Tonga

Tonga has about 170 islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Tonga has a king. The capital city is Nuku'alofa.

Tonga is made up of about 170 islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. They form three main groups: Tongatapu in the south, Ha'apai in the center and Vava'u in the north, plus a few far-off islands.

Tonga is a kingdom: a king or queen is head of the country, working with a prime minister and an elected assembly. Tongan and English are the official languages. The 2021 census counted 100,179 people. The photo shows the Royal Palace in Nuku'alofa, the capital.

Tonga's islands are spread between latitudes 15° and 23° S and longitudes 173° and 177° W, in the Tongatapu, Ha'apai and Vava'u groups, with the Niuas (Niuafo'ou, Niuatoputapu, Tafahi) in the far north and 'Ata in the far south.

The Tonga Statistics Department's census of November 30, 2021 counted 100,179 people; a new census is planned for 2026. The monarch governs in consultation with the prime minister, and the 26-seat Legislative Assembly (Fale Alea) has 9 nobles elected by their peers and 17 representatives elected by all citizens aged 21 and over. Tongan and English are official; the currency is the pa'anga. The photo shows the Royal Palace in Nuku'alofa.

Nuku'alofa is the capital city.

It is on the island of Tongatapu. Most people in Tonga live on that island.

Nuku'alofa, on Tongatapu, is the capital and a major port with several wharves. Much of its work involves coconuts and coconut products. Tongatapu is Tonga's largest island, and nearly three out of four Tongans live there.

Other ports and trading centers are Neiafu in the Vava'u group and Pangai in the Ha'apai group. Vava'u Island has a large harbor almost surrounded by land.

Tongatapu, a raised atoll of 260.5 km², is the largest and most densely populated island and holds nearly three-fourths of the population; most Tongans live in villages. Nuku'alofa is the capital and a major port of entry, its economy built largely on coconut products.

Neiafu (Vava'u) and Pangai (Ha'apai) are the other ports and commercial centers, and copra and bananas are shipped from Pangai. Fua'amotu International Airport on Tongatapu links Tonga with New Zealand, Fiji, Australia, Samoa, Niue and Hawaii. The University of the South Pacific has an extension center in Nuku'alofa, and the private 'Atenisi Institute dates from 1975.

Some of Tonga's islands are volcanoes.

Other islands are low and flat. Tiny sea animals called corals help build them.

Tonga's islands sit on top of two lines of undersea mountains. The western islands are high islands pushed up by volcanoes, and four of them are still active. The highest point in Tonga, 1,033 meters, is on Kao Island in the Ha'apai group.

The eastern islands are low, topped with coral rock and limestone made by tiny sea animals such as corals. Tonga has no rivers. It is warm, about 27 °C in December and January, and cooler in June and July. Typhoons usually come between December and April, especially in the northern islands.

The islands are the summits of two roughly parallel undersea chains. Western high islands were raised by repeated volcanism, four still active: shield volcanoes such as Kao and Late have hard cones, while explosive ones such as Fonuafo'ou (Falcon Island) are ash and pumice that erode easily, so Fonuafo'ou has repeatedly appeared and vanished. Eastern low islands are capped by coral and foraminifera; a reef protects Tongatapu, but many unprotected Vava'u islands are shrinking.

Kao reaches 1,033 m (Britannica; Wikidata gives 1,030 m). There are no rivers. Rainfall runs from 1,620 mm in Ha'apai to 2,450 mm on Niuafo'ou. On January 15, 2022, the undersea volcano Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai, about 65 km north of Nuku'alofa, erupted, sending ash, gas and steam more than 20 km high and causing a tsunami and widespread damage.

Bats called flying foxes live in Tonga. They hang in trees in the day.

Humpback whales visit Tonga's warm sea.

In the village of Kolovai on Tongatapu, a colony of flying foxes, a kind of fruit bat, hangs in big trees by day and flies out at night to find food. The red-breasted musk parrot and the blue-crowned lory live on 'Eua, and tropicbirds nest on island cliffs.

Humpback whales visit Tonga's waters in their season. Southern humpbacks spend about mid-July to mid-October in warm waters, where calves are born. The photo shows a humpback calf off Moorea, in French Polynesia.

Britannica lists doves, rails, starlings and kingfishers among the land birds, the red-breasted musk parrot and blue-crowned lory on 'Eua, red-tailed and white-tailed tropicbirds on the cliffs, and the incubator bird on Niuafo'ou. Kolovai village on Tongatapu has a colony of Pacific flying foxes (Pteropus tonganus). Golden plovers, wandering tattlers and bar-tailed godwits pass through.

The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation describes Tonga's humpback whale season: Southern Hemisphere humpbacks are in low latitudes from about mid-July to mid-October to calve and mate, and calves are born without an insulating blubber layer. The photo shows a humpback calf off Moorea, French Polynesia.

People in Tonga make cloth from tree bark. It is called tapa.

Groups dance the lakalaka together at big celebrations.

Nearly all Tongans have Polynesian ancestors, and they are closely related to Samoans. Most families belong to a Christian church. Many people live in villages, some in traditional houses called fale, with sides of woven coconut leaves, reeds or wood.

Women make tapa cloth from bark and weave mats and baskets from pandanus leaves. In the lakalaka, often called Tonga's national dance, rows of up to several hundred people sing, clap and move together. Farmers grow squash, coconuts, bananas and vanilla to sell.

Almost the entire population is of Polynesian ancestry, with some Melanesian influence through contact with Fiji. About one-third belong to the Free Wesleyan (Methodist) Church and nearly one-fifth are Latter-day Saints. Education is free and compulsory from 5 to 14, and many Tongans have emigrated, especially to the United States and New Zealand.

All land is essentially owned by the monarchy, with estates divided among nobles; traditionally every man of 16 or over could receive a 3-hectare allotment. UNESCO inscribed the lakalaka in 2008 (proclaimed 2003): a dance of about 30 minutes for groups of up to several hundred, men on the right and women on the left, led by a punake who is poet, composer and choreographer. Other dances include the me'etu'upaki paddle dance and the tau'olunga.