Manufahi (, ) is one of the

municipalities of East Timor Timor-Leste is ISO 3166-2, divided into 14 municipality, municipalities (, ), which are former districts. One municipality is also a Special Administrative Region (SAR). The municipalities are divided into administrative posts of Timor-Leste, ad ...

. It has a population of 53,691 (2015 census) and an area of 1,323 km². The capital of the municipality is Same.

Etymology

The present name of the municipality, ''Manufahi'', is derived from ''Maun Fahe'', the Tetum language expression for 'divided brothers'. The name originated in a legend that tells of a fight between two related tribes, or a group of siblings. Eventually, the protagonists agreed to subject themselves to a single ruler. During the Portuguese colonial era, the then district bore the name of its main town, Same. The present name was adopted on the basis of the divided brothers legend. However, it was misspelled, and the Tetum language meaning of the misspelled name is 'pig chicken'. Efforts are being made to correct the name. However, there is also a legend that in the '' suco'' of a rooster once flew down from a mountain, landed on the back of a pig, and then travelled with the pig to many places before returning home.

Geography

Manufahi extends from the central highlands of East Timor to its south coast, on the

Timor Sea The Timor Sea (, , or ) is a relatively shallow sea in the Indian Ocean bounded to the north by the island of Timor with Timor-Leste to the north, Indonesia to the northwest, Arafura Sea to the east, and to the south by Australia. The Sunda Tr ...

. It is bordered by

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 east,

Ainaro Ainaro is a town in East Timor, the capital of the Ainaro suco, the Ainaro administrative post and the Ainaro Municipality, and is located in the southwest part of the country. The town of Ainaro is located 78 km south of Dili, the nati ...

to the west, and

Aileu Aileu is the main township in Aileu District, East Timor. It is located 47 km (29 mi) southwest of Dili, the national capital, and had a population of 2,788 in 2015. In Portuguese Timor, the city was known as Vila General Carmona ...

to the north.

History

According to a list prepared by , governor of the colony of Portuguese Timor from 1859 to 1863, Manufahi was one of 47 kingdoms in that colony at the time. During its time as a Portuguese colony, the municipality was called Same, after the capital city. It was the epicentre of the Great Rebellion of 1910–12. During the Indonesian occupation the then subdistrict of

Hato-Udo Hato-Udo (''Hatu Udo, Hotudo''), officially Hato-Udo Administrative Post (, ), is an administrative post (and was formerly a subdistrict) in Ainaro municipality, East Timor. Its seat or administrative centre An administrative centre is a ...

was split off from the then district of Manufahi and joined to

, and the then subdistrict of Turiscai, previously in Ainaro, was moved to Manufahi.

Administrative posts

Manufahi's administrative posts (formerly sub-districts) are: * Alas * Fatuberlio * Same *

Turiscai Turiscai is a village in the Turiscai administrative post, Manufahi municipality of East Timor. ''Turiskai'' in Mambai language means " Turibaum". History During the Indonesian occupation of East Timor The Indonesian occupation of ...

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, the

Malayo-Polynesian language The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by the Austronesian peoples outside of Taiwan, in the island nations of Southeast ...

Mambai Mambai may refer to: * Mambai people, a people group also known as Mambae, Manbae or Maubere from Timor-Leste * Mambai language (Timor) Mambai, also called Mambae or Manbae, is a language spoken by the Mambai people, the second largest ethni ...

is also spoken.

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