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Any description of Tongan culture that limits itself to what Tongans see as anga fakatonga would give a seriously distorted view of what people actually do, in Tonga, or in diaspora, because accommodations are so often made to anga fakapālangi. The following account tries to give both the idealized and the on-the-ground versions of Tongan culture.
Tongans or Tongan people are a Polynesian ethnic group native to Tonga, a Polynesian archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. Tongans represent more than 98% of the inhabitants of Tonga. The rest are European (the majority are British ), mixed European, and other Pacific Islanders .
As long skirts are the traditional apparel for Tongan girls, this is an occasion to show off her legs. If they are fair, the better. Putting oil on her exposed skin parts so that they shine enhances her beauty even more in the Tongan mind. Around her middle she wears a belt (kafa) also usually made from leaves and fragrant flowers.
Tongan narrative, Tongan mythology, or ancient Tongan religion, sometimes referred to as tala-ē-fonua (meaning, "telling of the land and its people") [1] in Tongan, is the collation of various myths, legends, stories, traditions, characters, creatures, spirits, and gods of the Polynesian islands that now make up the island nation of Tonga.
Tongan kava ceremonies are a variety of ceremonies involving the kava plant that play an integral part of Tongan society and governance.They play a role in strengthening cultural values and principles, solidifying traditional ideals of duty and reciprocity, reaffirming societal structures, and entrenching the practice of pukepuke fonua (lit. "tightly holding onto the land"), a Tongan cultural ...
Not just in Tonga, but throughout the South Pacific is a tradition of passing down land to eldest sons. To obtain their own land, younger sons needed to explore. Tangaloa, the chief Tongan god before the arrival of Christianity, was a younger sibling who created Tonga while searching for land from a canoe. His fish hook accidentally caught on a ...
Like all other Tonga dances, the gestures do have some relationship with the words, but are largely symbolic. Like in the ʻotuhaka the haka are supposed to be performed close the body, haka nounou (short armed) as opposed to the lakalaka. However the Vavaʻu tradition allows much wilder and wider arm movements. The lyrics of the song is ...
Not much is known about Tonga before European contact because of the lack of a writing system during prehistoric times other than the oral history told to the early European explorers. The first time the Tongan people encountered Europeans was in April 1616 when Jacob Le Maire and Willem Schouten made a short visit to the islands to trade with ...