Tonga

Tonga is an archipelago in the South Pacific, in the heart of Polynesia, made up of more than 170 islands, a few dozen of them inhabited. A little over 100,000 people live there; the capital is Nuku'alofa. Tonga is the only kingdom in the Pacific, ruled by the Tupou dynasty since 1845, and the only archipelago in the region never colonised by a European power. It was once known as the "Friendly Islands". Tradition, faith and respect for the monarchy and for elders are still very strong.

Tonga stretches out in a long chain of islands of two kinds: low coral islands ringed by lagoons and beaches, and high volcanic islands. The archipelago sits on the Ring of Fire, along one of the deepest ocean trenches in the world, hence its volcanoes and earthquakes: in January 2022, the undersea eruption of Hunga Tonga, one of the most violent ever recorded, caused a tsunami and sent a shock wave around the world. There are turquoise lagoons, reefs and sea caves, and it is one of the few places in the world where you can swim with humpback whales, which come there to calve. The climate is tropical, on the cyclone track.

Settled about three thousand years ago by Austronesian navigators of the Lapita culture, Tonga built a sea empire from the 10th century: the Tu'i Tonga kings extended their reach by sea over a wide network of islands in western Polynesia, a rare case of a far-flung state in the Pacific. Captain Cook, warmly received, named it the "Friendly Islands" in 1773. In the 19th century King George Tupou I unified and modernised the kingdom and played the European powers off against each other, and in 1900 Tonga accepted a British protectorate that kept its throne intact. It regained full sovereignty in 1970, proud never to have lost its independence.

People speak Tongan, a Polynesian language, alongside English. The language still marks social rank, with different words for addressing the king, the nobles or commoners. Tonga is a deeply Christian and churchgoing country, mostly Methodist since the missionaries came: Sunday is sacred and protected by the Constitution; all trade stops and the whole country turns to worship and rest.

Tongan culture rests on strong values: respect (faka'apa'apa) for elders, nobles and the king, duty to family, and sharing. There is the art of tapa (ngatu), a decorated cloth of beaten bark given at major ceremonies, and the finely woven mats worn around the waist (the ta'ovala) as a sign of respect. There are ceremonial songs and dances such as the lakalaka, on UNESCO's intangible heritage list, the kava ceremony and great feasts. Life revolves around the extended family, the church, taro, yam and pig cooked in an earth oven.