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89-555: Tonga ( / ˈ t ɒ ŋ ə / TONG -ə , / ˈ t ɒ ŋ ɡ ə / TONG -gə ; Tongan: [ˈtoŋa] ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( Tongan : Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga ), is an island country in Polynesia , part of Oceania . The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about 750 km (290 sq mi), scattered over 700,000 km (270,000 sq mi) in

178-513: A Tuʻi Tonga Empire having existed during that period. Civil wars are known to have occurred in Tonga in the 15th and 17th centuries. The Tongan people first encountered Europeans in 1616, when the Dutch vessel Eendracht , captained by Willem Schouten , made a short visit to the islands for the purpose of engaging in trade. Later, other Dutch explorers arrived, including Jacob Le Maire (who visited

267-760: A decisive step away from its traditional absolute monarchy and became a semi-constitutional monarchy , after legislative reforms paved the way for its first partial representative elections . Tonga is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations , the United Nations , the Pacific Islands Forum , and the Alliance of Small Island States . In many Polynesian languages , including Tongan, the word tonga ( Tongan: [ˈtoŋa] ), comes from fakatonga , which means 'southwards', and

356-591: A financial adviser who called himself the king's court jester . The police imprisoned pro-democracy leaders, and the government repeatedly confiscated the newspaper The Tongan Times (printed in New Zealand and sold in Tonga) because the editor had been vocally critical of the king's mistakes. Notably, the Keleʻa , produced specifically to critique the government and printed in Tonga by pro-democracy leader ʻAkilisi Pōhiva,

445-457: A kingdom. He held the chiefly title of Tuʻi Kanokupolu , but had been baptised by Methodist missionaries with the name Siaosi ("George") in 1831. In 1875, with the help of missionary Shirley Waldemar Baker , he declared Tonga a constitutional monarchy, formally adopted the Western royal style, emancipated the "serfs", enshrined a code of law, land tenure, and freedom of the press, and limited

534-467: A much larger affair. In return for the offering, 'there will be many benefits in abundance of good harvests if they are men who do not injure the Athenians'. The reward, therefore, although it could only be guaranteed by the gods, was conditional on not injuring Athens. The decree cannot be dated precisely, however the combination of specific religious policy and Athenian political dominance evident here

623-404: A natural development, as /tʃ/ in many Polynesian languages derived from Proto-Polynesian /ti/ . /l/ may also be heard as an alveolar flap sound [ ɺ ] . Although the acute accent has been available on most personal computers from their early days onwards, when Tongan newspapers started to use computers around 1990 to produce their papers, they were unable to find, or failed to enter,

712-700: A new royal palace and holding two thirds of the country's foreign debt. Tonga retains cordial relations with the United States. Although it remains on good terms with the United Kingdom, the two countries do not maintain particularly close relations. The United Kingdom closed its High Commission in Tonga in 2006, although it was re-established in January 2020 after a 14-year absence. Tonga's relations with Oceania's regional powers, Australia and New Zealand, are good. Tonga maintains strong regional ties in

801-633: A second contingent went to Iraq, and two more were sent during 2008 as part of continued support for the coalition. Tongan involvement concluded at the end of 2008 with no reported loss of life. In 2010, Brigadier General Tauʻaika ʻUtaʻatu, commander of the Tonga Defence Services , signed an agreement in London committing a minimum of 200 troops to co-operate with Britain's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan . The task

890-447: A sufficiently wide meaning to the word 'impress', we may say, perhaps, that ʻeku is used in reference to things upon which I impress myself, while hoku is used in reference to things which impress themselves upon me. ʻE possessives are generally used for: Ho possessives are generally used for There are plenty of exceptions which do not fall under the guidelines above, for instance, ʻeku tamai , "my father". The number of exceptions

979-484: A three-level definiteness distinction: There are three registers which consist of There are also further distinctions between For example, the phrase "Come and eat!" translates to: The Tongan language distinguishes three numbers : singular, dual , and plural . They appear as the three major columns in the tables below. The Tongan language distinguishes four persons: First person exclusive , first person inclusive , second person and third person. They appear as

