East Timor: Discover the latest sporting nation

Mount Ramelau

East Timor – probably not the first place you’d think of for a diving or cycling holiday, right? Yes, the infrastructure is patchy and the road to independence has had difficult passages, but don’t let that put you off exploring this amazing place. It’s challenging, but worth it. We spoke with advisers to the President of Timor-Leste to get the latest sporting events scheduled for East Timor, including the Tour de Timor which kicks off today. Here’s what they had to say:

Timor-Leste (East Timor), the newest nation in Asia, is characterised by a raw and affectionate energy. Nobel Peace Laureate and President of Timor-Leste, José Ramos-Horta says in his welcome to the country: ‘It is a land of untouched natural beauty, with spiritual mountain ranges that peak at 10,000 feet; protected primary forests that are reminiscent of a land before time; abundant coral reefs that shelter a wealth of marine mammals; and warm-hearted and hospitable locals whose traditions go back thousands of years old, and who offer every visitor a smile and cup of traditional coffee.’

Timor Leste In Asia Dive Expo,2011

22-May-2011 20:14

To showcase Timor-Leste as a world diving destination, members of tour operators represented the country at Asia Dive Expo (ADEX) Event in Singapore this year.  These members were Island Explorer Holidays, Air Timor and Dive Timor-Lorosae. Their presence was to assist Timor-Leste National Tourism at the event. The three day event from 22nd – 24th April was an opportunity for Timor-Leste to promote its pristine water and abundant marine resources in order to attract international divers to experience a life time diving opportunity in Timor-Leste.

From the top of Cristo rei.

Cristo Rei

Timor-Leste is located at the end of the Indonesian archipelago, north of Darwin, Australia and at the base of the Coral Triangle, which hosts the highest diversity of coral and reef fish species on earth.

 Timor-Leste offers a rich cultural heritage spun from tens of thousands of years of human habitation, the Portuguese and Indonesian colonial periods, and from the depths of a society which has cultural traditions as the fabric of that bonds society together.

 Timor-Leste is well positioned for Community-based Ecotourism, which has been written into the nation’s tourism strategic plan. The Nino Konis National Park (situated in the eastern part of the country) is a well protected area and considered as some of the last surviving zones of tropical lowland rainforest in the world with rich coastal environment. The national park accommodates bird-watching, diving, trekking and pre-historic archeological sites.

Atauro Island and Jaco Island in Tutuala attract divers, snorkelers and green tourism enthusiasts. Both destinations provide eco-lodge facilities with some support from local NGOs in the region. A must-see attraction is the local divers and fishermen in Atauro, who fish using only traditionally made goggles and spear guns. Atauro is also well known for its distinctive

East Timor People

Despite the fact that Timor-Leste is a small country, with an area of 15.000 km² and a population of 924.000, its ethnic and cultural richness is easily stated by the presence of several social groups, religious beliefs and spoken languages.

People

Traditional celebrations. Photo: Alda Pereira

There are more than 20 main languages in the country. Although Tétum is only spoken on a daily basis by a quarter of its population, it is, along with Portuguese, the official language of Timor-Leste. Tétum Terik – used in the past to facilitate communication in trading relations – evolved to the present Tétum Praça, by means of assimilation of Portuguese and Malay words. 

The Textiles of Timor-Leste

by Maria José Sacchetti, Architect, Faculty of Architecture, Technical University of Lisbon.

Tais

Tais mane in previously spun cotton, dyed with chemical pigments, in warp-faced ikat (Bobonaru).
The long and narrow island of Timor with - according to a Maubere legend - a shape similar to a crocodile, is located in the Indonesian archipelago, less than 500 kilometres from Australia. The island is divided in two distinct parts: the Western part, under Indonesian domain and where evidence of Dutch colonisation can still be found, and the Eastern side, today independent and predominantly influenced by the Portuguese. Traditions rarely remain static in this island; new ideas and techniques, some from distant islands, were absorbed and reinterpreted over the centuries, creating different solutions for new social and economic situations. Ethnographica

lly, the Timorese can be divided in two big groups: the Atoni from Melanesia and the Tetum from Southern Belu, thought to be originally from Malaca. In the specific case of Timor-Leste,