The Tongan archipelago has been inhabited for perhaps 3,000 years, since settlement in late Lapita times. The culture of its inhabitants has surely changed greatly over this long time period. Before the arrival of European explorers in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the Tongans were in frequent contact with their nearest Oceanic neighbors, Fiji and Samoa. In the 19th century, with the arrival of Western traders and missionaries, Tongan culture changed dramatically. Some old beliefs and habits were thrown away and others were adopted. Some accommodations made in the 19th century and early 20th century are now being challenged by changing Western civilization. Hence Tongan culture is far from a unified or monolithic affair, and Tongans themselves may differ strongly as to what it is "Tongan" to do, or not do. Contemporary Tongans often have strong ties to overseas lands. They may have been migrant workers in New Zealand, or have lived and traveled in New Zealand, Australia, or the United States. Many Tongans now live overseas, in a Tongan diaspora, and send home remittances to family members (often aged) who prefer to remain in Tonga. Tongans themselves often have to operate in two different contexts, which they often call anga fakatonga, the traditional Tongan way, and anga fakapālangi, the Western way. A culturally adept Tongan learns both sets of rules and when to switch between them.
Any description of Tongan culture that limits itself to what Tongans see as anga fakatonga would give a seriously distorted view of what people actually do, in Tonga, or in diaspora, because accommodations are so often made to anga fakapālangi. The following account tries to give both the idealized and the on-the-ground versions of Tongan culture.
Traditionally, fishing and farming have accounted for the livelihood of a majority of Tongans. The main food crops include sweet potatoes, bananas, yucca, taro and giant taro. Cash crops include squash and pumpkins, which have in recent years replaced bananas and copra as the largest agricultural exports. Vanilla is another important cash crop.
In post-contact Tonga, newly pubescent males were kamu (tefe), or circumcised by cutting one slit in the foreskin, on the underside of the penis. This is a Christian practice of biblical context. Afterwards, the family held a feast for the new "man". Circumcision is still practiced, but it is now done informally. Sometimes it is done at home, with relatives present. More commonly, a boy, or a group of boys, goes to the hospital, where the operation is done under sanitary conditions.
In pre-contact Tonga, a girl's first menstruation was celebrated by a feast. This practice continued up until the mid-20th century, at which point it fell out of favor.
Contemporary funerals are large, well-attended occasions, even for Tongans who are not wealthy. Relatives gather, often traveling long distances to do so. Large amounts of food are contributed, then distributed to the crowds during and after the funeral. Funeral practices are a mix of introduced Christian rites and customs (such as a wake and a Christian burial), and older indigenous customs that survive from pre-contact times. For instance, mourners wear black (a Western custom) but also wrap mats (ta'ovala) around their waist. The type and size of the mat proclaim the mourner's relationship to the deceased. Immediate family members might also choose to wear a worn or frayed ta'ovala to show respect and love for their family that has passed on.
Tongan families do not necessarily compete to put on the largest, grandest funeral possible, but they do strive to show respect for the deceased by doing all that is customary. This can put great strain on the resources of the immediate family and even the extended family. Sometimes the funeral is called a fakamasiva, an occasion that leads to poverty.
Violent crime is limited, but increasing, and public perception associates this with returns of ethnic Tongans who have been raised overseas. A few notable cases involve young men who were raised since infancy in the United States, whose families neglected to obtain citizenship for them and who were thus deported due to confrontations with the American justice system. At this moment crime is increasing faster than the police force is able to counter, and is expected to become a serious problem in the years to come. Increasing wealth has also increased the gap between the rich and the poor, leading to greater numbers of burglaries.
Currently, most prisons in Tonga still abide by the old laissez-faire attitude. Often, these prisons have no fences, no iron bars, and lax security, which makes escape very easy for inmates. This system is slowly changing, due to the influx of foreign born/raised criminals who may treat such goodwill-based incarceration systems with contempt. Traditionally, there is little social stigma regarding incarceration (although this too is changing), which means that imprisonment does not serve as a strong deterrent against crime.
Tonga also struggles with young offenders - "schoolboys who want to have money to show off" - who have been apprehended in burglaries. As there are no juvenile prisons, young offenders are incarcerated in the main prisons together with adult criminals. Previously, attempts were made to temporarily exile young offenders to Tau, a small island offshore Tongatapu but this was later abandoned.
In the 1990s, Chinese immigration caused resentment among the native Tongan population (especially those from Hong Kong, who purchased Tongan passports to escape the Beijing takeover). Some violent crimes have been directed towards these Chinese immigrants.
Modern poetry and short stories
The genre of short stories in Tonga is most associated with 'Epeli Hau'ofa, whose most popular collection of stories, Tales of the Tikong, was published in 1973. Konai Helu Thaman was one of the country's earliest published poets.
In pre-contact Tonga, women did not do the cooking (cooking in an earth oven was hard, hot work, the province of men) or work in the fields. They raised children, gathered shellfish on the reef, and made koloa, barkcloth and mats, which were a traditional form of wealth exchanged at marriages and other ceremonial occasions. An industrious woman thus raised the social status of her household. Her family also slept soundly, on the piles of mats and barkcloth that were the traditional bedding. On sunny days, these were spread on the grass to air, which prolonged their life. The mats can also be worn as ta'ovala, which is worn around the waist. Wearing the ta'ovala is a sign of respect, and it is said that in early times men returning from a long voyage at sea would cover up these mats before visiting the chief of the village.
Bark cloth, or tapa (but it is called ngatu in Tonga)
And any other type of traditional (dance) clothing
Woven mats serve a variety of purposes, from the ordinary to the ceremonial. Many woven mats are passed down from generation to generation, acquiring greater status with the passage of time. It is in fact a collection of these mats in the palace that forms the true crown jewels of Tonga. These royal mats are displayed only on high state occasions such as the death of a member of the royal family or the coronation of a monarch.
Before Western contact, many objects of daily use were made of carved wood: food bowls, head rests (kali), war clubs and spears, and cult images. Tongan craftsmen were skilled at inlaying pearl-shell and ivory in wood, and Tongan war clubs were treasured items in the neighboring archipelago of Fiji.