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goes back millennia, Animism has been practiced since the island was first inhabited. It’ s a belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Through a possession of agency and free will all objects, and even some words, have an animated spirituality that centres on the supernatural universe and a concept of the immaterial soul. In fact, most Indigenous peoples have similar beliefs, it’ s a concept that predates organised religions by many thousands of years.
When Dutch and then Portuguese traders first made contact with the islands around Timor, around five hundred years ago, the spirituality of the people was forced into question, and many were encouraged to join a monastic belief such as Christianity. The Catholic Church was big on pushing its beliefs onto other people, especially those said to be less enlightened.
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