West Timor () is a region covering the western part of the island of Timor, except for the district of Oecussi-Ambeno (an East Timorese exclave). Administratively, West Timor is part of East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia. The capital as well as its main port is Kupang. During the colonial period, the area was named Dutch Timor and was a centre of Dutch loyalists during the Indonesian National Revolution (1945–1949). From 1949 to 1975 it was named Indonesian Timor.
The total area of West Timor is , excluding offshore islands. The highest peaks are Mount Mutis, above sea level, and Mount Lakaan, above sea level. The main languages of West Timor are Dawan, Marae and Tetun, as well as several other languages, such as Kemak, Bunak and Helong, are also used in Timor-Leste. The other three languages which are only used in the local area of the Austronesian language group from the Fabron branches are Ndao, Rote and Sabu (all spoken on smaller islands to the west of Timor but within East Nusa Tenggara). The most populous cities and towns are Kupang City with 474,801 inhabitants according to the official estimates for mid 2024, Atambua Town with 82,258 inhabitants, Kefamenanu Town with 50,249 inhabitants, Soe Town with 42,022 inhabitants, and Betun Town with 42,329 inhabitants.Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 28 February 2025, Provinsi Nusa Tenggara Timur Dalam Angka 2025 (Katalog-BPS 1102001.53)
History
Pre-colonial period
The population of Timor came to the island as part of the general settlement of the region. Anthropologists assume that the descendants of three waves of immigration live here, which also explains Timor's ethnic-cultural diversity. Australo-Papuans are thought to have reached Timor from the north and west around 40,000 to 20,000 BC, during the last Ice Age. The Atoin Meto, who dominate West Timor, are considered the descendants of this first wave of settlers, although their language is one of the Austronesian languages. The same applies to the Helong, who originally inhabited the region around Kupang and were displaced by the Atoin Meto to the far western tip of the island. Around 3000 BC, Melanesians came from the west with a second wave of immigration and brought the oval axe culture to Timor. The Bunak people in the borderland to Timor-Leste are among their descendants. The last peoples to migrate to Timor in prehistoric times were the Malay peoples. There are different indications as to whether the Malays reached Timor in one or two waves. The proto-Malays from southern China and northern Indochina, probably reached Timor in 2500 BC. They spread throughout the archipelago under pressure from the expansion of the East Asian peoples. Probably around 500 AD, Deutero-Malays (who emerged from Iron Age Austronesian peoples who came equipped with more advanced farming techniques and new knowledge of metals) became the dominant population throughout the archipelago and also reached Timor. The Tetum in eastern West Timor form the largest ethnic group in East Timor and are descendants of the Malay immigrants, as are the Kemak people living on the border.
Recent cultural contacts of West Timor's dominant population, the Atoin Meto, are due to the interest of various Asian (India and China) and European (Portugal and the Netherlands) traders in the island's formerly very rich sandalwood resources. This sandalwood trade with Southeast Asia, which took place over centuries, did not leave Timorese cultures unscathed. All buyers of Timorese sandalwood have left their mark from a cultural point of view.
Portuguese The first European colonization of Timor was in the 16th century. In 1512 (other sources mention 1509 or 1511), the Portuguese navigator António de Abreu was the first European to discover the island of Timor in search of the Spice Islands. When the first Portuguese reached Timor, they found the population divided into many small kingdoms (Indonesian: kerajaan) that were relatively independent of each other. The centre of the island was dominated by the Wehale (Wehali) kingdom with its allies among the tribes of the Tetum, Bunak and Kemak ethnic groups. The Tetum formed the core of the kingdom. The capital Laran village on the territory of today's West Timor formed the spiritual centre of the entire island at that time.L. de Santa Catharina (1866), História de S. Domingos, Quatra parte. Lisboa: Panorama, p. 300. Following the Wehale model, a second kingdom arose in West Timor, that of the Sonba'i kingdom.H. G. Schulte Nordholt (1971), The political system of the Atoni of Timor, pp. 262-74.
In 1556, the Dominican Order founded the village of Lifau, six kilometres west of today's Pante Macassar, to secure the sandalwood trade. Portugal initially established few garrisons and trading posts on Timor. Only when the threat from the Dutch increased did the Portuguese begin to expand their positions. Dutch traders first reached Timor in 1568.