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1068-668: A unique "First Fruits" celebration brought the Ancient African harvest festivals that became the African American holiday, Kwanzaa . The first fruits of the field were offered to Priapus . In Classical Athens the First Fruits were called an offering of aparche . Except during times of war, this would be a major source of funds for the temples of the Eleusinian goddesses, Demeter and Kore . Much of

1157-527: A variety of schemes – considering making Tonga a nuclear waste disposal site (an idea floated in the mid 1990s by the current crown prince), and selling Tongan Protected Persons Passports (which eventually forced Tonga to naturalise the purchasers, sparking ethnicity-based concerns within Tonga). Schemes also included the registering of foreign ships (which proved to be engaged in illegal activities, including shipments for al-Qaeda ), claiming geo-orbital satellite slots (the revenue from which seems to belong to

1246-475: A verb? What, for example, is the rule or the guiding principle, which lies behind the fact that a Tongan says ʻeku paʻanga for ' my money' but hoku fale for 'my house'? It may be stated as follows: the use of ʻeku for 'my' implies that I am active, influential, or formative, &c., towards the thing mentioned, whereas the use of hoku for 'my' implies that the thing mentioned is active, influential, or formative, &c., towards me. Or, provided that we give

1335-689: Is a constitutional monarchy . It is the only extant indigenous monarchy in the Pacific islands (see also Hawaiʻi ). Reverence for the monarch replaces that held in earlier centuries for the sacred paramount chief, the Tuʻi Tonga. Criticism of the monarch is held to be contrary to Tongan culture and etiquette. Tonga provides for its citizens a free and mandatory education for all, secondary education with only nominal fees, and foreign-funded scholarships for postsecondary education. The pro-democracy movement in Tonga promotes reforms, including better representation in

1424-528: Is an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean , directly south of Samoa and about two-thirds of the way from Hawai'i to New Zealand. Its 171 islands, 45 of them inhabited, are divided into three main groups – Vava'u, Ha'apai, and Tongatapu – and cover an 800-kilometre (500-mile)-long north–south line. The largest island, Tongatapu , on which the capital city of Nukuʻalofa is located, covers 257 square kilometres (99 sq mi). Geologically,

1513-600: Is illegal in Tonga, with a maximum penalty of 10 years' imprisonment, but the law is not enforced . Tongans have universal access to a national health care system. The Constitution of Tonga protects land ownership; land cannot be sold to foreigners (although it may be leased). King Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV and his government made some problematic economic decisions and were accused by democracy activists, including former prime minister ʻAkilisi Pōhiva , of wasting millions of dollars on unwise investments. The problems have mostly been driven by attempts to increase national revenue through

1602-459: Is large enough to make the alienable and inalienable distinction appear on the surface to be as arbitrary as the grammatical gender distinction for Romance languages, but by and large the above guidelines hold true. The cardinal pronouns are the main personal pronouns which in Tongan can either be preposed (before the verb , light colour) or postposed (after the verb, dark colour). The first are

1691-412: Is less apt when used on nouns. Indeed, in most contexts hoku taki would be interpreted as "my leader", as a noun rather than a verb. What then of nouns that have no real verb interpretation, such as fale "house"? Churchward himself laid out the distinction thus: But what about those innumerable cases in which the possessive can hardly be said to correspond either to the subject or to the object of

1780-404: Is noted in a loan cited in the stone record, of over 20,000 silver drachmas to the city. Inscription IG I 76 shows the provisions made for the offering of first fruits to Demeter and Kore by Athenian demes , Athens' allies and other Greek cities. It sets out that one six-hundredth of the barley crop and one twelve-hundredth of the wheat was to be offered to the goddesses. The proposal for

1869-686: Is primarily a spoken, rather than written, language. One of the first publications of Tongan texts was in William Mariner 's grammar and dictionary of the Tongan language, edited and published in 1817 by John Martin as part of volume 2 of Mariner's Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands, in the South Pacific Ocean . Orthography has changed since Mariner's time. An annotated list of dictionaries and vocabularies of

