At its centre, in Wehali, was the Nai Kukun, ‘The Dark Lord’, who represented the earth. He was ‘The One who eats reclining, who drinks reclining’ (mahaa toba/mahemu toba). He was also known as ‘The Female Lord’ and as a representative of the female attributes of the Earth. As such, he was—as is everything in Wehali—‘feminised’. In contrast with this ‘Dark Lord’ was the lord who spoke and acted on behalf of this shrouded, silent presence. This speaking lord was referred to as the Nai Roman, ‘The Visible Lord’. In historical terms, this figure was the Liurai of Wewiku. As Liu-Rai, this personage stood visibly ‘above the earth’, as ‘male’ (mane) on the ‘periphery’ (molin) of Wehali. This idiom is capable of continual, recursive extension: the Liurai, in turn, could be seen as ‘centre’ and ‘female’ in relation to the next sphere of rule, which was ‘male’ and ‘exterior’.

Wehali is a totally matrilineal area: all land, all property, all houses belong to women and are passed from one generation of women to the next. In contrast, most other Timorese societies (including other Tetun groups as well as the Rotinese and Atoni) are patrilineal in political orientation (although not necessarily in their total social organisation). In Wehali, men are exchanged as husbands in marriage, never women. And in legend as in reality, Wehali is the ‘husband-giver’ to other areas of Timor. Thus, whereas Wehali traces its origins within its sphere exclusively through women, surrounding realms trace their relations of origin through males, some of whom are said to have come from Wehali. The founder of the Sonba’i Dynasty among the Atoni peoples, for example, is recognised as having come as a lone male from Wehali.

In terms of the comparisons set out for discussion in this paper, Rai Wehali is conceived as the centre of Timor (Rai Timor) and of the Earth itself (Rai Klaran). It is a ‘female’ centre and extends without limit. As a centre, it represents the Earth itself. By comparison, the domains of the Rotinese and Timorese are bounded entities. The ruler of Amanuban, for example, held the title of ‘he who enclosed the land’. In contrast with Wehali, Termanu—and all the other nusak on Roti—are ‘male’ centred domains. The lord or lords concerned with the rituals of the earth are subordinate to the ruling male power of the domain. Amanuban—and other Atoni domains—are a curious halfway house. Amanuban’s formal structure is like that of Wehali: a central lord with four protecting lords, then four warrior lords. But Amanuban’s central lord displaced earlier lords of the earth and was distinctively ‘male’. However, once installed as ruler within a structure that implied (indeed required) a female centre, the authority of that ruler was ‘feminised’ and the rulers around him took on evident formal male characteristics as guardians of the centre.

It is interesting that the Tetun term for ‘settlement’ or ‘village’ outside Wehali is knua (> *banua). Wehali has no knua. The term knua, however, is used for Wehali in a specific metaphoric sense. In this sense, it refers to the ‘sheath’ of a sword. Wehali is that ‘sheath’. In regard to Wehali, it is said, Mola isin e mela knuan: ‘Take the sword but leave the sheath.’ According to the Wehali view of itself, as a centre, it can only give; it can never take. As permanent ‘giver’, Wehali cannot be subordinate. Hence in Timor there is only one polity like Wehali.