Typical Timor village

Depiction of a traditional house from the Lautem region, the easternmost region of East Timor. According to Cinatti (1987), there are seven types of houses in traditional Timorese architecture. One of these regions, Lautem, is home for the Dagadá-speaking populations of the Fataluku linguistic ethnic group, "builders of houses of surprising originality and aesthetic beauty”.
The region's population tends to congregate in villages of 40 to 50 houses, some of them for communal use, which are located along roadsides or forest fringes. The dagadá house is the most unusual structure found in the entire country, according to Cinatti, "both for the technique and care going into the work and for the lightness and decorative richness". Elevated more than three metres from the ground, the wooden floorboards rest on a complex system of beams on top of four thick pillars. Above the walls of the dwelling, the steeply sloping roof is clearly shown, covered in a dark, fibrous mantle of gamuti, which rises to eleven or twelve metres off the ground. One metre above the ground and under the raised floor of the house is a wooden platform (Lautem). From this lower platform, the main part of the house is entered by means of a ladder and through an open trapdoor in the loft. The interior gets its light from one or two small windows and ventilation holes.
Ruy Cinatti and others in Arquitectura Tradicional Timorense, p. 55-60 and 120-155; Manuel Correia Guedes in Arquitectura Sustentável em Timor-Leste, p. 32-40