conflict with the Portuguese. During the pre colonial period, the Javanese empires whose fortunes are high between the X and the XV centuries never have any influence over East Timor. The island is also unaffected by the religious influences that mark most of the Malay population from Java to the outer islands. During the first centuries of the Christian era, those people are influenced by Hindu polytheist currents, in the wake of immigrant waves from India. A few centuries later, namely during the VIIIth century, it is Buddhism that will make its mark. It is by then that the biggest Buddhist temple in the world is built at Borobodur. To this day, Indonesia is the most populous predominantly Islamic country in the world, with around 88 per cent of its 192 million inhabitants officially professing the Islamic cult. When the Portuguese merchants and missionaries arrive in East Timor by the beginning of the XVIth century, in stark contrast to the rest of the archipelago, its population is animist and knows no written words. Neither Hinduism nor Buddhism nor even Islam has penetrated the people of Timor, totally untouched by the dominant cultural influences of Malaysia, Java, and Bali. There is by then huge trade between China, Malacca, and other regions now belonging to Indonesia. Timor had sophisticated contacts with the world, well before the arrival of the Portuguese. The kingdom of Belos (see below) was encompassing most of the island and the Chinese were frequent visitors to these lands. The local indigenous calendar closely follows the Chinese. The pony or Kuda is from Asian ancestry and existed well before the arrival of the European. Musical instruments are Asian, in both design and sound. It is part of the Chinese lore that the Liurai of Besicama (the old Belos’ capital) paid an annual tribute to the Chinese Emperor, before the (Portuguese) Dominican friars were established in the island after 1566. By then, the power of liurais was based upon the riches in sandalwood (said to be the best in the world) and this was the cause for intertribal wars. Liurais increasingly needed land to expand their sandalwood plantations and thus, their empire. Timor is already divided then in two confederations of kingdoms:
One under the ĂŚgis of the Sombay kingdom, or confederation of