1: Timor and historical research (original) (raw)
Timor and historical research Timor is situated to the northwest of [Zhong-] Jia Luo. Its mountains do not grow any other trees but sandalwood that is most abundant. It is traded for silver, iron, cups [of porcelain], cloth from Western countries and coloured taffetas. There are altogether twelve localities which are called ports. There is a local chieftain. The soil is suitable for the raising of grain. The climate is irregular, hot in the day, cool at night. The habits of the natives are obscene. Men and women cut their hair and wear short cotton skirts. They tie them around with cloth from Champa. Market prices of spirits and meats are reasonable. The women are shameless. The tribal chiefs are fond of food, wine and sex, and when sleeping they do not cover themselves so that those who get infected [by diseases] die for the most part. If one has been careless while among the natives, the disease will break out with attacks of high fever once the ship has returned to China. 1 This is how a Chinese geographer presented the distant Southeast Asian island circa 1350, and it is one of the earliest known descriptions. About 450 years later, in 1801, the French explorer Péron 2 described the same land in somewhat more elaborate language: 3 Barely two days had passed since we left the dry coasts of New Holland, and we could already behold the lofty mountains of Timor. Three sets of haughty rocks, running parallel to the length of the island, con-1 Dao yi Zhi lue (circa1350), quoted in Ptak 1983:37. 2 Not to be confused with Jean-Baptiste Pelon, a Frenchman in Dutch service who wrote a valuable study of Timor in 1778, Description de Timor occidental et des îles sous domination hollandaise (1771-1778); see Pelon 2002. 3 Please note that all translations of non-English sources are mine, unless otherwise indicated.
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Lords of the land, lords of the sea; Conflict and adaptation in early colonial Timor, 1600-1800
2012
Timor and historical research Timor is situated to the northwest of [Zhong-] Jia Luo. Its mountains do not grow any other trees but sandalwood that is most abundant. It is traded for silver, iron, cups [of porcelain], cloth from Western countries and coloured taffetas. There are altogether twelve localities which are called ports. There is a local chieftain. The soil is suitable for the raising of grain. The climate is irregular, hot in the day, cool at night. The habits of the natives are obscene. Men and women cut their hair and wear short cotton skirts. They tie them around with cloth from Champa. Market prices of spirits and meats are reasonable. The women are shameless. The tribal chiefs are fond of food, wine and sex, and when sleeping they do not cover themselves so that those who get infected [by diseases] die for the most part. If one has been careless while among the natives, the disease will break out with attacks of high fever once the ship has returned to China. 1 This is how a Chinese geographer presented the distant Southeast Asian island circa 1350, and it is one of the earliest known descriptions. About 450 years later, in 1801, the French explorer Péron 2 described the same land in somewhat more elaborate language: 3 Barely two days had passed since we left the dry coasts of New Holland, and we could already behold the lofty mountains of Timor. Three sets of haughty rocks, running parallel to the length of the island, con-1 Dao yi Zhi lue (circa1350), quoted in Ptak 1983:37. 2 Not to be confused with Jean-Baptiste Pelon, a Frenchman in Dutch service who wrote a valuable study of Timor in 1778, Description de Timor occidental et des îles sous domination hollandaise (1771-1778); see Pelon 2002. 3 Please note that all translations of non-English sources are mine, unless otherwise indicated. 4 Péron, 1807:141-2. Landu is in fact no island, but is part of Rote. In most of the quotations in this work I have rendered geographical and personal names in their modern form, in instances when there is no ambiguity about it.
Lands Over Seas: Property Rights in the Early Modern Portuguese Empire, 2014
The Portuguese colonial history of Timor started in the initial years of the 18th century, after the successful settlement of a Captain General on the island. It was a troubled process due to the fierce resistance exerted by local powers, the hostility of the local “Black Portuguese” and the Dutch rivalry regarding the control of the island and its resources. Despite the important role played by Chinese communities in the historical processes involving the formation of colonial Timor, it remains an issue barely studied so far. It is mainly due to their discreet presence, which corresponds to a widespread silence on historical sources. This discretion springs from the fact that those were fundamentally mercantile communities that traditionally ensured the supply and selling of goods – namely the export of sandal – in connection with local networks that often escaped the reach of the Portuguese authorities. This paper intends to highlight some relevant aspects of the evolution of this shadowy presence and to provide a few research hints about the changes that occurred throughout the 18-19th century period that fundamentally materialised in the formation of resident communities in the main centres of colonial power
Looking for Adê: A contribution to Timorese historiography
Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia, 2008
In the centuries-old and turbulent history of Portuguese colonialism in East Timor, place names such as Lifao, Mena, Manatuto, Kupang and Dili (after 1769) are redolent of the early record of contact and trading relationships that fuelled the colonial desire for sandalwood, slaves and Christian souls in equal measure. Another name of similar antiquity and significance, also widely reported in the collective Portuguese archive, is the trading entrepôt of Adê (sometimes written as Adem). However, whereas most of these former ports of Portuguese engagement have retained their emplaced identity both within the historical record and as sites of contemporary settlement, the significance of Adê has faded with time. It rarely features in the contemporary Portuguese literature, and much uncertainty now surrounds its physical location beyond a general idea that it lay somewhere along the north coast of the island east of the current capital of Dili. In this brief communication I attempt to sh...
Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia
The East Timorese kingdom Luca is described as the hegemon of the eastern parts of Timor in some nineteenth-century works. This is gainsaid by other data, which point to the existence of a multitude of petty kingdoms. This article scrutinizes Luca's claim to power from a number of angles, utilizing European records and contemporary anthropological fieldwork. First, we analyse the claims of the centre as reflected in colonial and indigenous narratives. Second, we investigate narratives from the 'periphery' , that is, the minor adjacent domains of Vessoro and Babulo. Third, we offer a comprehensive discussion of Luca's role from a wider geographical perspective. In this way we produce a 'general account' that situates the symbolic and historical significance of Luca within the Timorese understanding of time, ritual, and power. * We acknowledge all of those people within Timor Leste and elsewhere who so generously enabled, and contributed to, this research. In particular, we thank Balthasar Kehi for his translation of the ritual verse recounted in Tetum by the lia nain of Luca, David Amaral. Palmer acknowledges the Australian Research Council, which provided the necessary funds to carry out her long-term field research, and Hägerdal furthermore acknowledges the Concurrences research network at Linnaeus University. Downloaded from Brill.com05/29/2020 06:39:10AM via free access barnes, hägerdal and palmer Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land-en Volkenkunde 173 (2017) 325-355 Keywords East Timor -Luca -historiography -oral tradition Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land-en Volkenkunde 173 (2017) 325-355 map 1
Published by the Timor Information Service in early 1976 this booklet was used by the Diplomatic Front at the United Nations in its early work to establish the right of Timor-Leste to self-determination.
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