50 free East Timor trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
East Timor, officially Timor-Leste, was the first new sovereign state of the 21st century, and this quiz covers how it got there: the sandalwood trade that drew the Portuguese, the founding of Dili in 1769, the Battle of Timor in World War II, the Carnation Revolution, nine days of independence in 1975 before Indonesia invaded, a 24-year occupation and genocide, the Santa Cruz massacre, two Nobel Peace Prizes, the referendum of 1999 and the flag-raising of 20 May 2002. Easy questions ask for the capital, the neighbours, the religion and the currency; the harder ones want the tautology hidden in the country's name, the meaning of 'Lorosa'e', the exclave surrounded by Indonesia, the highest mountain, the year Portugal founded Dili, the guerrilla leader captured in a tunnel and the crop that makes up 90% of non-oil exports. There is also Portuguese and Tetum, the tais weavers, the sacred houses, the Cristo Rei statue, the crocodile on the football shirts and the petroleum fund the country lives on. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the country, its people and its history, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital and largest city of East Timor?
Dili
The Portuguese founded it in 1769 after being pushed out of Kupang by the Dutch. Baucau in the east is the second city.
Q 02East Timor shares the island of Timor with which country?
Indonesia
The border was fixed by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 1914, dividing the old Dutch and Portuguese halves.
Q 03Which country lies to the south of East Timor across the Timor Sea?
Australia
Australian-led INTERFET troops restored order in 1999, and the two countries long wrangled over the oil and gas of the Timor Sea.
Q 04East Timor's independence on 20 May 2002 gave it what distinction?
First new nation of the 21st century
Xanana Gusmão was sworn in as its first president that day; UN membership followed on 27 September 2002.
Q 05Which European country ruled East Timor as a colony until 1975?
Portugal
Sandalwood drew the Portuguese in the 16th century, but the colony stayed a neglected trading post until the 1950s.
Q 06East Timor's two official languages are Tetum and which European language?
Portuguese
It is the only sovereign Asian country where Portuguese is official. English and Indonesian are 'working languages' under the constitution.
Q 07The name 'Timor' comes from a Malay word meaning what, so that the country's full name repeats itself?
East
So the country's name means 'East East'. In Tetum it is Timor Lorosa'e, 'where the sun rises'.
Q 08In which year did Indonesia invade East Timor, nine days after its declaration of independence?
1975
The invasion came on 7 December, and Indonesia declared the territory its 27th province the following July. The UN never recognised the annexation.
Q 09Which movement declared East Timor's independence on 28 November 1975 and led the guerrilla resistance?
Fretilin
The Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor held territory as an army until 1978, then fought on from the mountains.
Q 10By what name is the 1991 massacre of pro-independence demonstrators in a Dili cemetery known?
Santa Cruz
Footage smuggled out by a British cameraman turned world opinion. Balibo is where five Australian-based journalists were killed in 1975.
Q 11Which two East Timorese shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize?
José Ramos-Horta and Bishop Carlos Belo
Ramos-Horta spent the occupation lobbying abroad and later became president twice; Belo was the Catholic bishop of Dili.
Q 12In November 1992 Indonesian troops finally captured the leader of the armed resistance hiding where?
In a tunnel under a house near Dili
Xanana Gusmão was sentenced to life, then 20 years; he ran the resistance from Jakarta's Cipinang prison and later became the country's first president.
Q 13In which year did East Timorese vote for independence in a UN-supervised referendum?
Q 21In which year did the colonial power found Dili, beginning effective occupation of the island's east?
1769
They had lost Solor in 1613 and Kupang in 1652 to the Dutch, retreating first to Lifau in Oecusse.
Q 22What is the WWII guerrilla campaign by Timorese volunteers and Allied troops against Japan known as?
The Battle of Timor
Between 40,000 and 70,000 East Timorese civilians died. The last Australian commandos were pulled out in early 1943.
Q 23Which 1974 upheaval in the colonial power set East Timor's decolonisation in motion?
The Carnation Revolution
1999
Indonesia's President Habibie called the vote after a letter from Australia's John Howard. Pro-Jakarta militias then laid waste to the territory.
Q 14Which country led the INTERFET peacekeeping force that restored order after the 1999 referendum violence?
Australia
Major-General Peter Cosgrove commanded it. The UN then ran the territory through UNTAET until independence in 2002.
Q 15What currency does East Timor use?
The US dollar
It mints its own centavo coins for small change. Prices are often higher than in neighbouring countries.
Q 16About what proportion of East Timorese are Roman Catholic?
Nearly 98%
Only 20% were Catholic at the 1975 invasion; Indonesia's requirement that citizens follow a monotheistic faith drove mass conversions.
Q 17Along with which other nation is East Timor one of only two predominantly Catholic countries in Asia?
The Philippines
Both were colonised by Iberian powers. The 2026 ASEAN summit in the Philippines was East Timor's first as a full member.
Q 18Which coastal exclave of East Timor is entirely surrounded by Indonesian territory?
Oecusse
The Portuguese first settled at Lifau there in the 17th century. It became a Special Administrative Region in 2015.
Q 19What is East Timor's highest mountain?
Mount Tatamailau
Also known as Mount Ramelau, it rises 2,963 metres and is topped by a statue of the Virgin Mary; pilgrims climb it for sunrise.
Q 20Which fragrant wood was Timor's great export from the 13th century, drawing European traders?
Sandalwood
Honey and wax went too, and the Majapahit Empire recorded Timor as a source of tribute. Coffee took over as the cash crop in the 19th century.
Parties formed, civil war broke out in 1975 and the tiny Portuguese administration fled to Atauro island.
Q 24What minimum did a truth commission put on conflict deaths under Indonesian occupation from 1974 to 1999?
103,000
About 18,600 were killings and 84,200 excess deaths from hunger and illness. Some estimates run as high as 200,000.
Q 25East Timor's flag has a red field and a yellow triangle overlaid by a black triangle bearing what?
A white star
The design was first flown at the 1975 declaration and raised again at midnight on 20 May 2002.
Q 26The 27-metre Cristo Rei statue overlooking Dili was unveiled in 1996 as a gift from whom?
Indonesia's President Suharto
It marked the 20th anniversary of the annexation. Modelled on Rio's statue, it now stands as one of the country's main tourist sights.
Q 27East Timor's national football team is nicknamed 'Lafaek' after which animal, sacred in local legend?
The crocodile
Legend says the island itself is a crocodile that carried a boy across the sea and turned into land. The team joined FIFA in 2005.
Q 28Which crop made up about 90% of East Timor's non-fossil-fuel exports from 2013 to 2019?
Coffee
Yet all such exports total only about US$20 million a year; oil and gas revenue dwarfs everything else.
Q 29In the early 2020s, the Timor-Leste Petroleum Fund provided roughly what share of government spending?
80%
It held about US$19 billion in 2021, ten times the national budget, but withdrawals have exceeded sustainable levels almost every year since 2009.
Q 30How many municipalities is East Timor divided into?
Fourteen
Atauro island became the newest in 2022. Below them are 442 sucos, or villages, which reflect traditional community identities.