Sonbai Kecil or ''Lesser Sonbai'' was an

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 ...

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 ...

, now included in

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 existed from 1658 to 1917, when it merged into a colonial creation, the zelfbesturend landschap

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 ...

Migration to Kupang

Sonbai Kecil was originally a breakaway group from the united

Sonbai Sonbai (also spelt ''Sonnebay'', ''Sonba'i'', or ''Sonbait'') was an Indonesian princely dynasty that reigned over various parts of West Timor from at least the 17th century until the 1950s. It was known as the most prestigious princedom of the At ...

(Sonba'i, Sonnebay) realm that dominated large parts of West Timor. The creation of the princedom was connected with the colonial rivalries of 17th century Indonesia. Sonbai allied with 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 ...

(VOC) against the Portuguese in 1655. The VOC had a post in Kupang in the far west since 1653 and was engaged in warfare with

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, whose dominions included

Larantuka Larantuka (, ) is a ''kecamatan'' (district) and the seat of East Flores Regency, on the eastern end of Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Like much of the region, Larantuka has a strong colonial Portuguese influence. The town (inc ...

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Administratively, it forms the largest island in the East Nusa Tenggara Province. The area is 14,250 km2. Including Komodo and Rinca islands ...

and

Lifau Lifau is a village and suco in the East Timor exclave of Oecusse District. The village is located west of the mouth of the Tono River. 1,938 people live in the suco. History Lifau was the first European settlement on the island of Timor. ...

on the north coast of

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 ...

. Part of the conflict was rivalry over the white

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 ...

(santalum album), a precious item that grew in certain quantities on Timor. After a series of defeats at the hands of the Portuguese from 1657 to 1658, a part of the Sonbai congregation migrated to the Dutch stronghold in Kupang together with another VOC-allied group, Amabi. Another part remained in the inland under Portuguese surveillance, and became the Sonbai Besar princedom. The Kupang area was inhabited by the

Helong people Helong people are one of the indigenous inhabitants of Timor Island in Indonesia. Most of them live in Kupang Regency, namely in West Kupang and Central Kupang; and some also settled in Flores Island and Semau Island. Their livelihoods are mainl ...

, but the newcomers were settled close to the Dutch fort without serious conflict with the original inhabitants.

Colonial cooperation

The Sonbai Kecil, Helong and Amabi groups were later joined by two further groups from north-western Timor, Amfoan (1683) and Taebenu (1688). These five congregations posed as loyal allies to the VOC, while the rest of Timor largely fell under the influence of the Portuguese Eurasians or

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 ...

. Up to 1749, the five allies lived in a state of low-scale hostility with the neighboring clients of the Topasses, in particular the princedom Amarasi. Sonbai Kecil was headed by a ruler known in Dutch records as

emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

(keizer). In the official Dutch ranking, he was second in rank after the Helong ruler. In the Timorese political tradition, however, he was a non-active, in a symbolic sense "female" (feto) figure who was not expected to handle the actual affairs of the princedom. Actual governance was done by two executive regents who were "male" (mone) in relation to the ruler. They belonged to the mutually related Saubaki and Loewis families and usually cooperated closely with the Dutch authorities. The seat of the ruler after was Bakunase, several kilometers south of the centre of Kupang, on the top of a steep hill overlooking the Kupang Bay.

Political development after 1749

The Topass attacked Kupang in 1749, but were decisively defeated by the VOC forces and their allies in the

Battle of Penfui The Battle of Penfui took place on 9 November 1749 in the hillside of Penfui, near modern Kupang. A large Topass army was defeated by a numerically inferior Dutch East India Company force following the withdrawal of the former's Timorese allies f ...

. After this event, a number of Timorese princedoms submitted to the VOC, so that the state of semi-siege of the Kupang area vanished. From 1776 to 1782, an abortive attempt was made to merge Sonbai Kecil with its sister realm Sonbai Besar in the interior, which in the meantime had fallen under Dutch influence. This arrangement failed badly, since the young ruler Alphonsus Adrianus hastily left Kupang in 1782 after intrigues against his person. After this the two Sonbai congregations remained divided. A side-branch of the ruling family, Nisnoni ("golden teeth"), came to power. The first of the line, Baki Bena, was visited by Captain

William Bligh William Bligh (9 September 1754 – 7 December 1817) was a Vice-admiral (Royal Navy), Royal Navy vice-admiral and colonial administrator who served as the governor of New South Wales from 1806 to 1808. He is best known for his role in the Muti ...

of the Bounty Mutiny, during the latter's stay in Kupang in 1789. The Nisnonis headed their congregation throughout the 19th century although the significance of the princedom seems to have dwindled somewhat. The territory included an area south of Kupang, to the south coast, but the borders with the other small princedoms in the Kupang area were ill-defined. The ruler Isu Nisnoni was killed by a sniper from Amabi in 1889, although the colonial authorities successfully prevented a confrontation between the two princedoms.

