Baucau (, ) is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

, and was formerly a district, of

East Timor Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

, on the northern coast in the eastern part of the country. The capital is also called

Baucau Baucau (, ) is the second-largest city in Timor-Leste, 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 the country. In the time ...

(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 language spoken by about 27,000 Waimoa (2015 census) people in northeast East Timor. Waimoa proper is reported to be mutually intelligible with neighboring Kairui and Midiki, which together have about 5,000 speakers. Th ...

. 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 a 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 (, , ) 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 of a pair of international straits, the other one being Omb ...

; it also borders the municipalities of Lautém to the east,

Viqueque Viqueque (, ) is a city in the south-east of Timor-Leste, 183 km from Dili, the national capital. Viqueque is the capital of Viqueque Municipality and Viqueque Administrative Post, and has five '' sucos'' under its control. They are: ...

to the south, and

Manatuto Manatuto is a city in Manatuto Municipality, East Timor. Manatuto Vila has 3,692 inhabitants (Census 2015) and is capital of the subdistrict and district Manatuto. It is on the north coast of Timor, (about as the crow flies) east of Dili ...

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 Mar ...

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

Demographics

Besides the national official languages of

Tetum Tetum may refer to: * Tetum language, an Austronesian language ** Tetum alphabet, used to write the Tetum language * Tetum people, an ethnic group of East Timor and Indonesia {{disambiguation Language and nationality disambiguation pages ...

and Portuguese, most of the inhabitants speak the

Papuan language The Papuan languages are the non-Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East Timor. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply a ...

Makasae Makasae (also known as Makassai, Macassai, Ma'asae, Makasai) is a Papuan language spoken by about 100,000 people in the eastern part of East Timor, in the districts of Baucau and Viqueque, just to the west of Fataluku. It is the most widely s ...

. While most of the inhabitants are

Roman Catholics The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, a few Muslims also live there.

Economy

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

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

and

corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

, Baucau produces

bean A bean is the seed of some plants in the legume family (Fabaceae) used as a vegetable for human consumption or animal feed. The seeds are often preserved through drying (a ''pulse''), but fresh beans are also sold. Dried beans are traditi ...

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), goober pea, pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics by small and large ...

sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its sizeable, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a root vegetable, which is a staple food in parts of ...

es,

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 ...

candlenut ''Aleurites moluccanus'', commonly known as candlenut, is a tree in the spurge family Euphorbiaceae. It grows to about tall and produces drupe fruit. First described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, the species' origin is unclear due to its spread b ...

and

manioc ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...

. It also raises

buffalo Buffalo most commonly refers to: * True buffalo or Bubalina, a subtribe of wild cattle, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo * Bison, a genus of wild cattle, including the American buffalo * Buffalo, New York, a city in the n ...

and

goats The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the famil ...

. 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 language, Portuguese and Tetum language, Tetum: ''Díli'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Timor-Leste. It lies on the northern coast of the island of Timor, in a small area of flat land hemmed in by mountai ...

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

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the t ...

. 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 Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern ...

, 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 govern ...

Aurélio Sérgio Cristóvão Guterres Aurélio Sérgio Cristóvão Guterres (born 27 July 1966) is an East Timorese academic and politician, and a member of the Fretilin political party. From September 2017 to June 2018, he was Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation in the V ...

* Olinda Guterres *

Vicente Guterres Vicente da Silva Guterres (born 22 January 1956 in Baguia, Portuguese Timor) is a politician from East Timor, a member of the National Parliament of East Timor and its vice-president since 2007. Parliamentary role In the June 2007 parliament ...

Maria Fernanda Lay Maria Fernanda Lay (born 1954) is a politician in East Timor. She has been a member of the National Parliament (East Timor), National Parliament of East Timor since 2007. In 2023, she was elected as president of the National Parliament, becoming t ...

* Adaljiza Magno * Mauk Moruk *

Taur Matan Ruak José Maria de Vasconcelos (born 10 October 1956), popularly known as Taur Matan Ruak (Tetum for "Two Sharp Eyes"), is an East Timorese politician who served as 9th prime minister of East Timor from 2018 to 2023. He also served as 5th presi ...

Aurora Ximenes Aurora Ximenes (born June 13, 1955) is an East Timorese politician. She is a member of the FRETILIN party. From 1975, the year of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, Ximenes was a member of the ''Organização Popular de Mulheres Timorense'' ( ...

Mariana Diaz Ximenez Mariana Diaz Ximenez, (born December 13, 1983, in Baucau), is an East Timorese athlete who specialises in the marathon. A resident of Dili, she fled her home in 1999 after East Timor's declaration of independence from Indonesia, and the ensuing ...

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 Timor-Leste