Everything about Timor totally explained
Timor is an
island at the south end of the
Malay Archipelago, north of the
Timor Sea. It is divided between the independent state of
East Timor, and
West Timor, belonging to the
Indonesian province of
East Nusa Tenggara.
The island's surface is 11,883 square miles (30,777
km²). The name is a variant of
timur,
Malay for “east”; it's so called because it's at the east end of a chain of islands.
Language, ethnic groups, and religion
Similar to nearby islands, most Timorese are
Melanesian and anthropologists identify eleven distinct ethno-linguistic groups in Timor. The largest are the
Atoni of western Timor, and the
Tetum of central and eastern Timor. Most Timor indigenous Timorese languages belong to the
Austronesian group of languages spoken through the Indonesian archipelago. The non-Austronesian languages are related to languages spoken in the
Halmahera (in
Maluku) and
Western New Guinea.
The official languages of East Timor are
Tetum and
Portuguese, while in West Timor it's
Indonesian. Indonesian is also widely spoken and understood in East Timor.
Christianity is the dominant religion throughout the island of Timor, at about 90% of the population.
Roman Catholics are the majority; they outnumber
Protestants in West Timor by about a 1.5:1 ratio, while in East Timor, Catholics are the vast majority of the population.
Muslims and animists are most of the remainder, at about 5% each.
Geography
To the south and southeast of Timor is
Oceania. To its northwest is the island of
Sulawesi, and to its west, the island of
Sumba. To the west-northwest of Timor are the islands of
Flores and
Alor, and to its northeast are the
Barat Daya Islands, including
Wetar.
Timor has older geology and lacks the volcanic nature of the
Lesser Sunda Islands. The orientation of the main axis of the island also differs from its neighbors. These features have been explained as the result of being on the northern edge of the
Indo-Australian Plate as it pushes into the
South East Asia.
Flora and fauna
Timor, together with the
Lesser Sunda Islands to the northwest and the smaller islands to the northeast, is covered by
tropical dry broadleaf forests. Many trees are
deciduous or partly deciduous, dropping their leaves during the dry season. Timor, the Barat Daya Islands, and the smaller islands to the northeast of Timor constitute the
Timor and Wetar deciduous forests ecoregion.
During the
Pleistocene epoch, Timor was the abode of extinct
giant monitor lizards similar to the
Komodo dragon. Like
Flores,
Sumba and
Sulawesi, Timor was also once a habitat of extinct
dwarf stegodonts, relatives of
elephants.
History
As the nearest island with a European settlement at the time, Timor was the destination of
William Bligh and seamen loyal to him following the infamous
mutiny on the Bounty in 1789. It was also where survivors of the wrecked
HMS Pandora, sent to arrest the
Bounty mutineers, landed in 1791 after that ship sank in the
Great Barrier Reef.
The island has been politically divided in two parts for centuries:
West Timor, which was known as Dutch Timor from the 1800s until 1949 when it became Indonesian Timor, a part of the nation of
Indonesia which was formed from the old
Netherlands East Indies; and
East Timor which was known as
Portuguese Timor, a Portuguese colony until 1975. It includes the
enclave of
Oecussi-Ambeno in West Timor. The
Netherlands and
Portugal didn't formally resolve the matter of the boundary until 1912.
Japanese forces occupied the whole island from 1942 to 1945. They were resisted in a
guerrilla campaign led initially by
Australian
commandos. (See
Battle of Timor.)
Following the withdrawal of the Portuguese, internal unrest, and an
Indonesian invasion in 1975, East Timor was annexed by Indonesia and became known as
Timor Timur or 'Tim-Tim' for short. It was regarded by Indonesia as the country's 27
th province, but this was never recognised by the
United Nations or
Portugal. The people of East Timor resisted Indonesian forces in a prolonged guerilla campaign. (See:
Indonesian occupation of East Timor).
Following a referendum held in 1999, under a
UN sponsored agreement between
Indonesia and
Portugal, in which its people rejected the offer of autonomy within Indonesia, East Timor achieved independence in 2002 and is now officially known as
Timor-Leste. A group of people on the Indonesian side of Timor have been reported active since 2001 trying to establish a
Great Timor State.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Timor'.
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