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1958-625: Is relevant throughout Athens' imperial period. It is an example of Athens striving to advertise her claims to leadership in Greece, whilst simultaneously binding herself more closely with her allies. Similar to this is the expectation that allies would bring annual tribute to the City Dionysia , and sacrificial contributions to the Panathenaea . In ancient Judaism , bikkurim were a type of sacrificial offering. In each agricultural season,

2047-705: The Commonwealth in 1970 (atypically as a country that had its own monarch, rather than having the United Kingdom's monarch , along with Malaysia , Brunei , Lesotho , and Eswatini ). Tonga became a member of the United Nations in September 1999. While exposed to colonial pressures, Tonga has always governed itself, which makes it unique in the Pacific. In January 2022, the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai volcano, 65 km (40 mi) north of

2136-565: The Eastern Orthodox Church the offering of first fruits takes the form of a thanksgiving and blessing. The produce is then consumed by the faithful rather than being given to the Church (though it may be donated as a free-will offering ). The liturgical concept behind the blessing is the faithful offering back to God a token of that which he in his lovingkindness has provided, God blessing these first fruits and returning them to

2225-519: The Middle Ages the concept of offering the first fruits was adapted by the Christian church. This was called a tithe and was basically a tax to support the local clergy and the facility. In England , every tenth egg , sheaf of wheat , lamb , chicken , and all other animals were given to the church as a tithe, so farm products were expected to be donated throughout the year. In France ,

2314-593: The Tongan megapode . Five species have been introduced by humans, and eight are rare or accidental. Seven species are globally threatened. Tonga's economy is characterised by a large nonmonetary sector and a heavy dependence on remittances from the half of the country's population who live abroad (chiefly in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States). The royal family and the nobles dominate and largely own

2403-417: The Tongan tropical moist forests terrestrial ecoregion. In Tonga, dating back to Tongan legend, flying bats are considered sacred and are the property of the monarchy. Thus, they are protected and cannot be harmed or hunted. As a result, flying fox bats have thrived in many of the islands of Tonga. The bird life of Tonga includes a total of 73 species, of which two are endemic, the Tongan whistler and

2492-597: The "Port Vila Call for a Just Transition to a Fossil Fuel Free Pacific", calling for the phase out fossil fuels and the "rapid and just transition " to renewable energy and strengthening environmental law , including introducing the crime of ecocide . The Tongan government supported the American " coalition of the willing " action in Iraq and deployed more than 40 soldiers (as part of an American force) in late 2004. The contingent returned home on 17 December 2004. In 2007,

2581-418: The 'full-style' and 'telephone-style' numbers are in equally common use, while for other two-digit numbers the 'telephone-style' numbers are almost exclusively in use: ʻOku fiha ia? (how much (does it cost)?) Paʻanga ʻe ua-nima-noa (T$ 2.50) In addition there are special, traditional counting systems for fish, coconuts, yams, etc. (Cf. Classifier (linguistics) .) Tongan has a very rich oral literature and

2670-610: The Austronesian languages, along with Hawaiian , Māori , Samoan and Tahitian , for example. Together with Niuean , it forms the Tongic subgroup of Polynesian. Tongan is unusual among Polynesian languages in that it has a so-called definitive accent . As with all Polynesian languages, Tongan has adapted the phonological system of proto-Polynesian. Tongan has heavily influenced the Wallisian language after Tongans colonized

2759-662: The First Fruits blessed at the church has been celebrated through the feast of Lammas (Loaf Mass Day) in Western Christianity. In Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the 'first fruits' tradition is kept during the Feast of the Transfiguration , held on August 6. In Christian denominations, the tithe is given as a donation or offering serving as a primary source of income to maintain the religious leaders and facilities; offerings are funds or resources given beyond

