Harmonie - A Brush with Nobility - Pangaimotu Island, Tongatapu, Tonga

A Brush with Nobility - Pangaimotu Island, Tongatapu, Tonga

Harmonie

Don and Anne Myers

Thu 4 Jun 2009 09:32

21:07.588S 175:09.819W

Although it's true that we were in Tonga last year, at that time we only visited one of the four island groups that make up the Kingdom of Tonga and we were only there for a short ten days so didn't really have a chance to get a real feel for the place. This year we plan to visit all four island groups and spend a total of about five weeks in Tonga before moving on to Fiji. Below is a little bit about Tonga followed by a summary of our tour of the 'big' island of Tongatapu.

The Kingdom of Tonga is made up of four island groups stretching about 350 miles from the southwest to the northeast: Tongatapu, Ha'apai, Vava'u and Niuatoputapu. In total there are 171 coral and volcanic islands (give or take a few since new islands appear now and then and others disappear as a result of volcanic activity), only 36 of which are inhabited. Total population is small at just over 100,000. An amazing 55% of the population is under age 25. An additional 100,000 Tongans live overseas in places like New Zealand, Australia and the US. The money that flows from Tongans living overseas back to their families living here in Tonga is a huge portion of per capita income and is what keeps many Tongan families afloat economically.

The Kingdom of Tonga became an independent state in the mid 1970's (previous to that the UK had some influence here) and is the only remaining Polynesian kingdom. There really is a king - complete with royal palaces, royal family and a hierarchy of nobles. The Tongan society is strictly based on rank, meaning the royal family has the highest rank, followed by the nobles and then the common people. The king and the nobles own all the land and the commoners work the land and pay the nobles part of their harvest for the privilege. The Tongan Kingdom is basically a feudal system. It's all very strange to us, but it seems to work for Tonga. Although the common people are poor by western standards, they seem to be happy, the crime rate is extremely low and the literacy rate is 99%. Of course the other major factor at play here is religion. The people took to Christianity in a big way when the missionaries arrived in the 1800's and have never looked back. We visited a small village on one of the more remote islands in the Ha'apai group the other day and were surprised to find not one, not two, not three, but four churches to service a village of 100 people. It's like living in Kentucky all over again. The Mormon church is big here, as well as Wesleyan, Catholic, and the Church of Tonga. It's not clear why the Tongans developed such an affinity for Christianity, but some say it's because the stories of the bible have a fair amount in common with the Tongan's old multi-god belief system. Whatever the reason, it's clear that the churches have contributed much to education and have probably played a large role in the high literacy rate. At the same time, it's true that the Tongan people have contributed much to their churches. Hopefully in the end it all balances out for the best.

Speaking of church, on the Sunday of the big storm, several of us took the water taxi from Pangaimotu Island to the main town of Nuku'alofa to attend the Wesleyan church. We chose to go because the Tongans are renowned for their singing ability, and we were told that a church service is the best way to experience it. We arrived before the Queen Mother (the only member of the royal family to attend that day) who sat in a special designated area and used a special designated doorway to enter and exit the church. The services did not start until she arrived and no one left until after she departed. The services were held in the Tongan language, but the singing was good. Afterwards families congregated outside the church long enough for this picture to be taken (picture 1). Note the women wearing the traditional woven mats over their skirts and dresses. The dorky looking guy in shorts and a t-shirt is one of the boaters that attended church with us, but apparently forgot that it might be a good idea to dress up a little.

A few days after we had all recovered from the big storm at Pangaimotu Island, eight of us decided to take a tour around the 'big' island of Tongatapu. Lolo, our driver, was quick to inform us that he in fact was the second son of one of the nobles. Because his noble father had taken off to Salt Lake City and his older brother had done likewise to Canada, Lolo, who had attended college in Hawaii, returned to Tonga to take care of his family's business (running the towns they own and watching over the common people) as well as run his own tour business. Lolo was very earnest and it was clear that he truly was interested in making Tonga a better place. Not bad for a noble. His taxi van did not sport any dashboard decoration though. Must be the Hawaiian influence.

