oceania • TLS
Timor-Leste
Location marker · geographic overview
8.83° S / 125.92° ETHE WORLD, ONE COUNTRY AT A TIME
- Capital
- Dili
- Population
- 1,400,638 2024
- Area
- 14,874 km² (year unavailable)
- Languages source-listed
- Portuguese, Tetum
- Currency
- United States dollar (USD)
- Geography
- Island country
Population: World Bank 2024. Other facts: REST Countries snapshot. Sources & limitations.
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Discover Timor-Leste
FROM THE TRAVEL GUIDE · Timor-Leste
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as Timor-Leste (Tetum: Timór Lorosa'e) or East Timor, is one of the world's newest countries: after a long struggle, it gained independence from Indonesia in 2002 and is now an off-the-beaten-path destination for diving and adventure. A former Portuguese colony, it is one of only two countries in Asia with a Roman Catholic majority, the other one being the Philippines.
Landscape & landmarks
Timor-Leste is well positioned for community-based ecotourism, which has been written into the nation's tourism strategic plan. The Nino Konis National Park (situated in the eastern part of the country) is a well protected area and considered as some of the last surviving zones of tropical lowland rainforest in the world with rich coastal environment.Read the see section ↗
Food & everyday culture
The staple food in Timor-Leste is rice. Commonly grown food crops include taro, cassava, sweet potatoes and maize. Beans, cabbage, cowpeas, onions and spinach are well-liked vegetables. People also rear poultry, goats and pigs. Fish forms an important part of the diet and acts as a supplement to any meal. Most traditional Timor-Leste recipes use a generous dose of spices.Read the eat section ↗
Excerpts from Wikivoyage contributors, revision 2026-09-12. CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected excerpts; wiki formatting removed; omissions marked […]. Guide wording and any figures belong to this dated source; they do not replace the atlas statistics above. Food descriptions are not official national-dish designations.
A little more to discover +
- National flower
- Not yet verified
- Official national dish
- Not yet verified
- Representative food
- Not yet verified
- Subregion
- South-Eastern Asia
- Calling code
- +670
- Internet domain
- .tl
- Land border codes
- IDN
Quick facts
- Traffic keeps to the left side of the road. Source ↗
- The country-code web domain is .tl. Source ↗
- The source lists monday as the start of the week. Source ↗
Population: World Bank 2024. Other facts: REST Countries snapshot. Source-matched September 26, 2026; not live data. Sources & limitations.