Travelling in East Timor - My first day in Pante Massakar, Oucussé
Travelling in East Timor- My first day at Pante Massakar, Oucussé
In this post, we will see some photos of my visit to Lifau, the first place the Portuguese arrived in Timor.
In my recent travel to East Timor I've stayed for 15 days in Oecuss, that can be written in the dialect of Tetum, Oekusi-Ambenu, Oecussi, Ocussi, Oekussi, Oekusi, Okusi, Oé-Cusse, a district of East Timor an exclave (not enclave) inside in the western part of the island of Timor in the Indonesian part of West Timor, which is a part of the province of Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia.
I was in touch and talking with people of local communities in the capital of the district, Pante Macassar, that was also called, Vila Taveiro in colonialist Portuguese Timor as they told me.
The Indonesian invasion of Timor started in Oecússéa week before, it was on November 29, 1975, that Pante Macassar was invaded by the fifth column of the Indonesian army.
This was a test before Suharto finished the last gun deals with two known genocide war criminals, Ford and Kissinger.
I'll get back to it when I make a post about the astonishing placed Balibo (there is a very good movie called Balibo about this story ) where several Australian journalists were murdered in cold blood by the Indonesian Army.
This invasion sponsored by American politicians, generating deaths of nearly a quarter of the Timorese population from 1975 to 1981.
After crossing the Border of Wini from Indonesia I arrive at the city of Pante Massakar Oucussé, and we decided to visit a place called Lifau.
"Lifau was the first European settlement on the island of Timor. Dominican brothers carried on missionary work on the north coast of Timor after 1556. In 1641 they arrived at Lifau and baptized the royal family of Ambeno. A permanent Portuguese settlement arose in the 1650s, as many Portuguese moved from their old colonial seat Larantuka on Flores to Timor in response to the Dutch colonial settlement in Kupang in westernmost Timor (1653). Lifau remained the center for Portuguese colonial activities for more than a century and was headed by a governor after 1702. In 1769 the colonial capital was moved to Dili due to military aggression from the Eurasian Topasses who opposed the politics of the governor. After this date, the place lost its significance, since the Topasses preferred to keep their residence in Pante Macassar further to the east." - Source: WikiAlmost arriving to Lifau I see a curious garden in one of the near houses that looked like a nice welcome to this place.
And we arrive at the entrance of Lifau the place where you can find the Lifau Monument (in Tetum: Monumentu Lifau) located in the city of Lifau, Pante Macassar, in the municipality of Oecusse, East-Timor.
The construction is a Statue in Bronze with the shape of a Portuguese caravel (thirteen meters long, 4.3 meters high and 3.2 meters wide, weighing 8 tons), and was made to celebrate five hundred years of the arrival of the Portuguese colonialists on the Island of Timor.
A first perspective of the Lifau Monument.
We can see the pictures of Portuguese sailors, always arriving with their Priests, The Holy Inqusition and God to justify their invasions.
The missionaries and the Catholic religion is still predominant and dominant in East Timor.
The timorese Royalty and their warriors.
Other views of the Monument.
The monuments of Discoveries that the portuguese placed all over the world.
The writings of the statue.
Some of the original cannons to defend the place.
A photo in the back of people climbing the Mountain.
A beautiful red rice landscape
Later getting ou of Lifau I got this beautiful sunset photo of Wetar Island.
And the Restaurante Moxito for my first Portuguese expresso in Ou-coussé.
Drinking my expresso at the center of Ponte Masskar from where i tokk the next photos.
Without zoom.
Zooming.
In my next posts I will talk about Faot Sub (pronounced Fat'chuba) an ancient prison run by the Portuguese during colonial ocupation in a mountain behind Pante Massakar with beautiful views of the this village.
I found a fantastic group of kids that guided me till there.
Making a translation for the Portuguese Language community to publish soon.