The tiny island of Hulhudheli lies in the South Nilandhoo Atoll. Here, lives the country's only group of hereditary silversmiths. Asia's smallest and least-known nation, the Republic of Maldives, lies scattered from north to south across a 750-kilometre sweep of the Indian Ocean 500 kilometres south-west of Sri Lanka. More than 1000 islands, together with innumerable banks and reefs, are grouped in a chain of nineteen atolls which extends from a point due west of Colombo to just south of the equator.

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Keywords: 1980, andrew, asia, asian, atoll, atolls, forbes, handicraft, handicrafts, hulhudheli, island, islands, maldives, maldivian, nilande, nilandhoo, nilandu, silver, silversmith, silversmithing, tool, tourism, vise