Maliana is a city in

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 ...

, 149 kilometers southwest of

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 ...

, 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, municip ...

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 kilomet ...

and

Maliana Subdistrict Maliana, officially Maliana Administrative Post (, ), is an administrative post (and was formerly a subdistrict) in Bobonaro municipality, East Timor. Its seat or administrative centre An administrative centre is a seat of regional admin ...

, 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 Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. It is also the see city of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Maliana The Roman Catholic Diocese of Maliana (Latin: ''Dioecesis Malianensis''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Diocese de Maliana''; Tetum language, Tetum: ''Dioseze Maliana'') is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Timor-Leste. The ne ...

, which was formed by

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

with territory taken from the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Dili The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dili (; ; ) is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Timor-Leste. Centered in Dili, the country's capital and largest city, it has two suffragan dioceses, Baucau and Maliana. The oldest of the ...

. Maliana an important

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

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''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

. 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 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 ...

. 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, ), was a United Nations mission in East Timor that aimed to solve the decades-long East Timorese crisis in the area occupied by Indonesian military. UNTAET provided an int ...

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 P ...

") filed news reports from Maliana (then in

Portuguese Timor Portuguese Timor () was a Portuguese colony on the territory of present-day East Timor from 1702 until 1975. During most of this period, Portugal shared the island of Timor with the Dutch East Indies. The first Europeans to arrive in the regio ...

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

Sister cities

City of Knox The City of Knox is a local government area in Victoria, Australia in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It has an area of and in 2020, Knox had a population of 165,147. This municipality is one of only a handful that survived the widespread mu ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Municipality of Leichhardt The Municipality of Leichhardt was a local government area in the inner-west region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is about west of the Sydney central business district. On 12 May 2016, Leichhardt merged with Marrickville Council a ...

, Australia

References

External links

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