Tonga: A Paradise On Earth

Tonga: A Paradise On Earth

By

Chandrasekharan Kunnath

Introduction

I lived 6 years in Tonga. I was selected by the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation (CFTC), London as an expert to work as the Staff Training Officer, Tonga Development Bank on a 4 year assignment. After completing the assignment, I continued to live in Tonga for 2 years practicing privately as an accountant registered by the Tonga Society of Accountants.

The Friendly Islands

Tonga is popularly known as the Friendly Islands and for good reason: one of the first things that a foreigner notices is the Tongan smile. It is a warm, welcoming smile of a happy and guileless person. As you walk along the road, you find everyone smiling at and greeting everyone else. No one is a stranger: everyone is a friend. Such behaviour is extremely rare in the rest of the world. The Tongan smile is unconditional: it does not depend on status or rank or appearance.

Geography

Area: 747 sq. km. (288 sq. mi.).
Cities: Capital--Nuku'alofa (pop. 34,000).
Terrain: 171 islands, mainly raised coral but some volcanic; 48 inhabited.
Climate: Tropical, modified by trade winds. Warm season (December to May), cool season (May to December).

Tonga is an archipelago directly south of Western Samoa. Its 171 islands, 48 of them inhabited, are divided into three main groups--Vava'u, Ha'apai, and Tongatapu--and cover an 800-kilometer (500 mi.)-long north-south line. The largest island, Tongatapu, on which the capital city of Nuku'alofa is located, covers 257 square kilometers (99 sq. mi.). Geologically the Tongan islands are of two types: most have a limestone base formed from uplifted coral formations; others consist of limestone overlaying a volcanic base. 

The climate is basically subtropical with a distinct warm period (December-April), during which the temperatures rise above 32oC (90oF), and a cooler period (May-November), with temperatures rarely rising above 27oC (80oF). The temperature increases from 23oC to 27oC (74oF to 80oF), and the annual rainfall is from 170 to 297 centimeters (67-117 in.) as one moves from Tongatapu in the south to the more northerly islands closer to the Equator. The mean daily humidity is 80%.

People

Nationality: Noun and adjective--Tongan(s).
Population (2010 est.): 103,365.
Age structure (2010 est.): 38% below 15; 8% over 60. 
Annual population growth rate (2010): 0.3%.
Ethnic groups: Tongan 98%, other Polynesian, European.
Religions: Christian.
Languages: Tongan, English.
Education: Literacy (2006)--98%.
Health: Infant mortality rate (2006)--19/1,000. Life expectancy at birth: 68.56 years (female 73 years; male 67.3 years).
Work force (2006): 35,670; Agriculture--65%.
Unemployment (2006): 4.9%.

Tongans, a Polynesian group with a very small mixture of Melanesian, represent more than 98% of the inhabitants. The rest are European, mixed European, and other Pacific Islanders. There also are about 500 Chinese.

More than two-thirds of the population of the Kingdom of Tonga lives on its main island, Tongatapu. An increasing number of Tongans have moved into Nuku'alofa, Tonga's capital and only urban and commercial center, where increasingly Western and indigenous Polynesian cultural and living patterns have blended. For instance, the extended family lifestyle is declining, with young couples choosing to live on their own. Nonetheless, village life and kinship ties continue to be important throughout the country. The Christian faith that has dominated Tongan life for almost two centuries is still influential. All commerce and entertainment activities cease on Saturday from midnight, and the constitution declares the Sabbath to be sacred, forever. Attempts to amend the Sunday law in recent years have been unsuccessful.

Primary education between ages 6 and 14 is compulsory and free in state schools. The state owns and operates 99% of the primary schools and 44% of secondary schools. Higher education includes teacher training, nursing and medical training, a small private university, a women's business college, and a number of private agricultural schools. Most higher education is pursued overseas.

Government

Type: Constitutional hereditary monarchy. 
Constitution: 1875 (revised 1970).
Independence: June 4, 1970. 
Branches: Executive--monarch, prime minister, and cabinet. Legislative--unicameral Legislative Assembly. Judiciary (Privy Council, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court, Land Court and Magistrates' Court)
Administrative subdivisions: Three main island groups--Ha'apai, Tongatapu, and Vava'u.
Political parties: People's Democratic Party, Friendly Islands Human Rights and Democratic Movement, Paati Langafonua Tu'uloa, Tonga Democratic Labour Party.
Suffrage: Universal at age 21.
Central government budget (2009-2010 est.): $100.1 million.

Tonga is the South Pacific's last Polynesian kingdom. Its executive branch includes the prime minister and the cabinet, which becomes the Privy Council when presided over by the monarch. In intervals between legislative sessions, the Privy Council makes ordinances, which become law if confirmed by the legislature. The unicameral Legislative Assembly is dominated by the royal family and nobles. It consists of nine nobles who are elected by the 33 hereditary nobles of Tonga; nine people's representatives elected by universal adult suffrage for 3-year terms; and the cabinet of 12-14 ministers, appointed by the monarch. The governors of Ha'apai and Vava'u are appointed to their offices and serve as ex officio members of the cabinet. The Legislative Assembly sits for 4 or 5 months a year.

The only form of local government is through town and district officials who have been popularly elected since 1965. The town official represents the central government in the villages; the district official has authority over a group of villages. 

