The east end of Timor and the island of Atauro: the Mambai country of the central mountains, the Tetun-Terik south coast, the Bunak and Kemak west, the Makasae and Galoli east and the Fataluku far end (modern language names, recalled; their placing in 1200 is not known).
The oldest human traces are some 43,000 years old (Laili cave, en.wikipedia). The Chinese Zhu Fan Zhi of about 1225 names Timor for sandalwood (en.wikipedia), and excavated fortifications built between 1000 and 1300 show a country of hill-top settlements with tension over land and the trade (en.wikipedia, which gives no sites). Dili is a Portuguese capital of the eighteenth century (recalled), so nothing is known of the site in 1200.
Atauro is an island across the strait from Dili. No ruler can be named; a feud or war on 1 January 1200 is not attested, though the fortifications make raiding likely.
Who holds it
- Title
- Village, clan and hill-town chiefs (liurai in the later record)
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
The liurai are recorded as local chiefs the Portuguese governed through, from the sixteenth century; the page we read does not describe the system before Portuguese rule (en.wikipedia).
What it holds
- Hill villages and fortified hill-tops
- The south-coast plain and the Dili strait coast
How things stand that morning
No state attested. Fortified hill settlements and clan lords; sandalwood goes out.
Wealth
Sandalwood; no figures.
Military
None attested.
Threats
- Raiding between hill communities (inferred from the fortifications)
Places of note
- Atauro: Island across the strait from Dili (gazetteer district point).
- Dili: Modern capital (gazetteer point); no settlement is known in 1200.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Archaeology and a Chinese notice of about 1225; nothing dated for 1200.
On the map: Modern municipalities.
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia (en), History of East Timor (read in this pass): Laili cave 43,000 to 44,000 years, Jerimalai fish hook, Zhu Fan Zhi names Timor ('Ti-Wen' on the page) for sandalwood, Nagarakretagama 1365, Wehali with Tetum, Bunaq and Kemak aligned, fortifications built between 1000 and 1300
- Wikipedia (en), Zhu Fan Zhi (read in this pass): Zhao Rukuo, about 1225, Hirth and Rockhill 1911
- General knowledge of Old Javanese and Old Balinese epigraphy and the archaeology of Java, recalled and not re-read in this pass (Boechari, Poerbatjaraka, Soekmono, Bernet Kempers)
- OMNIA board notes for the place (a lead, not a source)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.