Maliana is a city 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-west ...

, 149 kilometers southwest of Dili, the national capital. It has a population of 22,000. It is the capital of the

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

Bobonaro Bobonaro is a town in Bobonaro Subdistrict, Bobonaro District, East Timor., United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency The district capital is not in Bobonaro, but is in Maliana Maliana is a city in East Timor, 149 kilome ...

and Maliana Subdistrict, and is located just a few kilometers from the border with

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. It is also the see city of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Maliana, which was formed by

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...

with territory taken from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dili. Maliana an important

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

sector, especially rice production. The majority of Maliana's population is heavily dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods, this is because rice became the preferred staple food among many Timorese. Most of the population are farmers cultivating rice and

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. The ...

. During Indonesian occupation, Maliana became a rice barn town to support other districts in East Timor, and export to other places in Western Timor of

. Maliana has seven villages consisting of Lahomea, Holsa, Ritabou, Odomau, Raifun, Tapo-Memo and Saburai. There are two main sources of water irrigation that supply water to paddy fields such Bulobu River, Nunura River, Malibaka and Bui Pira river.

Bunak The Bunak (also known as Bunaq, Buna', Bunake) people are an ethnic group that live in the mountainous region of central Timor, split between the political boundary between West Timor, Indonesia, particularly in Lamaknen District and East Timor. ...

and Kemak are the native dialects of Maliana but most people understand and speak

Tetum , nativename=Tetun , states= Indonesia East Timor , speakers=, mostly in Indonesia , date=2010–2011 , ref=e18 , speakers2=50,000 L2-speakers in Indonesia and East Timor , familycolor=Austronesian , fam2=Malayo-Polynesian , fam3= Central–East ...

. Maliana had one of the preferred schools during Portuguese occupation, known as Collegio Infante sagres. This was under a catholic mission and many East Timor educated people have graduated from this senior high School. The citizens of Maliana were instrumental to the Australian army between 1999 and 2001, during the

UNTAET The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), ( pt, Administração Transitória das Nações Unidas em Timor Leste), was a United Nations mission in East Timor that aimed to solve the decades long East Timorese cri ...

operation. Employed as "Locally Employed Civilians" by a small contingent from the 110th Signals Squadron, the people of Maliana provided domestic support, as well as local intelligence regarding the threat of Indonesian militia to the soldiers and civilian contractors working in the area. Australian newsman Greg Shackleton and his colleagues (the "

Balibo Five The Balibo Five was a group of journalists for Australian commercial television networks who were murdered in the period leading up to the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. The Balibo Five were based in the town of Balibo in East Timor (then ...

") filed news reports from Maliana (then in

Portuguese Timor Portuguese Timor ( pt, Timor Português) was a colonial possession of Portugal that existed between 1702 and 1975. During most of this period, Portugal shared the island of Timor with the Dutch East Indies. The first Europeans to arrive in the ...

) shortly before their fateful trip to Balibo in October, 1975.

References

External links

* {{Coord, 8, 59, S, 125, 13, E, region:TL_type:city, display=title Populated places in East Timor Bobonaro Municipality