Topasses (Tupasses, Topas, Topaz) were a group of people led by the two powerful families – Da Costa and Hornay – that resided in
Oecussi and
Flores. The Da Costa families were descendants of Portuguese Jewish merchants and Hornay were Dutch.
The origins
The etymology of the name is obscure. It might come from the Tamil term ''tuppasi'', "bilingual" or "interpreter". But it has also been associated with the
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...
word ''topi'' (hat) which refers to the characteristic hat worn by the men of this community as a marker of their cultural attachment to the European community. Hence, they are also referred to as ''gente de chapeo'' in Portuguese accounts or as ''gens à chapeau'' in French accounts. It partly overlapped with the Dutch concept
mardijker, "free men", who also usually had a Portuguese cultural background, but had no European blood in their veins.
While the mardijkers served under the
Dutch colonial authorities, the topasses of Timor were staunchly opposed to the Dutch and used the symbol of the
King of Portugal as their ultimate authority.
Influence on the Timor region
As a political entity in the eastern part of
Insular Southeast Asia, they arose with the Portuguese settlement on the small Island of
Solor
Solor is a volcanic island located off the eastern tip of Flores island in the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia, in the Solor Archipelago. The island supports a small population that has been whaling for hundreds of years. They speak the langu ...
(from the 1560s), using Solor as a stepping-stone to the trade in
sandalwood
Sandalwood is a class of woods from trees in the genus '' Santalum''. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and, unlike many other aromatic woods, they retain their fragrance for decades. Sandalwood oil is extracted from the woods for ...
on Timor. When the
Dutch East India Company
The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock c ...
conquered Solor in 1613, the Portuguese community moved to
Larantuka
Larantuka () is a ''kecamatan'' (district) and the seat capital of East Flores Regency, on the eastern end of Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Like much of the region, Larantuka has a strong a colonial Portuguese influence. The town ...
on
Flores. In spite of continuous hostilities with the Dutch, the topasses managed to obtain a steady foothold on Timor after 1641, and part of the population of Larantuka moved over to West Timor in the late 1650s, as a response to the establishment of the VOC in
Kupang
Kupang ( id, Kota Kupang, ), formerly known as Koepang, is the capital of the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara. At the 2020 C ensus, it had a population of 442,758; the official estimate as at mid 2021 was 455,850. It is the largest c ...
in 1653. They were able to defeat Dutch military expeditions on Timor with the help of Timorese allies, in 1653, 1655, 1656 and 1657.
The peace treaty between the
Kingdom of Portugal
The Kingdom of Portugal ( la, Regnum Portugalliae, pt, Reino de Portugal) was a monarchy in the western Iberian Peninsula and the predecessor of the modern Portuguese Republic. Existing to various extents between 1139 and 1910, it was also kn ...
and the
Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands ( Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...
in 1663 removed the acute threat from the latter. By this time the Topasses consisted of an ethnic mix of Portuguese, Florenese, Timorese, Indians, Dutch deserters, etc. Through their military skills they were able to dominate large parts of Timor, with their center in
Lifau
Lifau is a village and suco in the East Timor exclave of Oecusse District. The village is located west of the mouth of the Tono River. 1,938 people live in the suco.
History
Lifau was the first European settlement on the island of Timor. ...
in the present-day
Oecussi-Ambeno
Oecusse (also variously ''Oecussi'', ''Ocussi'', ''Oekussi'', ''Oekusi'', ''Okusi'', ''Oé-Cusse''), also known as Oecusse-Ambeno (; ) and formerly just Ambeno, officially the Special Administrative Region Oecusse-Ambeno (), is an exclave, mu ...
enclave.
Independent position within colonial system
The Topass community was led by their own appointed captains, and had little contact with the
Viceroy of Portuguese India
, insignia =
, insigniasize =
, insigniacaption =
, image = Lesser coat of arms of Portuguese India.svg
, imagesize = 120px
, imagecaption = Coat of arms of Portuguese India
, style ...
