Amanuban was a traditional princedom in

West Timor West Timor () is an area covering the western part of the island of Timor, except for the district of Oecussi-Ambeno (an East Timorese exclave). Administratively, West Timor is part of East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia. The capital as well ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. It lay in the regency ( kabupaten) Timor Tengah Selatan. In the late colonial period, according to an estimate in 1930, Amanuban covered 2,075 square kilometers. The centre of the princedom since the 19th century was Niki-Niki. The population belongs to the

Atoni The Atoni (also known as the Atoin Meto, Atoin Pah Meto or Dawan) people are an ethnic group on Timor, in Indonesian West Timor and the East Timorese enclave of Oecussi-Ambeno. They number around 844,030. Their language is Uab Meto. The Ato ...

group. Today they are predominantly

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, with a significant

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minority and some

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Early history

The ancestor of the royal line is said to have come from

Roti Roti is a round flatbread originating from the Indian subcontinent. It is commonly consumed in many South Asian, Southeast Asian, Caribbean, East African, and Southeast African countries. It is made from stoneground whole-wheat flour, kno ...

island, west of Timor. Amanuban is mentioned in Dutch sources as early as 1613, when the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

(Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC) first approached

Timor Timor (, , ) is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is Indonesia–Timor-Leste border, divided between the sovereign states of Timor-Leste in the eastern part and Indonesia in the ...

. Amanuban had resources of

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. Sanda ...

, which was the main Western interest on the island. The Dutch concluded a contract with the King of Amanuban in 1616, but the princedom came under the influence of the Portuguese, political and commercial rivals of the Dutch. This influence lasted up to 1748. During this period there was intermittent warfare with the VOC enclave around

Kupang Kupang (, ), formerly known as Koepang, is the capital of the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara. At the 2020 Indonesian census, 2020 Census, it had a population of 442,758;Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2021. the official estimate as o ...

in westernmost Timor. A political crisis in 1748 turned a number of Atoni princedoms, including Amanuban, against the

Topasses 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 ...

or Portuguese Eurasians on Timor. After the Topass defeat at the hand of the VOC in the Battle of Penfui on November 1749, the territory of Amanuban was included in the Dutch political alliance network.

Anti-Dutch resistance

After 1770 dynastic disputes led to a split. The larger part of Amanuban joined the prince Tobani who ruled independently of the Dutch. His son Louis (c. 1807-c. 1824) led a violently anti-Dutch policy and trained a large mounted corps of warriors with firearms. The Dutch (and the British during the 1812–1816 interregnum) sent a number of armed expeditions against Louis, without much success. In later tradition Louis is pointed out as the founder of the royal seat Niki-Niki. After his death the coherence of Amanuban declined. The last independent king, Bil Nope alias Hau Sufa Leu (c. 1870–1910) befriended the encroaching Dutch colonial authorities in the early years of the 20th century. However, the arrogant stance of the local Dutch officer caused anti-colonial resistance. Finally Bil Nope died in the flames of his residence in Niki-Niki in October 1910. In modern Indonesia he is regarded as an anti-colonial hero.

Under colonial rule

Another branch of the dynasty was enthroned, and Amanuban continued as a ''zelfbesturende landschap'' (self-ruling territory) under colonial surveillance until the departure of the Dutch (1942 and 1949). In 1952, a few years after the formation of a unitary Indonesian republic, the princedom was turned into a so-called ''swapraja'', still with the old ruler as headman (kepala daerah swapraja). In 1959 a new administrative region (Daerah Tingkat II), Timor Tengah Selatan was formed, and included the old swaprajas Mollo, Amanuban and Amanatun. In 1962–63 the swapraja, and with it the last remnants of traditional governance, was abrogated by official decree.Jacob Wadu et al. (2003), pp. 103–106. Members of the old ruling family, Nope, still have an amount of local informal influence.

List of rulers

*Don Michel before 1749–1751 *Don Louis 1751–1770 (brother) *Don Jacobus Albertus 1770–1786 (son) *Tobani 1786–c. 1807 (cousin) *Louis c. 1807–c. 1824 (son) *Baki c. 1824–1862 (son) *Sanu 1862-c. 1870 (son) *Bil Nope c. 1870–1910 (son) *Noni Nope 1910–1920 (brother) *Pae Nope 1920–1946 (son) *Paulus Nope 1946–1949 (son) *Kusa Nope 1946–1958 (brother)

Early history

Anti-Dutch resistance

Under colonial rule

List of rulers

References

Further reading