Maldives: Goddess Nidhi-Lakshmi as represented on a 9th century coral block

Buddhism in the Maldives was the predominant religion at least until the 12th century CE. It is not clear how Buddhism was introduced into the islands although there are a number of competing theories. The predominant view is that it was introduced with the expansion of the Sinhalese people from neighboring Sri Lanka who are primarily Buddhist. In February 2012, a group of Islamic extremists forced their way into the National Museum in Male and attacked the museum's collection of pre-Islamic sculptures, destroying or severely damaging nearly the entire collection about thirty Hindu and Buddhist sculptures dating from the 6th to 12th centuries. Museum staff indicated that as the sculptures were made from very brittle coral or limestone it would be impossible to repair most of them, and only two or three pieces were in a repairable condition.