There are a variety of versions of the narrative of the founding of Amanuban. Here I will summarise the narrative account told by the late Raja of Amanuban, K. Nope, to A.D.M. Parera (1971: 127-9). The narrative links the ancestor of the ruling line of Amanuban to Roti and its traditions.

According to this narrative, the ancestors of the Nope and Isu lines came from Roti. After spending some time in Kupang, these ancestors became goat herders for Lord Abineno in Oekabiti. At the time, each night a goat would disappear. Ancestor Nope therefore took up guard at night and discovered that a great snake with a shining jewel in its head was stealing the animals. He and Isu stole the jewel and fled from Oekabiti with their treasure along the southern coast of Timor to a place at Tun’am in Amanatun. There they met the ancestors of Nitbani and Nomleni to whom they became wife-takers in return for a tribute of the harvest. This arrangement failed and so the two ancestors left Amanatun and moved on to Tunbesi in Amanuban where Tenis and Nubatonis were lords of the land (pah tuaf). Nope and Isu assisted Tenis and Nubatonis in trading sandalwood.

In time, these ancestors quarrelled over who was to become Raja and they agreed to resolve the issue by various contests. The first contest involved the planting of a banana tree that had been cut in two. Tenis and Nubatonis planted the tip of the banana, which failed to take root and grow; Nope, however, planted the base of the banana, which grew. The second contest involved the planting of sugar cane. This time Tenis and Nubatonis planted the base of the sugar cane while Nope planted the tip. Again, Nope’s plant grew. In their third contest, the ancestors lit torches to see which one would burn longest. Tenis and Nubatonis’ torch went out during the night when it became damp with dew. Instead of burning his torch, Nope took the jewel he had taken from the great snake and placed it into his torch. This jewel shone through the night until dawn. Thus Nope became ruler using both the name of Nope and that of Nuban (from Nubatonis). He elevated Isu and Fina as his male lords and Saé and Bako as his female lords, with Sole, Nome, Nabuasa and Teflopo as his meo-warriors. This created the first structure of the domain of Amanuban. Nope was installed at the centre of the domain surrounded by circles in groups consisting of four lords with different functions.

This narrative has various parallels with the foundation narrative for the domain of Termanu. Nope is an ‘outsider’ who triumphs over the local lords of the land by a series of contests, supplants these lords, and installs himself at the centre the domain. In analogous founding charters, the new lord drives out the previous lords of the land. Here, as is the case in Termanu, the previous ‘heads of the earth/land’ remain as subordinate lords in the domain.

As with the Rotinese narrative, the name of the domain is considered crucial. In Roti, the compact between the two ancestors initially establishes the name of the domain as Pada, after the head of the earth. Only later is the ruler’s name adopted as a second name. In the Amanuban narrative, there is a similar compromise. The ruler takes two names, one of which is that of the lord of the land. In effect, therefore, the domain retains the name, Nuban (Ama—Nuban: ‘Father(s)—Nuban’) of the supplanted lord of the land. As in the Termanu narrative, the Amanuban contest between the ancestors determines precedence among the constituent clans of the domain. The ordering of the domain follows the recurrent formula of four lords around a centre with a second group of lords (meo = warrior lords) around these inner lords.