Colonial reorganization

In the early years of the 20th century, the Dutch implemented a real colonial rule in West Timor, and shortly after this they rationalized local governance in Kupang. In 1917, Sonbai Kecil, Amabi, Amabi-Oefetto, Kupang-Helong, Taebenu and

Funai is a Japanese consumer electronics company headquartered in Daitō, Osaka. Currently, it is in liquidation. Apart from producing its own branded electronic products, it was also an OEM providing assembled televisions and video players/recor ...

were merged into a larger self-ruling territory (zelfbesturend landschap) called Kupang (not including the town itself). From 1918, it was headed by a raja of the Nisnoni family, Nicolaas Isu Nisnoni. Under him were five ' or district rulers. In 1930, his sphere of power was increased with

Fatuleu Fatuleu is a district in Kupang Regency in the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara. It is located in West Timor about northeast of the city of Kupang on the highway to Soe. It is named after the mountain of Fatuleu ( Uab Meto: ''fatu l'eu' ...

, a princedom further to the east. Kupang was occupied by the Japanese in early 1942, who led a hard regime. Towards the end of their rule, Nicolaas Isu Nisnoni stepped down in favor of his son Alfonsus Nisnoni (r. 1945–1955).

Revolution and independence

Shortly afterwards, the Dutch troops returned, at the same time as the

Indonesian Revolution The Indonesian National Revolution (), also known as the Indonesian War of Independence (, ), was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between the Republic of Indonesia and the Dutch Empire and an internal social revolution during p ...

commenced. Alfonsus Nisnoni led the local branch of Persatoean Demokrasi Indonesia, an association which aimed at eventual independence for Indonesia. He still chose to cooperate with the Dutch authorities, and in 1947, the town area of Kupang (vierkante paal) was incorporated in the zelfbesturend landschap Kupang. After the achievement of Indonesian independence in 1949, the council of Timorese rajas (Dewan Raja-Raja) agreed to gradually abolish the traditional administrative functions of the rajas. President

Sukarno Sukarno (6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of the Indonesian struggle for independenc ...

paid a visit to West Timor in 1950 and was received by Alfonsus Nisnoni on arrival to Kupang. In 1955, the raja rule ended in Kupang, and the Nisnoni family withdrew to the role of adat (customary) leaders and local government officials.

''List of rulers''

* Ama Tuan Jr. 1659–1672 (son of Ama Tuan the Elder of Sonbai Besar) * Bi Sonbai (Usi Tetu Utang) 1672–1717 (daughter) "empress (''keizerin'')" * Bernardus de Leeuw 1717–1726 (son of a cousin) * Corneo Leeuw 1728–1748 (brother) * Daniel Taffy 1748–1760 (brother) * Jacobus Albertus Taffy 1760–1776 (nephew) * Alphonsus Adrianus of Sonbai Besar 1776–1782 * Baki Bena (Bernardus Nisnoni) 1776/82–1795 (brother of Jacobus Albertus Taffy) * Dirk Hendrik Aulasi 1795–1798 * Nube Bena (Pieter Nisnoni I) 1798–1821 (brother of Baki Bena) * Isu Baki Sonbai after 1821 (son of Baki Bena) * Ote Nuben Nisnoni mentioned 1828–1833 (grandson of Nube Bena) * Babkas Nube (Pieter Nisnoni II) ?–1839 (son of Nube Bena) * Meis Babkas Nisnoni 1839–1860 (son) * Pieter Messi Nisnoni 1860–1874 (son) * Isu Nisnoni 1875–1889 (brother) * Said Meis Nisnoni 1890–1902 (son) * Baki Bastiaan Meis Nisnoni 1905–1911 (brother) * Nicolaas Isu Nisnoni 1911–1917, of Kupang 1918–1945 (brother) * Alfonsus Nisnoni, of Kupang 1945–1955 (son)