Lifau is a village and suco in the Timor-Leste 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.
Dominican Order brothers carried on missionary work on the north coast of Timor after 1556. In 1641 they arrived at Lifau and baptized the royal family of
Ambeno.
A permanent Portuguese settlement arose in the 1650s, as many Portuguese moved from their old colonial seat
Larantuka on
Flores to Timor in response to the Dutch colonial settlement in
Kupang in westernmost Timor (1653). Lifau remained the centre for Portuguese colonial activities for more than a century, and was headed by a governor after 1702. In 1769 the colonial capital was moved to
Dili due to military aggression from the Eurasian
Topasses who opposed the politics of the governor. After this date the place lost its significance, since the Topasses preferred to keep their residence in
Pante Macassar further to the east.
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C.R. Boxer (1947), The Topasses of Timor. Amsterdam: Indisch Instituut te Amsterdam.
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Wheeler, T. (2004) East Timor. Footscray, VIC: Lonely Planet.