. They pressed Timorese princes to deliver sandalwood to the coast, which was sold to merchants from the Portuguese colony of
Macau
Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...
or to the Dutch. In 1641, their leader Francisco Fernandes led a Portuguese military expedition to weaken the power of the Muslim
Makassar
Makassar (, mak, ᨆᨀᨔᨑ, Mangkasara’, ) is the capital of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, Surabaya, ...
ese who had recently made inroads on Timor. His small army of musketeers settled on Timor, extending Portuguese influence into the interior. After 1664 the Topasses were governed by the
Hornay and
Costa families, who held the titles
captain-major
A donatary captain was a Portuguese colonial official to whom the Crown granted jurisdiction, rights, and revenues over some colonial territory. The recipients of these grants were called (donataries), because they had been given the grant as a ( ...
(capitão mor) or lieutenant general (tenente general) in turn. The Portuguese appointed an administrator to Lifau in 1656 and in 1702 the Portuguese authorities installed a regular governor in Lifau, a move that was violently opposed by the Topass community. The Topasses had become a law unto themselves, and drove out the Portuguese governor António Coelho Guerreiro in 1705. After more attacks from the Topasses in Lifau, the colonial base was moved east to
Dili in eastern Timor in 1769. For long periods up to 1785, a state of warfare existed between the two Portuguese groups.
Decline of the community
In 1749 a political crisis involving Topass leader
Gaspar da Costa resulted in another war with the Dutch. When he marched on Kupang with a considerable force he was routed and killed at the
Battle of Penfui, after which the Dutch expanded their control of western Timor. Many Timorese princedoms which had hitherto been subordinated to Topass authority now fell away and allied with the VOC instead. The Topass still managed to hang on in
Oecussi, and killed the Dutch commander
Hans Albrecht von Plüskow
Hans may refer to:
__NOTOC__ People
* Hans (name), a masculine given name
* Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician
** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans
** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi ...
in 1761, when he attempted to expand the Dutch sphere on Timor. Their power nevertheless receded by the late 18th century, due to diminishing economic and political opportunities. Still neither Portuguese nor Dutch colonial influence could be firmly established on Timor until the 19th century and only with continuous and heavy military force. The concept Topass disappears from the records in the 19th century. Between 1847 and 1913 the Portuguese had to mount more than 60 armed expeditions in order to subdue the Timorese in the interior of the island; a few of these revolts occurred in the old Topasses part, west of East Timor. Hornay and Da Costa descendants continued to govern locally as Rajas (or Liurais) of Oecussi up to modern times.
[Yoder, L.S.M., ''Custom, Codification, Collaborating: Integrating the Legacy of Land and Forest Authorities in Oecusse Enclave, East Timor'', Ph. D. Thesis, Yale University 2005.]
During the early 1900s, the enclave of OeCussi was ruled by Dom Hugo Da Costa and
Rainha Elena Hornay.
References
Further reading
* Leitão, Humberto (1948), ''Os Portugueses em Solor e Timor de 1515 a 1702'', Lisboa: Liga dos Combatentes da Grande Guerra.
* Matos, Artur Teodoro de (1974), ''Timor Português, 1515-1769'', Lisboa: Instituto Histórico Infante Dom Henrique.
* Roever, Arend de (2002), ''De jacht op sandelhout: De VOC en de tweedeling van Timor in de zeventiende eeuw'', Zutphen: Walburg Pers.
* Yule, Henry, & Burnell, A.C. 1996), ''Hobson-Jobson. The Anglo-Indian Dictionary'', Ware: Wordsworth.
{{Multiethnicity
Multiracial affairs in Asia
History of East Timor
History of Goa
Dutch East Indies
Portuguese Timor
Portuguese colonialism in Indonesia
Portuguese colonisation in Asia
Luso-Indian
Asian Jews