Alalapadu is a Tiriyó village in the

Sipaliwini District Sipaliwini is the largest district of Suriname, located in the south. Sipaliwini is the only district that does not have a regional capital, as it is directly administered by the national government in Paramaribo. History Sipaliwini was created i ...

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

. The village was founded by

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

missionaries next to the Alalapadu Airstrip in order to concentrate the Tiriyó of the area in one central village.

History

In 1961 the missionary Claude Leavitt accompanied with a group of Wai-Wai Amerindians convinced the chief of the village Panapipa to settle into a modern village. The entire population moved in to what became known as Alalapadu. Up to the 1970s, it was biggest Tiriyó village in Suriname. Between 1976 and 1977, Alalapadu was mostly abandoned in favour of the new settlement of

Kwamalasamutu Kwamalasamutu, also Kwamalasamoetoe, is a Tiriyó Amerindian village in the Sipaliwini District of Suriname, and home to the granman (paramount chief) of the northern Trios. Kwamalasamutu is the biggest village of the Tiriyó tribe. History The ...

, as the soils surrounding the village became depleted. Alalapadu was never completely abandoned, however, and in 1999, some Tiriyó again permanently settled in the vicinity of the old village. The new village is sometimes known as Alalapadu II.

Granman Granman (Ndyuka language: ''gaanman'') is the title of the paramount chief of a Maroon (people), Maroon nation in Suriname and French Guiana. The Ndyuka people, Ndyuka, Saramaka, Matawai people, Matawai, Aluku, Paramaccan people, Paramaka and Kwint ...

Ashongo had requested its rebuilding.

Overview

There is no electricity. The economy is based small-scale farming. There is no school, and children have to go to

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

. There is a Baptist church in the village. In 2017, a

Brazil nut The Brazil nut (''Bertholletia excelsa'') is a South American tree in the family Lecythidaceae, and it is also the name of the tree's commercially harvested edible seeds. It is one of the largest and longest-lived trees in the Amazon rainforest. ...

oil production facility opened in Alalapadu.

Notes

References

* * * * {{Surinamese District Sipaliwini Indigenous villages in Suriname Populated places in Sipaliwini District Squatting in Suriname