History The western end of Timor is the centre of government and commerce for the region that is now Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara Province. It has been for more than two hundred years.

The island contains two separate countries. East Timor and Indonesia. East Timor, once controlled by Indonesia, regained it’s independence in 1999. There is a small enclave of East Timor called Oecussi located within Indonesian territory.

The largest city located on the western end of Timor is Kupang, It is also the capital of East Nusa Tenggara Province. The Indonesian government has ruled from here since Independence from the Dutch. Note that despite what western journalists call it, there is no such place as ‘West Timor’.

Geography Timor is about 100 km wide and 500 km long, and has a diverse geography. There is a plain near and around Kupang Bay where wet rice is grown. Kupang city itself is dry, rocky and a little dusty.  From the plain the land becomes hilly and mountainous. There is only one road across the length of the island called Jalan Tim -Tim, East Timor Road.

In the rugged limestone mountains there is much low savannah bushland interspersed with lush tropical rain forest. Mount Mutis is the highest peak at 2470 metres high.

The surrounding seas offer the people of Timor much. They provide a rich supply of food.  Inter-island transport via the sea has been going on for centuries in ships large and small.

The western end of Timor is home to four major ethnic groups. Each group has it’s own language and style of dress. These groups are the Atoni-Meto, Tetum, Helong and the Bunak.

Timor is an interesting place to visit. Go & see it.

Questions / Activities

1. Teach yourself the song Potong Bebek Angsa, sing it in rounds and have class singing competitions. Translate the song into English, (find some of the words in the kosa kata). 2. Draw the history time line into your book. For each date draw a picture to represent the event. 3. Search the recent papers for information about what has been happening lately in East or Western Timor. Cut out the article/s, and stick them in your book. Comment on them. 4. Choose one of the dates on the history time line and write about it in further detail. 5. Invite a Timorese person to your school to talk about Timor, or perhaps their own life. Find out why they are now living in your area. Ask them to teach you a few words of their language [Remember that it is very different to Indonesian]. Get them to teach you another Timorese song. 6. On the net find sites that promote Timor as a tourist destination. How many hotels can you find? List URLs and any prices. What key words did you use on your search? 7. How can you get to the western end of Timor. Use travel guides, pamphlets from your travel agents and net sites [key words: garuda, merpati, pelni] for Indonesian airlines. How much will it cost? 8. Every province of Indonesia has its own traditional weapons. Often these are said to contain magical powers. They may protect their owner or give him supernatural power or strength. They are treasured and handed down through the generations. 9. Copy the ones for NTT Province into your notebook.  Write a tale about this weapon and what its supernatural powers did for its owner. 10. Research a date off the time line and give a talk to the class about what you have found out. 11.  Ask your librarian for the papers and magazines from 1999 and write up a time line of events that surrounded the independence of East Timor. 12. Locate a map of East Timor and copy it into your book. Highlight all the places you have read about from the 1999 news articles. 13. Plan a school trip to West Timor. If you are a teacher you may wish to e-mail us about this. We have run at least 10 school trips there.