To extend their control to the interior of the island, the Portuguese began a large-scale invasion in 1642 under Francisco Fernandes. However, this action was justified by the protection of the Christianised rulers of the coastal region. The previous Christianisation supported the Portuguese in their quick and brutal victory, as their influence on the Timorese had already weakened the resistance. Fernandes first moved through the Sonba'i area and then quickly conquered the kingdom of Wehale, which was considered the religious and political centre of the island. After the victory, the immigration of the Topasses continued to increase. They were mestizos whose ancestors were inhabitants of the islands of Solor and Flores and Portuguese. The centre of the Topasses became Lifau, the main Portuguese base on Timor. Later, the Topasses also settled inland at the present-day villages of Kefamenanu and Niki-Niki. They were given land by the local rulers and soon formed their own local kingdoms, such as Noimuti, and became a power on the island. Two clans, the Hornay and the Costa, at times controlled large parts of Timor, which was not without conflict between them.
Netherlands
In 1640, the Dutch built their first fortress on Timor near Kupang and the political division of the island began. Kupang Bay was considered the best natural harbour on the entire island. From 1642, a simple fort again protected the Portuguese post. Two Dutch attacks on it failed in 1644. For better defence, the Dominicans under Antonio de São Jacointo built a new fortress in 1647, but in 1653 the Dutch destroyed the Portuguese post and finally conquered it on 27 January 1656 with a strong force under General Arnold de Vlamigh van Outshoorn. However, the Dutch had to withdraw from the fortress immediately due to heavy losses after following the Topasse outside Kupang. For the time being, however, the Dutch sphere of influence remained limited to this region of Timor, with the exception of Maubara, which fell to the Dutch in 1667. Until the final conquest of the Portuguese fortress in Kupang Bay in 1688, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) concluded treaties with the five small rulers in this area, the "five loyal allies" (Sonbai Kecil, Helong, Amabi in 1665, Amfo'an in 1683 and Taebenu in 1688). In the middle of the 18th century, Timor was divided into two halves from a Portuguese perspective. The smaller western part consisted of the province of with 16 local kingdoms and was controlled by the Topasses. The eastern half was the province of Belu (Bellum) and consisted of 46 kingdoms. Three times the Topasses also tried to expel the Dutch from Timor. However, when an attack by the Portuguese and Topasses on Kupang ended in disaster in 1749, despite superior numbers, the rule of both in West Timor collapsed. At the Battle of Penfui (today Kupang's El Tari International Airport is located there), Capitão-Mor Gaspar da Costa and many other Topasse leaders were killed. A total of 40,000 warriors of the Topasses and their allies are said to have perished. As a result of the defeat, the rule of the Portuguese and Topasses in West Timor collapsed.
In April 1751, Liurais of Servião rose up; according to one source, Gaspar only met his death here. In 1752, the Dutch attacked the Amarasi Kingdom and the Topasse Kingdom of Noimuti. This attack was led by the German Hans Albrecht von Plüskow, who was the Dutch commander of Kupang. He was to be killed by a Topasse assassination plot in Lifau in 1761. The Dutch also used this campaign to hunt slaves to serve the needs of the plantations in the Moluccas. In 1752, the Bishop of Malacca branded the Dutch trade in slaves, which were also sold to Chinese and Arabs, as a crime that would lead to excommunication for Catholics.
In 1755, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) sent John Andrew Paravicini to negotiate treaties with rulers in several of the Lesser Sunda Islands. In 1756, 48 Lesser Kings of Solor, Roti, Sawu, Sumba and much of West Timor made alliances with the VOC. This was the beginning of Dutch rule in what is now Indonesian West Timor. Among them was a certain Jacinto Correa (Hiacijinto Corea), King of Wewiku-Wehale and Grand Prince of Belu, who also signed the dubious Treaty of Paravicini on behalf of 27 territories dependent on him in central Timor. Fortunately for the Portuguese, Wehale was no longer powerful enough to pull all the local rulers over to the side of the Dutch. Thus, the eastern former vassals of Wehale remained under the flag of Portugal, while Wehale itself fell under Dutch rule.
On 11 August 1769, the Portuguese governor António José Teles de Meneses was forced to leave Lifau by the Topasses. The new capital of the Portuguese on Timor became Dili in the east of the island.D. Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo (2013), História da Igreja em Timor-Leste: 450 Anos de Evangelização, 1562-1940, 1.º volume, Porto, Fundação Eng. António de Almeida, p. 223. The Topaz Francisco da Hornay offered Lifau to the Dutch, but after careful consideration they refused.
However, Dutch power remained limited in the west and was primarily in the hands of their Timorese allies. In 1681, the Dutch conquered the western island of Roti, from where slaves were subsequently brought to Timor. The Dutch also recruited soldiers for their army there and built schools after the local ruler converted to Christianity in 1729. The Rotinese people became a well-educated elite. To use them as a counterweight to the Timorese, the Dutch encouraged their immigration to West Timor, so that they are still present here today.