Here's a geography fact that sounds made up but isn't. Timor-Leste has accidentally been called East East for over 400 years.
Does "Timor-Leste" Literally Just Mean "East East"?
Yes. And it gets better.
The literal translation of the word "Timor" in Malay and Indonesian is "East" (Timur).
When the Malay traders arrived here and subsequently named the island "Timor", they simply noted which direction it was from wherever they were standing.
The country of Timor-Leste is located on the island of Timor, which is shared between West Timor (Indonesia) and the eastern part of the island, which is East Timor, the country.
Timor-Leste Flag
Arrival of the Portuguese
When the Portuguese came to colonise the area in the early 16th century, they tagged "Leste" onto the end of Timor, which is also Portuguese for "East".
They apparently didn't realise that "Timor" already meant "East" in Malay, so the literal translation of "Timor-Leste" is "East East".
It was a good intention that simply went weird.
Indonesian Control
In 1975, the Indonesian Government took control of the area and renamed it "Timor Timur".
Again, "East East", this time in Bahasa Indonesia.
Fast forward to the independence era in 2002, and the new country government chose the full official name of the country as the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (in the official language of Tetum: Repúblika Demokrátika Timor-Leste).
Which contains the word "East" twice in both languages, as it had already been for the previous four hundred years.
Timorese
The Timorese themselves are more sensible and just call it Timor and leave it at that.
It is genuinely one of the best accidental facts in geography.
Just like the word Sahara simply means desert, making the Sahara Desert the Desert Desert. Or the River Avon in the UK, where Avon just means river, making it the River River.
But this is the country of Timor-Leste, in the Timor Timur region, on the island of Timor.
The country of East East, in the East East region, on the East Island.
The country sits at the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago.
The whole region is located in Southeast Asia.
You simply can't go further east from Timor-Leste.
You're going to think about this every time you tell someone where you've been.
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Timor-Leste Travel Guide
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Halef Gunawan
Halef is Social Media and Marketing Specialist at Koryo Tours
Born and raised in Indonesia, he moved to the U.S. for college and later pursued full-time travel in 2019. Stranded in Sabah, Malaysia, during COVID, he and his partner, along with their German Shepherd, Kana, embraced van life and have been exploring North America since 2020.
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