Zero Crime, Zero Poverty, Zero Pollution & Zero Corruption

When I left Tonga in 1993, Tonga had hardly any crime, poverty or pollution. I have since heard disturbing reports of rioting and violence after His Majesty King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, a truly benevolent monarch, passed away in 2006.  He was an extraordinarily great man with his vision for modern Tonga. He was a big man with a big heart. He holds the Guinness record for the heaviest monarch in history. His passing was a tremendous loss to Tonga and Tongans. I understand that corruption has since crept into the administration leading to violence and riots in Tonga. Such events were unheard of in the history of Tonga. On his seventy-fifth birthday, the people of Tonga celebrated with prolonged festivities, traditional ceremonies and cultural events for several days.

The people

What does Tonga have that other countries do not have? Why do I call it a paradise on earth? The answer is: the people of Tonga. They are unique. Every year, numerous tourists visit Tonga. Tonga has almost no industries and the agriculture is mainly of a subsistence type. Most of the trade consists of goods imported by multi-national trading houses (e.g. Burns Philp & Morris Hedstrom). How does Tonga pay for all these imports without producing anything?  The answer is: partly through receipts from tourism but mainly out of remittances from Tongans living in America, Australia and New Zealand. Also, Tonga receives aid from Australia and New Zealand and many other countries regardless of their political affiliations.

A curiosity: the gold tooth

Anyone who has lived in Tonga has noticed that almost all the women have one gold tooth. This is not due to poor dental health! It is purely decorative! When a girl becomes a woman and decides that she has to decorate herself and has a gold ring or other ornament, she goes to a dental specialist asks him to melt down the ornament and use the gold to install a gold tooth! The gold tooth may also be a present from parents or elders on a girl's graduating or securing employment.

A flower worn behind the ear

In Tonga as in the rest of Polynesia, a flower worn behind a person's (especially a woman's) ear has a special significance. It is both an ornament and a signal. It signals to the world that the wearer has been taken (married or affianced). Tongans meticulously heed the signal and avoid embarrassment to themselves and to others.

Raised eyebrows

When you ask a Tongan a question expecting ‘yes' for an answer or when you make a statement inviting assent or agreement, you do not usually get a verbal response. Instead, the Tongan raises his eyebrows signifying ‘yes' or assent or agreement. This is not peculiar to Tonga. I have come across this behavior in Tanzania where I lived for 13 years but this behaviour is rare in other parts of the world.

Smoking women

A large proportion of Tonga women are addicted to cigarette smoking although most Tonga women do not drink. Society seems to condone smoking in women unlike many other countries in the Orient.

Bread straight from the oven

Among the many pleasant memories that I have of life in Tonga is the Sunday queue for hot bread straight from the oven. Sitani Mafi was baker by appointment to the King and the Royal Family. He was exempted from the rule that Sunday should be observed as the sacred Sabbath and no industrial or commercial activity was permitted on Sunday. Late in the afternoon on Sunday, long queues would form in front of a special retail outlet at the bread factory and people would buy fresh bread and eat it without any spread or with ice-cream that was also sold at the same outlet! I can assure the reader that the bread tasted simply wonderful!

Tapa

No account of life in Tonga would be complete without a mention of Tapa. Thisis bark cloth made in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, primarily in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji, but as far afield as Java,  New Zealand, Vanuatu,  Papua New Guinea (particularly in Oro Province around Tufi) and Hawai'i (where it is called kapa).

As Tonga is the country where tapa is still a part of daily life, the following description is given for that country. Although on other islands the overall process is about the same, there still might be several smaller or larger differences.

In Tonga hiapo is the name given to the paper-mulberry tree. People have bunches of them growing in a corner of their plantations. They are cut and brought home where the first task is to strip the bark from the trees. The strips are about hand wide and person long. The wood so left over is named mokofute. The bark consists of 2 layers. In the next step the outer bark is to be scraped or split off from the inner bark. This work is called haʻalo. The outer bark is discarded, the innerbark, named tutu or loututu, is left over. It is first dried in the sun before being soaked.

After this, the bark is beaten on a wooden tutua anvil using wooden mallets called ike. In the beating the bark is made thinner and spread out to a width of about 25 cm. This phase of the work is called tutu (or tutua). The mallets are flat on one side and have coarse and fine grooves on the other sides. First the coarse sides are used, and towards the end of the work the flat side (tā-tuʻa). The continuous "thonk" beats of the tapa mallet is still a normal sound in the Tongan villages. If several women work together they can make a concert out of it. In that case there might be one who tukipotu, beats the end of the tutua to set the rhythm.

When the strips are thin enough, several strips are taken together and beaten together into a large sheet. Some starch from the kumala, or manioke may be rubbed on places which are unwilling to stick. This part of the work is called ʻopoʻopo, the glue is called tou and the resulting sheet of tapa is called fetaʻaki. It then consists of two layers of strips in perpendicular direction, the upper one called lauʻolunga and the lower one laulalo. A knife or sharp shell named mutu is used to trim the edges, and the pieces fallen off in this process are called papanaki. When the white fetaʻaki is smoked brown, it is called sala.

Often the women of a whole village work together on a huge sheet of tapa fabricated as a donation to the church or their chief at an important occasion. Such sheets are about 3 meters wide and 15, or 30, or sometimes even 60 meters long. The 15 meter pieces are called launima (meaning: five-sheet, because the sheet is 5 squares), and the 30 meter pieces are called lautefuhi.

Conclusion

Tonga was a paradise on earth to me as long as I lived there. If things have changed for the worse since my leaving Tonga, I do hope they will change again for the better and Tonga will remain the paradise on earth it used to be!

 

 

 

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