The Kingdom of Tonga is located on the western side of the South Pacific Ocean, adjacent to the Fiji Islands. Just over 100,000 people live on 173 small islands. Tonga has been a constitutional monarchy since 1875 and became a vassal of the British Empire in 1900. With a land area of only 750 square kilometers, it is one of the few countries in the world with negative GDP growth.
1. The island of friendship
Tonga was ruled by the Tuyi royal family more than a thousand years ago, and the island's inhabitants have been simple for generations. In 1777, the famous British navigator Captain Cook encountered a storm in the Pacific Ocean, and many of his companions died in shipwrecks.
Captain Cook himself contracted wind chill and discovered an island while his life was in danger. People landed on the island for help, and they were warmly received by the Tongans, who gave them medicine and food. Since then, the British have called it the "Friendship Islands", and this is the first contact between Westerners and the Kingdom of Tonga.
2. The world's largest "sundial"
The capital of Tonga has a 7-ton "rigui" built in 900 AD, just two hundred years after the mainland. It is also the world's largest surviving timer, and its existence testifies to the astronomical culture of the Tongan people.
3. Extremely simple royal palace
Tonga is the only constitutional monarchy in Oceania, and the current royal family was established in 1845, making it the fourth dynasty in Tonga's history. Two hundred years ago, the people of Tonga built simple palaces out of wood and stone, which are still in use today. It is only as tall as a three-story building and has an area of just over a hundred square meters.
4. Most schools in Tonga are founded by churches
As a poor country, Tongan has a higher literacy rate than Australia and New Zealand and ranks first in Oceania.
In 2001, the government and the church reached an agreement that the government would provide policies to support the development of the church, and the church would establish colleges to improve the level of education, so nearly eighty percent of the country's secondary and higher education colleges were founded by Christian churches.
5. New Members of the United Nations
Due to their perennial isolation, Tongans do not pay attention to diplomatic construction, and only more than 50 countries in the world have established diplomatic relations with them. In September 2023, the United Nations approved Tonga's application for membership, becoming the 188th country and currently the least qualified country to the United Nations.
6. The origin of Pacific costume culture
Tonga has a very hot climate, and girls here usually go out with a dry umbrella, a custom that has been passed down for thousands of years. The traditional dress for women here is a long skirt, and for men, a short skirt called "Farah Farra". Moreover, the costume culture of several surrounding island countries is influenced by Tonga.
7. The fourth largest instant noodle manufacturing country
Although the land area of Tonga is less than the size of a county on the mainland, they pay attention to diversified development, including shipyards, steel factories, textile factories, tobacco factories, food factories and so on. The output of instant noodles ranks fourth in the world, second only to China, Japan and South Korea.
8. One of the countries with negative GDP growth
Tonga is one of only a few countries in the world with negative GDP growth.
Due to factors such as overfishing and climate in recent years, the fishing industry that Tongans are proud of has plummeted, and the cultivation methods are also primitive and the yield is not high. The average GDP growth rate in these years was -1.7%.
9. Hierarchical hierarchies
There is no equality for everyone in Tonga, there is a strict class system. The first class is the royal family headed by the king; The second class was the nobility headed by tribal leaders; The third class is talented civilians.
The parliament of the entire country consisted of nine representatives of the nobility and seventeen representatives of the plebeians.
10. A country where fat is beautiful
According to statistics, the average weight of women in Tonga is 71 kg, which is one of the countries with the highest obesity rate. But people here take fat as beauty, and women are more likely to marry if they are burly.
11. A bottle of Coke costs fifteen yuan
Tonga's legal tender is the "panga", which is generally not recognized by neighboring countries due to the great fluctuation of exchange rates. Because of the inaccessibility of transportation, the prices here are extremely high. At the bazaars in Tonga's capital, it costs about fifteen yuan to buy a bottle of Coke.
12. The origin of Tongan coins
Before the eighteenth century, Tongans did not have a financial system, and their citizens lived in barter. It wasn't until 1806 that a steamship was attacked while passing through Tonga, looting the ship's wealth.
The round metal Tongans, however, did not know their usefulness and named it after a plant on the island, "Panga". Later, survivors of the hijacked ship told them that the metal could be exchanged for food, and only then did Tongan have a sense of "money".