Page 336 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

Taiwan started a journey and the first place they went to was Nusantara (Indonesia). The
sign of this ‘sailor community’ is marked by the strategy of travelling across the bodies of
water, for example the straits between Taiwan, the Philippines isles, the Sulawesi Sea, and
any kinds of deep sea indentation around them. As you can see in the first writing, this
aural tradition is used a lot as the materials to write the history of an area.

The Nature: the Profane and Sacred
One of the main themes in a lot of publications about the Melanesian area is the
perspective of nature. This part focuses on the profane and sacred reviews that describe an
understanding of nature. This writing is in the religious context of Timor people. The data
taken was based on the research notes from all over the island (Neonbasu, 2005, 2011).
Concerning the sacred and profane notes, the life of the Timorese People (Melanesians)
covers both fundamental elements, with notes that the sacred is the main element here so
this aspect is the one that will always control everything that happens to men. Almost all
of human activities that are related to personal or other matters have a spiritual dimension
with a sacred value that means conditio sine qua non, that it is absolute and needs to be paid
attention to. What is interesting about the paradigm of the traditional life of the people is
that the sacred value always influences all aspects of human life although the formula of it
is not too popular for everybody (Eliade, 1987, Pals, 2001).
The evidence of how important the sacred dimension in the life of the Timorese people
is the perspective of the local people’s life which always revolves around a center that is
considered very special. This central orientation is always seen as a sacred place to live
and kept well by the people, personal or communal (family and community). This special
treatment is based on the presence of God around the place considered the center. That
place becomes a kind of golden bridge that connects men to invisible beings, between
men’s work and contemplated element of invisible things, between the way men think and
the ultimate elements of human substance that are not caged in time and place. Once in a
while, it is difficult to explain this invisible aspect.
In reality, the central position of God is not only elaborated formally in deciding on
some ‘particular center’ but is also revealed in the community’s patterns and habits
when using the terms that have to do with nature. In daily sayings, the use of ‘the sacred’
becomes the benchmark and foundation of human life. For that, people will know more
about sacred reality if they use the same signs and symbols. That is why the signs and
symbols show a ‘hidden something,’ ‘something that should be revealed,’ ‘something

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