[1] This overwhelmingly (95.4%) Roman Catholic area enjoys some international renown for its Holy Week celebrations.

[6][7] Larantuka District comprises eighteen urban communities (kelurahan) and two rural villages (desa), listed below with their areas and their populations as officially estimated for mid 2023,[1] together with their postcodes.

The main part of the town is situated along the eastern and southern coasts of the promontory created by Mount Ile Mandiri (which rises to a height of 1,510 m), and thus on the lower slopes of that mountain.

For long years there was a bloody struggle for power between the families da Costa and de Hornay.

Trade was flourishing when the “white Portuguese” came by order of the king of Portugal to exert influence, on Timor.

In Larantuka the most powerful organisation was A Confraria da Rainha do Rosário, the brotherhood of the rosary queen, which exists still this day.

They have a big square platform on the bow where fishermen line up with bamboo poles, flipping hooked tunas.

[12] The celebrations center on two religious statues, one of Jesus Christ and one of the Virgin Mary brought by Portuguese missionaries Gaspar do Espírito Santo and Agostinho de Madalena in the 16th century.

Devotees likewise surround the chapel of Tuan Ma in nearby Lohayong village where the statue of the Virgin Mary is kept.

[13][14] On Holy Thursday, devotees enact the tikam turo ritual that prepares the route of the next day's seven-kilometer procession by planting candles along the road.

After the candle is prepared, devotees attend the munda tuan ritual in which members of a religious fraternity known as the Konfreria Reinha Rosaria (Brotherhood of the Queen of Roses) bathe the statues of Jesus and Mary.

The holy water used is afterward considered special and is saved to cure ill children and to help women having birth complications.

[13] On the morning of Good Friday, the raja of Larantuka opens the door of the chapel of Tuan Ma thus making many for devotees to enter.

His clan, the Diaz Vieira de Godinho, enter first followed by the brotherhood members and the rest of the population.

The procession has eight stops, each representing a major clan of Larantuka (among which are the Mulawato, Sarotari, Amakalen, Kapitan Jentera, Fernandez da Gomez, Diaz Pohon Sirih, and Diaz Vieira de Godinho clans).

At each stop, there is a small chapel where a short prayer and devotional singing honor the suffering of the Passion.

When the statues of Jesus and Mary are united, they are brought together to Larantuka Cathedral where many devotees attend a Good Friday service that lasts all night.