Below are photos from our Tongatapu tour:

Picture 2 - Funerals and care of the dead after they are buried are a big, big deal in Tonga. The cemeteries are something to see with burial mounds topped with heaps of plastic flowers and quilts, made specially for the purpose, hung above. When a quilt wears out due to exposure to the elements, it is replaced by a new one crafted by the women of the family. We've never seen a quilt used in quite this manner before.

Picture 3 - This is the Royal Palace, located just outside the Nuku'alofa town center. Of course the king doesn't live here. He lives in a much more posh country estate several miles outside of town. The Queen Mother lives in this palace. It was built in New Zealand and transported to Tonga around 1870.

Picture 4 - This trilithon is known as the South Pacific's Stonehenge. It was built in the early 1200's and each large block weighs approximately 40 tons. It's purpose is unknown, but the current king is fairly certain that it was used to determine the seasons since on the winter solstice, the sun rises and sets in perfect alignment with the structure. Next to the famous trilithon were stalls filled with handicrafts for sale. Don decided he needed a carved wooden walking stick. It's possible that he really did need it because we are pretty sure he broke a toe when he slipped on the stairs leading down into the cabin several days earlier. However, others suggested the walking stick might better be used as a disciplinary tool. Unfortunately, it hasn't been effective as such.

I didn't get a picture, but it was about here (in between Stonehenge and the missionary beach) that we passed the Tongan minimum security prison. We knew it was the prison because next to the road, right outside the waist-high gates, was a wooden lean-to structure with a big sign above the wide doorway proclaiming it to be the 'Prison Market'. 'Prison Market?' we asked Lolo. 'Oh! Yes, yes, that's the prison market.' he said. 'The prisoners have to provide for themselves, so they gorw their own vegetables in the prison gardens and then sell their excess produce to the public to make money for clothing, cigarettes and other necessities.' Wow. What a concept. Prisoners fending for themselves with no assistance from the government and therefore, no assistance from the taxpayers. We all agreed that the idea of self-suficient prisoners would play well in the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand.

'Isn't it easy for the prisoners to run away with only a small fence between them and the outside world?' we asked Lolo. 'They could run away' Lolo agreed, 'but where would they go? This is a small island and everyone knows everyone. There is no where for an escapee to hide.' We pondered this for a moment while Lolo added, 'We also have a maximum security prison. It's located on a very small island just off the coast of this island. Sometimes the maximum security prisoners swim the channel to this island to get cigarettes. After they smoke, they swim back to the prison island.' 'They swim back?', we asked, incredulous. 'Yes, there are only about two dozen maximum security prisoners and everyone knows who they are, so they can swim back and forth between the islands, but they know they must always go back.' We decided Tonga was sounding better and better the more we heard about it.

Picture 5 - Lolo felt it was very important to take us to the beach where the missionaries first landed on Tongatapu. This is it. Very nice.

Pictures 6 and 7 - These are the blowholes along the southwest shore of Tongatapu. On a good day the incoming waves are forced up through natural vents in the coralline limestone coast and can shoot up to 30 meters in the air. I don't think we were seeing 30 meters...but it was still impressive.

Picture 8 - We used the day after our island tour to get ready for our departure from relative civilization. Our plan was to leave Pangaimotu Island on Friday, May 22 and sail 65 miles north to the more remote Ha'apai group of islands. Our preparation involved taking the water taxi to Tongatapu and walking the mile or so to the town of Nuku-alofa where a very nice internet cafe called 'Friends' was located. Here we had New Zealand style flat white coffees and scones while glued to weather forecasts and various banking sites on our computers. Don, Michael from Lady Kay and Sue from Storyteller are doing just that in this picture. After the weather and banking were taken care of, we stopped at the market for last minute fruit and vegetable provisioning (always an adventure), the bakery for bread and the 'grocery store', which was more of a corner store with a few bags of potato chips, some canned goods and thankfully for us, butter. Declaring ourselves ready, we returned to the boat to prepare for the next day's early morning start.

Anne