Micronesian actors perform the folk dance "Bamboo Pole Dance". Sina.com
The Federated States of Micronesia belongs to Oceania, located in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Hawaii and east of the Philippines. "Micronesia" means a small island archipelago with a small land area and a vast sea area. This is the birthplace of typhoons, but typhoons do not cause many disasters.
The official language of the country is English. The inhabitants of different islands speak different dialects, as many as nine, and do not share each other. More than 90% of the inhabitants are Micronesians, with simple customs, stable politics and good policing.
leader
The countries of Yap and Ponape continue the tradition of conferring titles on local ethnic leaders. Elected or canonized leaders of the region, they enjoy special constitutional privileges and have specific worship services for their people. The younger generations plucked flowers from the trees, woven them into lace hats and garlands, knelt on one leg, respectfully put them on the leader, and bowed their heads to salute and offer sacao juice (wine). The younger generations are not allowed to drink or smoke in front of the leader.
There are special men's houses in Yapu Prefecture, that is, rectangular tall houses made of grass, which are places for leaders to lecture or discuss major matters of their own people. The men sat around the leader with 2-3 fire boxes in the middle for roasting meat.
socializing
In some parts of the country, there is a custom of avoidance between son-in-law and mother-in-law. Women are beautiful for being obese. During the New Year's Festival or for weddings and funerals, live pigs are often given as gifts.
The residents of Michigan Prefecture are more relaxed and have a weak sense of time. In public places, women speak less and talk softly and slowly. Outsiders are not allowed to joke with women casually.
The residents of Yap are gentle and friendly, avoiding walking in front of people when interacting, believing that it will offend or disturb each other. When you have to walk past people, you need to bend over and apologize softly. Do not reach out and peep into other people's private homes, enter local private land, and should be allowed in advance.
In the Canton of Kosrae, Sunday is the day of religious activities, and alcohol consumption is prohibited in public places, and sports and recreational activities are prohibited.
trappings
Micronesia has a hot climate, and people dress mainly in shorts, short-sleeved shirts, and slippers on their feet. Men attending festivals or entering and leaving formal places generally wear suit pants and floral shirts, without ties. Women generally wear dresses.
Every year on March 1, the Yap Festival, local men wear loin cloth (wrapped in a white cloth to resemble a sumo wrestler), women wear flower crowns, garlands around their necks, and colorful over-the-knee hulas to sing and dance.
Some islands still retain a simple and primitive way of life, such as women wearing grass skirts and men wearing animal skins.
diet
The staple food of the locals is mostly sweet potatoes, taro, breadfruit and so on. They don't like to eat vegetables. Fruits include coconuts, bananas, mangoes, papayas, pineapples, etc.
Seafood is abundant here, with tuna production accounting for 70% of the world's production. Fish and shrimp are indispensable for entertaining guests, and the staple food is generally rice.
Locals make meat mainly based on barbecue, such as grilled chicken wings, grilled fish, grilled shrimp, grilled steak, grilled pork leg and so on. The local dessert is pudding made from rice, cocoa milk, sugar and eggs. Many people love to chew betel nuts, sometimes sandwiched with lime powder and tobacco leaves.
When locals invite guests to dinner, in order to show their sincerity and respect for the guests, the remaining meals will be packed and taken away by the guests.
Stone coins
Micronesia uses the US dollar, while the inhabitants of Yap use stone as currency, called fei. Fei is flat and round, with holes in the middle, and is shaped like an ancient Chinese copper coin, but the volume is much larger, with a diameter of tens of centimeters and a large diameter of several meters. For example, stone coins used for the sale and purchase of land and houses have a diameter of 4 meters and a weight of up to 5 tons.
Because the stone coins are inconvenient to carry and carry, most of them are stored in the open air, and the transaction only changes the name of the owner and marks are made on the stone coins, indicating that the ownership has been changed and the stone coins are not moved. Here, stone coins are not so much money as a universally recognized credit accounting system. The limestone that makes the stone coins is produced on palau Island, cut and loaded into ships across the sea and transported to Yap Island.
Site
The ruins of the famous nanmadol ancient city sit on several reefs on the southeastern tip of Pohnpei Island and on the edge of Temon Island. It is inferred that about 800 years ago, about 100 buildings were built on this land covering an area of about 18 square kilometers, using as many as 1 million basalt columns, each weighing between 5 and 50 tons. The complex is known to modern people as the "Venice of the Pacific".
So far, scientists have not found the source of these stones, do not know who, why such a large project was built on these islands and reefs, or why they gave up in a hurry before they were completed.
On July 15, 2016, the ruins of the ancient city of South Madur were inscribed on the World Heritage List.
(The author is former Counsellor of the Protocol Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs)