The Mambai (Mambae, Manbae) people are the second largest ethnic group after the Tetum Dili people in

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-weste ...

. Originally, they were known as the Maubere by the Portuguese. ''Maubere'' or ''Mau Bere'' is a widespread male first name among the Mambai people.

Settlement area

The Mambai number about 80,000Clifford Sather and James J. Fox (eds),
Origins, Ancestry and Alliance: Explorations in Austronesian Ethnography
', ANU E Press, 2006, Chapter 7. from the interior of

Dili District Dili Municipality (, ) is one of the 14 municipalities, formerly districts, of Timor-Leste, and includes the national capital Dili. The municipality had a population of 277,279 , most of whom live in the capital city. Etymology Several expl ...

to the south coast of the territory, especially in the districts of

Ainaro Ainaro is a town in East Timor, the capital of the Ainaro suco, the Ainaro administrative post and the Ainaro Municipality, and is located in the southwest part of the country. The town of Ainaro is located 78 km south of Dili, the nat ...

and

Manufahi Manufahi (, ) is one of the municipalities of East Timor. It has a population of 53,691 (2015 census) and an area of 1,323 km2. The capital of the municipality is Same. Etymology The present name of the municipality, ''Manufahi'', is ...

. Its principal centers are

Ermera Ermera (''Vila Ermera'') is a city in East Timor and a former capital of the East Timorese community, Ermera. ''Ermera'' in Mambai means "red water." It has a population of 8,907. Its geographical coordinates are , and it lies above sea ...

, Aileu,

Remexio Administrative Post Remexio, officially Remexio Administrative Post (, ), is an administrative post (and was formerly a subdistrict) in Aileu municipality, East Timor. Its seat or administrative centre An administrative center is a seat of regional administra ...

Turiscai Turiscai is a village in the Turiscai administrative post, Manufahi municipality of East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It c ...

Maubisse Maubisse (''Maubesse, Mau-Bessi, Maobisse, Maubise'') is a historic town in the hills 70 km south of Dili, in Ainaro District, East Timor. It is a popular tourist destination and a weekend visiting spot for people from the capital. The ...

and

Same, East Timor Same ( ) is a town in the Same administrative post in the interior of East Timor, south of Dili, the national capital. Same has a population of 7,413 and is the capital of Manufahi municipality, which was known as Same District in Portuguese ...

. Among the East Timorese exiles in Australia, the Mambai people are one of the main groups. Mambai

Culture

The Mambai language belongs to the

Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages The Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian (CEMP) languages form a proposed branch of the Malayo-Polynesian languages consisting of over 700 languages (Blust 1993). Distribution The Central Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken in the Lesser Sund ...

of the

Timoric languages The Timoric languages are a group of Austronesian languages (belonging to the Central–Eastern subgroup) spoken on the islands of Timor, neighboring Wetar, and (depending on the classification) Southwest Maluku to the east. Within the grou ...

branch. It is the second most common mother tongue in

with 195,778 speakers. Circular houses with conical roofs are typical dwellings, and the Mambai cultivate

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

, and

root vegetables Root vegetables are underground plant parts eaten by humans as food. Although botany distinguishes true roots (such as taproots and tuberous roots) from non-roots (such as bulbs, corms, rhizomes, and tubers, although some contain both hypocotyl a ...

Notable people

Ethnically Mambai politicians include

Francisco Xavier do Amaral Francisco Xavier do Amaral (3 December 1937 – 6 March 2012) was an East Timorese politician. A founder of the ''Frente Revolucionária de Timor Leste Independente'' (Fretilin), Amaral was sworn in as the first President of East Timor wh ...

Manuel Tilman Manuel Tilman (born 20 August 1946 in Maubisse) is an East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the is ...

,International Crisis Group, Asia Briefing N°65, 13 June 2007

Lúcia Lobato Lúcia Maria Brandão Freitas Lobato (born 7 November 1965
(Portuguese).) ...

,East Timor Legal Information Site, 2007
and Fernando de Araújo.

Settlement area

Culture

Notable people

References

Further reading