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People live on only 45 of Tonga's 170 islands. The easterly islands are low and fertile, while those in the west are volcanic. The Tongans live off the land, and grow Cassava, Coconuts, and passion fruit for export. Tonga is the only Polynesian nation to be ruled by a king. Tonga is divided into five divisions: Eua, Ha'apai, Niuas, Tongatapu and Vava'u.
The divisions are further divided into 23 districts. Tropical beaches, a warm climate, and Tonga's friendly reputation, attract more than 35,000 tourists every year, mostly from New Zealand and the USA. Tongans are anxious that visitors may underminethe island culture. Wooden figures are carved by Tongan people to sell to visiting tourists. |
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| HISTORY |
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| Archaeological evidence shows that the first settlers in Tonga sailed from the Santa Cruz Islands, as part of the original Austronesian-speakers.It also places Tonga as the oldest known site in Polynesia for the distinctive Lapita ceramic ware, at 2800-2750 years ago. The Lapita people lived and sailed, traded, warred, and intermarried in the islandsnow known as Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji for 1,000 years, before more explorers set off towards the east to discover the Marquesas, Tahiti and eventually the rest of the islands of the Pacific Ocean.For this reason, Tonga, Samoa and Fiji are described by anthropologists as the cradle of Polynesian culture and civilization. |
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| POLITICS |
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| Tonga is a constitutional monarchy. The reverence for the monarch is likened to that held in earlier centuries for the sacred paramount chief. Criticism of the monarch is held to be contrary to Tongan culture and etiquette. A direct descendant of the first monarch, King George Tupou V, his family, some powerful nobles, and a growing non-royal elite caste live in much wealth, with the rest of the country living in relative poverty. The effects of this disparity are mitigated by three factors: education, medicine, and land tenure. |
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| CLIMATE |
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| The climate of Tonga is basically subtropical. Because the islands are in the Southeast trade wind area, the climate is cooler from May to December, when the temperature seldom rises above 27 degrees c. The mean annual temperature is 23 degrees C, ranging from an average daily minimum of 10 degree C in winter to an average maximum of 32 degree C in summer. Average annual rainfall, most of which occurs from December to March during the hot season, is 160 cm on Tongatapu, 257 cm on Niuatoputapu, and 221 cm on Vava'u. The mean relative humidity is 80%. |
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| ECONOMY |
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Tonga's economy is characterized by a large non-monetary sector and a heavy dependence on remittances from the half of the country's population that lives abroad, chiefly in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. The monetary sector of the economy is dominated and largely owned by the royal family and nobles.
This is particularly true of the telecommunications and satellite services. Much of small business, particularly retail establishments on Tongatapu, is now dominated by Chinese immigrants who arrived under a cash-for -passports scheme that ended in 1998.The manufacturing sector consists of handicrafts and a few other very small scale industries, all of which contribute only about 3% of GDP.Commercial business activities also are inconspicuous and , to a large extent , are dominated by the same large trading companies found throughout the South Pacific. |
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| PEOPLE |
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Nuku'alofa is the Capital City with an area of 748 sq.km and population of 102,200.Tongan, English are the main languages spoken. Major religion is Christianity. Pa'anga (Tonga Dollar) is the currency used. Almost two- thirds of the 112,422 inhabitants of the Kingdom of Tonga live on its main island, Tongatapu. Although an increasing number of Tongans have moved into the only urban and commercial centre, Nukualofa, where European and indigenous cultural and living patterns throughout the country.
Everday life is heavily Influenced by Polynesian traditions and especially by the Christian faith. Tonga’s education system is free and mandatory for all children up to the age of fourteen , with only nominal fees fro secondary education, and foreign funded scholarships fro post -secondary education.Tongans are well educated , with a 98% literacy rate. |
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