Pre-colonial Timor

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European colonialism has shaped Timorese history since 1515, a period when it was divided between the Dutch in the west of the island (now Indonesian West Timor) and the Portuguese in the east (now the independent state of East Timor
).

Early history

The island of

Jerimalai cave site, showing that these early settlers had high-level maritime skills at this time, and by implication the technology needed to make ocean crossings to reach Australia and other islands, as they were catching and consuming large numbers of big deep sea fish such as tuna.[2] These excavations also discovered one of the world's earliest recorded fish hooks, between 16,000 and 23,000 years old.[3]

Around 3000 BC, a second migration brought

Indochina.[4] Timorese origin myths tell of ancestors that sailed around the eastern end of Timor arriving on land in the south. Some stories recount Timorese ancestors journeying from the Malay Peninsula or the Minangkabau Highlands of Sumatra.[5]

The Timorese in their region

The later Timorese were not seafarers, rather they were land focused peoples who did not make contact with other islands and peoples by sea. Timor was part of a region of small islands with small populations of similarly land-focused peoples that now make up eastern Indonesia. Contact with the outside world was via networks of foreign seafaring traders from as far as China and India that served the archipelago. Outside products brought to the region included metal goods, rice, fine textiles, and coins exchanged for local spices, sandalwood, deer horn, bees' wax, and slaves.[5]

Indianised Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms (3rd century – 16th century)

Main articles: History of Indian influence on Southeast Asia, Greater India, Indosphere, and Indianisation
Historic Indosphere cultural influence zone of Greater India for transmission of elements of Indian elements such as the honorific titles, naming of people, naming of places, mottos of organisations and educational institutes as well as adoption of Hinduism, Buddhism, Indian architecture, martial arts, Indian music and dance, traditional Indian clothing, and Indian cuisine, a process which has also been aided by the ongoing historic expansion of Indian diaspora.[6]

Earlier Buddhist era (3rd century BCE – 7th century)

Indianised Javanese Hindu-Buddhist Srivijaya empire (7th – 12th century)

Main article:
Srivijaya empire

Oral traditions of people of the

Srivijaya empire) in ancient times.[7]

Relations with Indianised Javanese Hindu empire of Majapahit (12th – 16th century)

Majapahit empire's Nagarakretagama chronicles called Timor a tributary,[8] but as Portuguese chronologist Tomé Pires wrote in the sixteenth century, all islands east of Java were called "Timor".[9] Indonesian nationalist used the Majapahit chronicles to claim East Timor as part of Indonesia.[10]

Chiefdoms or polities
See also: Mandala

Early European explorers report that the island had a number of small chiefdoms or princedoms in the early sixteenth century. One of the most significant is the

Bunak and Kemak ethnic groups were aligned.[11]

The account of

Muslim kingdom of Makassar, but his power was checked by devastating invasions by the Portuguese in 1642 and 1665.[13]
Wehali was now brought inside the Portuguese sphere of power but appears to have had limited contact with its colonial suzerain.

Trade with China

Timor is mentioned in the thirteenth-century Chinese

History of Song of 1345. Writing towards 1350, Wang Dayuan refers to a Ku-li Ti-men, which is a corruption of Giri Timor, meaning island of Timor.[14] Giri from "mountain" in Sanskrit
, thus "mountainous island of Timor".

Trade with the Philippines
Main article:
Luções

Filipinos, known as Luções among Portuguese sailors, were recorded to have visited and settled in East Timor before Spanish colonization of the Philippines. The Magellan expedition recorded that when they anchored on the island, they witnessed Luções merchants who traded Philippine gold for East Timorese sandalwood.[15]

European colonisation and Christianisation (16th century onward)

Beginning in the early sixteenth century, European colonialists—the Dutch in the island's west, and Portuguese in the east—would divide the island, isolating the East Timorese from the histories of the surrounding archipelago.[8]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 962-593-076-0
    .
  2. ^ "Evidence of 42,000 year old deep sea fishing revealed : Archaeology News from Past Horizons". Archived from the original on 15 May 2013. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  3. PMID 22116883
    .
  4. ^ Timor Leste History Archived 9 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine, official website.
  5. ^
    ISBN 0-300-10518-5
    .
  6. OCLC 57054139
    .
  7. ^ H.J. Grijzen (1904), 'Mededeelingen omtrent Beloe of Midden-Timor', Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap 54, pp. 18–25.
  8. ^
    ISBN 0-300-10518-5
    .
  9. ^ Population Settlements in East Timor and Indonesia Archived 2 February 1999 at the Wayback Machine – University of Coimbra
  10. ^ History of Timor Archived 24 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine – Technical University Lisbon (PDF-Datei; 805 kB)
  11. ^ Precolonial East Timor.
  12. ^ L. de Santa Catharina (1866), História de S. Domingos, Quatra parte. Lisboa: Panorama, p. 300.
  13. ^ James J. Fox (1982), 'The great lord rests at the centre: The paradox of powerlessness in European-Timorese relations, Canberra Anthropology 5:2, p. 22.
  14. doi:10.1179/014703783788755502
    .
  15. ^ The Mediterranean Connection By William Henry Scott (Published in "Philippine Studies" ran by Ateneo de Manila University Press)
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