Associação Comercial Chinesa (Dili)
The building of the Associação Comercial Chinesa ( German Chinese Trade Association ) in Dili is a villa from the Portuguese colonial times of East Timor and was built as the seat of the Associação Comercial da Comunidade Chinesa Timorense ACCCTO. It is located on Avenida Marginal in Suco Bidau Lecidere ( Nain Feto Administration Office ). The front looks over the Bay of Dili . The building is the seat of the East Timorese State Secretariat for Youth and Sport.
history
Chinese traders visited the island of Timor long before the Portuguese , who they colonized from the 16th century. In the second half of the 19th century, the economy grew and the need for skilled workers grew in the colony, which is why the Chinese immigrated to Portuguese Timor mainly via Macau . In 1930 there were already 2000 Chinese living in the colony, most of them in the colonial capital Dili. Well organized, they formed a parallel society with numerous facilities of their own, such as the Guandi Temple , the Chinese Cemetery , the Chinese Club ( Chum Tuk Fong Su ) and the Chinese School.
In addition to the trade association, the building also housed the consulate of the Republic of China (Taiwan) . The colonial power Portugal had official relations with the island nation until 1975. During the Indonesian occupation, a division of the Indonesian Air Force was housed in the building. After the Indonesians left in 1999, the Conselho Nacional de Resistência Timorense (CNRT) had its seat in the building. Today the State Secretariat for Youth and Sport ( Portuguese Secretaria Estado da Juventude e do Desporto ) is located here .
After the riots in East Timor in 2006 , a refugee camp was located on the premises of the Associação Comercial Chinesa.
architecture
The building is one of the last examples of typical colonial architecture in Dili, which survived the Japanese and Indonesian invasions as well as the 1999 East Timor crisis . More precisely, the ground floor dates from the pre-war period. After the Second World War , the building was expanded in the 1940s to include the upper floor with the balcony and the front facade.
The building is rectangular and has an upper floor. The pavilion roof is hidden behind a low parapet wall. Each side has five windows on each level, each with a round lintel. An open gallery with six equally spaced columns forms the front on the ground floor. Above it is a veranda with a balustrade with six pillars supporting an architrave with a double frieze and the wall parapet across the entire width . The decorations run around the whole building. A semicircular pseudo-gable occupies the central third of the main front, framed by four points.
To the south (on the back) and east, the building has meanwhile been expanded to include single-storey extensions with a gable roof.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Património de Influência Portuguesa: Chinese Commercial Association (English), accessed on November 3, 2016.
- ↑ a b c d e Dili's Architectural Heritage of Portuguese Origins: Bairro Central - Chinese Community, pp. 81 & 236 , accessed November 4, 2016.
- ↑ Vaudine England: Chinese legacy of fear in Dili , South China Morning Post, August 30, 1999 , accessed on 19 March 2018th
- ↑ Timor online: Situação em Díli , August 7, 2007 , accessed November 4, 2016.
Coordinates: 8 ° 33 ′ 8.2 ″ S , 125 ° 34 ′ 54.6 ″ E