu hadn’t changed much, but he seemed to have grown stronger and more handsome.

Then came the happiest days of my life. Alifulhu was the best husband any woman can ever have, so loving and caring. We both worked hard together, him collecting toddy and I making sugar out of it. It was difficult at first as we didn’t own anything but our life grew more prosperous with each coming day. Likewise our love for each other also grew…until our first child was born.

It was eighteen months after we started living there and it was then I began to notice the changes in Alifulhu. I noticed that he was not spending time at home as much as he used to. On many nights he’d go out (to Mudhimbe’s House, he says) and come back late at night. Of course, he loved our daughter Amina. Whenever he was home, he would be with her and I never complained about anything.

An year passed. Nothing changed. Along came our second child, then the third, fourth and fifth followed by the sixth. This was within six years. I hardly saw Alifulhu then. Every evening he’d come from work, take a bath, splash himself with atharu and go out. I knew what he was up to. I’ve heard all sorts of rumors about him and other women. But whenever I confronted him he would threaten to divorce me and leave the kids. He would remind me that I didn’t have the good looks I had before and would call me an old woman. So much for love! How I wished I could use my magic powers, but I had grown so out of practice.

One cold night, six months after our youngest child was born, Alifulhu suddenly woke up from his sleep and started to get dressed to go out.

‘Whussup?’ I asked.

‘I’ve had this funny dream,’ he said. ‘An old man dressed in all white came to me in my dream and told me about this faiymini girl. I’m going in search of her.’ He rushed out of the house and that was the last I saw of him.

Four years passed and there was no news of him. I finally married Hussein Fulhu who had been helping me the past years and we lived happily ever after.

If you believed this story, you must be out of your head but I hope you enjoyed reading it anyway.

Dhon Hiyala and Ali Fulhu: a true love story?

By Mohamed Shathir, special historical correspondent of Haveeru Daily

MALE, June 21, 2003 -- The story of Dhon hiyala and Ali Fulhu is Maldives’ equivalent of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but the legend of their tragic love is shrouded in mystery, and many Maldivians still ask whether it was just another folk story, or whether it was a true story. The answer, with regard to the most recent available research is that, though the love story may have taken place, it may not be as melodramatic as the tale that is being told by our forefathers.

In short, at least certain elements of the story seem to be true. The islands, to which the characters in the tale are ascribed, still exist. Dhon hiyala’s father is from Shaviyani atoll Maroshi island, while her mother is from Baa atoll Dhonfan island. Her parents lived in Thaa atoll Buruni island, and Dhon hiyala was born there, too.

Even today, the places in Buruni island where much of the story takes place, are marked as historical places: the “Kamana beach,” and the fields of “Koamas,” “Heena,” and “Kunahaa.”

“Dhon hiyala and Ali Fulhu” have been made into a successful feature film, based on the book of the same name by Maldivian linguist Abdulla Sodiq.

DOOMED LOVE

Dhon hiyala (literally meaning “Fair Woman”) is described as a “Faiymini” girl (perhaps a word borrowed from India related to “padmini” which means “extremely beautiful”). She was the “perfect beauty” rarely born and hence prone to the “evil eye” and had to be protected from outsiders, leading to her mother Dhon Aisa and father Malima Moosa bringing her up in an underground cellar in their home.

However, their “secret” is discovered when Ali Fulhu (the Romeo in this story), who is in Dhaalu atoll Hulhudheli island, sees her in a dream. It was said that the “constellations conspired to bring Dhon hiyala and Ali Fulhu together” because “they were born at the same time.” Ali Fulhu then constructs a dhoni and embarks on a journey to Buruni island in search of Dhon hiyala.

After arriving in Buruni, Ali Fulhu constructs a house and sets up work. He secretly meets Dhon hiyala, they fall deeply in love, their love so strong that they are ready to die for each other. They secretly get married and start living together, but still only Ali Fulhu, Dhon hiyala’s parents, and the “Foolhuma” who delivered Dhon hiyala know of Dhon hiyala’s existence.

But Ali Fulhu is not the only one to dream of Dhon hiyala. Another Ali, “Fageeru Ali” from Shaviyani atoll Lhaimagu island, also dreams of her and comes to Buruni pretending to be a blind man to see the proof of existence of this perfectly beautiful woman. However, after he meets Dhon hiyala, his fake blindness is exposed, but he escapes from Buruni and comes to Male and informs the King that a perfect beauty has been born in Buruni. Fageeru Ali, the informant, is then taken into the King’s grace.

The King journeys to Buruni, gives Ali Fulhu over to the mob, and forcibly marries Dhon hiyala. In pronouncing the marriage of Dhon hiyala to the King, the magistrate in Buruni pronounces that “another man’s wife, on no legal grounds, is made the wife of the King” but the King does not mind because Dhon hiyala becomes his.

The King forcibly brings Dhon hiyala to Male. However, Ali Fulhu escapes from the mob, journeys to Male, and Dhon hiyala escapes from the palace on a Friday when the King is away at the mosque to attend the Friday prayers, and Dhon hiyala secretly journeys together with Ali Fulhu back to Buruni.

However, they find no escape when the King’s armada embarks on a high seas chase, and when Ali Fulhu is forced to land on a sandbar in the middle of the ocean in search of water for Dhon hiyala who is dying of thirst, the King overtakes them, and realizing that there is no hope for their love together in this world, the star-crossed lovers decide to end their lives, and jump onto a “maavaru” floating in the sea, where their bodies are cut into pieces. It is said that Dhon hiyala’s decapitated head and Ali Fulhu’s severed leg were washed ashore on Kaalhufushi island.

To date, a grave, where Dhon hiyala and Ali Fulhu are said to be buried, is marked in Thaa atoll Kandoodhoo island. It is said that Dhon hiyala and Ali Fulhu met their deaths in 1442 AD, about half a century before Columbus discovered the Americas.

Perhaps for this reason, tourists arriving in Maldives have expressed interest in visiting the islands on which the Dhon hiyala and Ali Fulhu drama took place: Buruni, Maroshi, Dhonfan, Kandoodhoo, Hulhudheli, and Lhaimagu. Hence, the story of Dhon hiyala and Ali Fulhu has potential to market “cultural tourism” in Maldives, according to tourism experts.

Historians are more in favor of describing the story of Dhon hiyala and Ali Fulhu as a legend or part of the folklore of Maldives. Hence, they claim that only the essentials of the story are true while much of the melodrama and tragedy associated with the doomed couple were “spices” added by later generations to make the story more melodramatic. But they say that there is no harm in one enjoying such a story, as such folklores help to “revive interest in Maldives’ history, traditions and culture.”

(This article appeared in Haveeru Daily on 21 June 2003)