Welcome back to Taufonua, a blog where I educate people about the beautiful islands of Tonga. In this blog post I will talk about the rich culture and people of the islands. If you’re going to visit Tonga anytime soon it would be highly beneficial for you to read this to help you understand their culture better! Thanks for reading!
To start I want to bring up the strong importance of family. Family is as important to the Tongan people as anywhere else in the world. They have four core values or principles that they use with family, Fefaka’apa’apa’aki meaning to have a mutual respect, Feveitokai’aki which means mutual obligation fulfillment, cooperating, and also sharing , Lototoo which breaks down to having generosity and humility, and last but not least, Tauhi vaha’a which is a commitment to loyalty with your family. In a Tongan family the elders are treated with the highest level of respect. Their way of life hasn’t changed much since the beginning and it’s refreshing to see how much they value one another.
Another integral part of the Tongan culture is mat weaving. This is an activity practiced by the Tongan women in groups. While weaving they will sing or talk to each other. The mats that they make are a very important part of the Tongan home. For any special occasion such as a birth, marriage, funeral, or various other occasions these mats are given as gifts. Mats can be passed down from generation to generation, some families have them dating back hundreds of years. As you can see in the picture here they are unlike any mats found in other parts of the world. They represent the people of Tonga and their culture perfectly.
Next we jump into the food of Tonga… I know you’ve been waiting for this part! We all love food and if you haven’t had the fresh cuisine of Tonga you’re really missing out! It’s simple but very unique. Tongans frequently indulge in treats like raw fish with a coconut cream and lemon marinade, corned beef with coconut milk, and many more interesting creations. When you go to a typical Tongan feast, you better come hungry! At these feasts you can expect to see up to 30 different dishes on the buffet line… Wow! If you ever do visit Tonga don’t forget to check out how they cook their food as well! Experience what an underground oven looks like and many other cool forms of cooking that we don’t use in the western world.
Well I hope that you learned a little bit more about the great islands of Tonga and that if you plan a vacation you’ll be just a little bit more prepared than before! Feel free to continue looking around my blog for more posts about this wonderful country and wonderful people. Don’t forget if you have any questions or comments you can always reach me at my Contact Page!
This post was especially sponsored by our friends at Gladstone Dog Training . Don’t forget if you take a trip to Tonga you can always get your pet boarded here and trained at the same time, great!
The ancient Kingdom of Tonga is Polynesia’s oldest and last remaining monarchy. The Kingdom lies 3200 km northeast of Sydney and 5000 km southwest of Hawaii. Due to its position just west of the international dateline, Tonga is the first country in the world to usher in each new day. The Kingdom of Tonga comprises 171 islands which are spread across 700,000 sq km of ocean. Tongatapu, the main gateway to the islands, is served by Pacific Blue with direct flights from Auckland and Apia and connections from Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne and by Air New Zealand with direct flights from Auckland, Apia and Los Angeles, by Air Pacific with direct flights from Fiji.
ferry trip from Tongatapu.