The Democratic Republic of Timor also called East Timor is a country located approximately 400 miles northwest of Darwin, Australia. For long time East Timor was a Portuguese settlement. Indonesian occupied East Timor in 1975 and declared the region country’s 27th province of the following year. East Timor became a sovereign state on May 20, 2002. East Timor ranked 142nd on Human Development Index.

East Timor is a mountainous island; the highest point is Mount Tatamailau 9721 ft high. The climate in east Timor is hot and humid. The capital Dili is the largest city and has main port. The second largest city in East Timor is Baucau. Airports in Baucau and Oecusse are used for domestic flights. Dili airport is not capable of handling large aircrafts.

The President is head of the state in East Timor. The president is elected by vote for a five-year term. The President has no active role to play until government functions properly though has veto which he / she can use in case if required over certain types of legislations. The prime minister of East Timor is head of the government and appointed by the president.  East Timor has unicameral parliament, the Member of Parliament are elected for a five years term by popular vote. 

Politically, East Timor has divided into 13 districts. Again these districts are subdivided into 65 subdistricts, 443 sucos and 2,336 towns, villages and hamlets. The people living in East Timor are mainly Roman Catholics whose number is approximately 90% of the total population. Other minorities living in East Timor are Muslims (5%), Protestants (3%), Hindu (0.3%), Buddhist (0.1%), and rest traditional animist minorities.

East Timor's two official languages are Portuguese and Tetum. Austronesian is a local dialect spoken in East Timor. The culture of East Timor reflects numerous influences, including Portuguese, Roman Catholic, and Malay, on the indigenous Austronesian and Melanesian cultures of Timor. East Timor has a large and potentially lucrative coffee industry, which sells organic coffee to numerous Fair Trade retailers and on the open market. 

Education in East Timor