Malo’e’lelei, My name is Kalani and i’ll be telling you all about the exquisite islands of Tonga and about their diverse culture.
Tonga is one of the many countries in Polynesia, it is made up of over 170 islands within the entire kingdom with the largest island named Tongatapu which is home to the capital Nuku’alofa in the northern coast of the island. Nuku’alofa is also the most densely populated island in Tonga with a population of 74,611 as of 2016 of 101,133 as of 2016 also, the national language and culture is Tongan. The King of Tonga is King Tupou VI aged 62, Tonga is interestingly one of the very few countries that have never been invaded/colonised by another country in history, which led the monarchy to lead on ever since the islands were discovered by the Tongans which is still happening today with King Tupou VI.
Tonga is a country that is very creative with their favoured delicacies as such they have dishes such as Kapisi Pulu which is a popular dish across the islands which is created with corned beef, tomatoes, onions, and coconut cream, this dish is commonly eaten during special occasions. Tongans also like eating many other dishes that are also eaten across all of the pacific islands like Ota'ika which is very famous in Polynesia, Ota'ika is a dish of Raw Fish served in fresh coconut cream.
The Kingdom of Tonga is rich when it comes to their History. It is believed that Polynesians first immigrated to the islands of Tonga around 2,830 and 2,846 years ago, though it was only discovered by European explorers in 1616 by Dutch Explorers, Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire. Much before they discovered Tonga, The tongans in their early history created Megalithic Structures such as the Haʻamonga ʻa Maui or the Langi Terraced Tombs. The native wildlife of the Kingdom of Tonga was much different from around 3,000 years ago to now, back in the early days of Tonga there were many Large Flightless Birds and Lizards and many Birds capable of flying but there were no Livestock like what we eat today, there were no cattle, no pigs, no sheep, nothing that we are used to now in the modern timeline of Polynesia and the Kingdom of Tonga, Tonga also competed in WWI with a identified army of 91 soldiers fighting for Tonga.
As described above, the Kingdom of Tonga is a very special place in the Pacific that has a lot of meaning to it’s name and culture.
