Baucau (, ) is a municipality, and was formerly a district, of East Timor, on the northern coast in the eastern part of the country. The capital is also called

Baucau Baucau ( pt, Baucau, tet, Baukau) is the second-largest city in East Timor, after Dili, the capital, which lies to its west. Baucau has about 16,000 inhabitants, and is the capital of Baucau municipality, located in the eastern part of th ...

(formerly Vila Salazar). The population of the municipality is 111,694 (census 2010) and it has an area of 1,506 km².

Etymology

The word ''Baucau'' is derived from the word "Akau", which means "pig" in the local

Waimoa language Waimoa or Waimaa is a spoken by about 18,467 (2010 census) people in northeast East Timor. Waimoa proper is reported to be mutually intelligible with neighboring Kairui and Midiki, with 5,000 speakers total. The classification of Waimoa is uncl ...

. During the Portuguese colonial era, the name of the district was transformed, first into ''Macau'' and finally into ''Baucau''. An alternative name for the Baucau community is ''Wailia-Wailewa'', meaning the "great water spring of Wai Lia". In the Wai Lia area (part of the '' suco'' of ), a large spring is located under large trees; it is both an animist and Christian holy place. In 1936, the Portuguese colonial authorities renamed what was then the district of Baucau as "São Domingos". However, that name, like other imperial-sounding names adopted in the colony at about that time, did not catch on, and a few years after World War II it was quietly abandoned.

Geography

The borders of the District of Baucau during the colonial era were the same as they are now. The north edge of the municipality is to the

Wetar Strait Wetar Strait ( id, Selat Wetar, pt, Estreito de Wetar, tet, Estreitu Wetar) is an international strait in Southeast Asia. It separates the island of Wetar from the eastern part of the island of Timor. The strait is also the eastern portion o ...

; it also borders the municipalities of Lautém to the east, Viqueque to the south, and Manatuto to the west. Baucau also has a wide coastline with sandy beaches, ideal for swimming and other watersports. In the administrative post of Venilale are tunnels that the Japanese built during their occupation during the Second World War. Also in this administrative post is an ongoing project to reconstruct and renovate the Escola do Reino de Venilale (School of the Kingdom of Venilale).

Administrative posts

The municipality's administrative posts (formerly sub-districts) are: *

Baguia Baguia, officially Baguia Administrative Post (, ), is an administrative post (and was formerly a subdistrict) in Baucau municipality, East Timor. Its seat or administrative centre is , and it has ten sucos. Taur Matan Ruak José Ma ...

* Laga * Quelicai * Vemasse * Venilale (formerly known as Vila Viçosa).

Demographics

Besides the national official languages of Tetum and Portuguese, most of the inhabitants speak the Papuan language Makasae. While most of the inhabitants are Roman Catholics, a few Muslims also live there.

Economy

Baucau has the most highly developed agriculture in East Timor. Besides the staples rice and

corn 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 ...

, Baucau produces

bean A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes thr ...

s, peanuts, sweet potatoes,

copra Copra (from ) is the dried, white flesh of the coconut from which coconut oil is extracted. Traditionally, the coconuts are sun-dried, especially for export, before the oil, also known as copra oil, is pressed out. The oil extracted from cop ...

candlenut ''Aleurites moluccanus'', the candlenut, is a flowering tree in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, also known as candleberry, Indian walnut, ''kemiri'', varnish tree, ''nuez de la India'', ''buah keras'', ''godou'', kukui nut tree, and ''rata k ...

and

manioc ''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated ...

. It also raises buffalo and goats. A shortage of transportation links and the unpredictability of energy availability stymie the development of emerging industries.

Infrastructure

Baucau has the country's longest airport runway, in Cakung Airport, as currently,

Dili Dili ( Portuguese/Tetum: ''Díli'') is the capital, largest city of East Timor and the second largest city in Timor islands after Kupang (Indonesia). It lies on the northern coast of the island of Timor, in a small area of flat land hemmed in ...

's Nicolau Lobato International Airport can only serve small airliners like the

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two u ...

. The airport is located six km from the city of Baucau. It served as the country's principal airport before the Indonesian invasion in 1975, when it was taken over by the Indonesian military.

Bucoli Bucoli is a suco (municipality) in Baucau Subdistrict, Baucau District, East Timor and also a settlement in the Bucoli Suco. As of 2010 there were 2179 inhabitants and 372 households in Bucoli Suco. 85% in Bucoli speak the Waima'a language ...

, a village with symbolic role in the East Timorese resistance movement, is located in the subdistrict of Baucau.

Notable people

Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo SDB, commonly known as Carlos Belo or Ximenes Belo (born 3 February 1948) is an East Timorese prelate of the Catholic Church. He became a bishop in 1988 and served as the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of ...

Mário Viegas Carrascalão Mário Viegas Carrascalão (May 12, 1937 – May 19, 2017) was an East Timorese politician and diplomat. Carrascalão, a founder of the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) in 1974 and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 2000, served as the governor ...

* Aurélio Sérgio Cristóvão Guterres * Olinda Guterres * Vicente Guterres * Maria Fernanda Lay * Adaljiza Magno * Mauk Moruk *

Taur Matan Ruak José Maria Vasconcelos (born 10 October 1956), popularly known as Taur Matan Ruak (Tetum for "Two Sharp Eyes"), is an East Timorese politician who has served as the prime minister of East Timor since 22 June 2018. He was also President of Ea ...

* Aurora Ximenes * Mariana Diaz Ximenez

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * *

External links

* – official site (in Tetum with some content in English) * – information page on Ministry of State Administration site {{Authority control Municipalities of East Timor