Tetum
The Tetum (also Tétum or Tetun , formerly Belu ) are the largest ethnic group of East Timor . In the Indonesian West Timor , they make up a large part of the population in the administrative districts of Belu and Malaka .
Overview
The Malayo-Polynesian Tetum form the largest ethnic group in East Timor with around 450,000 members and the second largest in West Timor with 500,000. They immigrated to Timor only in the 14th century, according to their stories from Malacca . First they settled in the center of the island and displaced the Atoin Meto in the western part of Timor. Later they also advanced into the eastern part and founded a total of four empires, of which Wehale was the most powerful. Even then, their language became the lingua franca in the center and east of the island. The Tetum still live in the center of the island on both sides of the border and on the southeast coast.
The Tetum speak different dialects of the Tetum . Tetum Prasa is the official language in East Timor alongside Portuguese . In East Timor alone, over 432,766 residents speak Tetum as their mother tongue (2015). Of the various dialects, 361,027 East Timorese state that Tetum Prasa is their mother tongue, 71,418 name Tetum Terik and 321 Nanaek (2015).
The old foreign name Belu means friend or patron in German . After this, the east of the island of Timor was called Belu in colonial times .
Creation myth
The Tetum Terik in Viqueque believe that the first humans emerged from two holes or vaginas, Mahuma and Lequi Bui , in the ground by climbing out on sacred tendrils. That is why the Tetum Terik call the doors to the traditional houses the vagina and the interior WOMB, the female space. According to her belief, the universe of the Tetum Terik, which is divided into the lower and upper world, is connected through the woman's vagina. The sacred and feminine underworld is dominated by women, while the secular and masculine upper world is occupied by men. Both worlds must come together, otherwise sterility, disease and death would threaten.
literature
- David Hicks: A maternal religion, the role of women in Tetum myth and ritual. 1984, (= Special Report. No. 22; Monograph series of Southeast Asia ). DeKalb Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University, OCLC 800516747 .
- BAG Vroklage: Ethnography of the Belu in Central Timor. Volume 1, Leiden 1952.
- W. Woertelboer: On the language and culture of the Belu (Timor). In: Anthropos. 50.1, 1955, pp. 155-200.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Direcção-Geral de Estatística : Results of the 2015 census , accessed on November 23, 2016.
- ↑ The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names: East Timor - Geographical names against a volatile background, 1999 ( Memento of February 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 64 kB)
- ↑ Josh Trindade: Lulik: The Core of Timorese Values , p. 11, accessed November 6, 2017.
