Not a building but a lineage — the sacred house holds a clan's ancestors, objects and obligations.
Why this channel
What you will learn here
Uma lulik is the organising idea of Timorese social life; understanding it makes everything else on the island legible.
Four short filmed conversations with the people who know this subject first-hand are being produced for this page by Stays of Timor. Each is two to three minutes — honest, local, and recorded in Timor-Leste.
The interviews
Four conversations, four angles
🎥Interview coming soon
Interview 1What an uma lulik is
House, archive, altar and constitution of a clan — all at once.
🎥Interview coming soon
Interview 2Building it: posts, roof and buffalo
The architecture, materials, and the labour and feasting a rebuild demands.
How the sacred house looks different across the island and why.
🎥Interview coming soon
Interview 4Burned and rebuilt
Destruction during the occupation and 1999, and what rebuilding means now.
In pictures
Culture & Belief
Sacred house, highlandsCeremony in traditional dressTebe Fatuk circleVillage life, Ataúro
Photos: Ministry of Tourism & Environment, Timor-Leste
Part of the Timor Information Channels — 28 subjects, told by the people who know them. Produced by Stays of Timor.
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