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2848-468: The Lord may bless them, that they may be to us unto rejoicing, and that He may accept a gift of these fruits unto the cleansing of our sins". As the harvest season progresses, the first fruits of each species can be brought to the church to be blessed, using a similar format, but a different prayer: "that the Lord may receive our gift unto His eternal treasury and grant us an abundance of earthly goods". In

2937-885: The Pacific. It is a full member of the Pacific Islands Forum , the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission , the South Pacific Tourism Organisation , the Pacific Regional Environment Programme , and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community . In 2023, the governments of Tonga and other islands vulnerable to climate change ( Fiji , Niue , the Solomon Islands , Tuvalu and Vanuatu ) launched

3026-530: The Palace announced that King George Tupou V would relinquish much of his power and would surrender his role in day-to-day governmental affairs to the Prime Minister. The royal chamberlain said that this was being done to prepare the monarchy for 2010, when most of the first parliament would be elected, and added: "The Sovereign of the only Polynesian kingdom ... is voluntarily surrendering his powers to meet

3115-544: The Parliament for the majority of commoners, and better accountability in matters of state. An overthrow of the monarchy is not part of the movement, and the institution of monarchy continues to hold popular support, even while reforms are advocated. Until recently, the governance issue was generally ignored by the leaders of other countries, but major aid donors and neighbours New Zealand and Australia are now expressing concerns about some Tongan government actions. Following

3204-588: The Princess Royal, not the state), holding a long-term charter on an unusable Boeing 757 that was sidelined in Auckland Airport, leading to the collapse of Royal Tongan Airlines , and approving a factory for exporting cigarettes to China (against the advice of Tongan medical officials and decades of health-promotion messaging). The king proved vulnerable to speculators with big promises and lost reportedly US$ 26 million to Jesse Bogdonoff ,

3293-586: The South Pacific, and this period of Tongan expansionism and colonization is known as the Tuʻi Tonga Empire . From the rule of the first Tongan king , ʻAhoʻeitu , Tonga grew into a regional power. It was a thalassocracy that conquered and controlled unprecedented swathes of the Pacific, from parts of the Solomon Islands and the whole of New Caledonia and Fiji in the west to Samoa and Niue and even as far as parts of modern-day French Polynesia in

3382-602: The Tonga telephone directory for years now ignores all rules. ) The original j , used for /tʃ/ , disappeared in the beginning of the 20th century, merging with /s/ . By 1943, j was no longer used. Consequently, many words written with s in Tongan are cognate to those with t in other Polynesian languages. For example, Masisi (a star name) in Tongan is cognate with Matiti in Tokelauan ; siale ( Gardenia taitensis) in Tongan and tiare in Tahitian . This seems to be

3471-429: The Tongan government to democratise the electoral system, and a legal writ calling for a judicial investigation of the bill. The latter was supported by some 160 signatures, including seven of the nine elected "People's Representatives". The then-Crown Prince Tupoutoʻa and Pilolevu, the Princess Royal, remained generally silent on the issue. In total, the changes threatened to destabilise the polity, fragment support for

3560-543: The Tongan islands are of two types: most have a limestone base formed from uplifted coral formations; others consist of limestone overlaying a volcanic base. Tonga has a tropical rainforest climate ( Af ) with a distinct warm period (December–April), during which the temperatures rise above 32 °C (89.6 °F), and a cooler period (May–November), with temperatures rarely rising above 27 °C (80.6 °F). The temperature and rainfall range from 23 °C (73.4 °F) and 1,700 mm (66.9 in) on Tongatapu in

3649-598: The Tongan language is available at the website of the Bibliographical Society of America under the resource heading 'Breon Mitchell": . The Bible and the Book of Mormon were translated into Tongan and few other books were written in it. There are several weekly and monthly magazines in Tongan, but there are no daily newspapers. Weekly newspapers, some of them twice per week: Monthly or two-monthly papers, mostly church publications: The Tongan calendar

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3738-607: The agricultural offering was sold by the temple with the proceeds being used to pay for the daily upkeep of the temple complex. Under Pericles ' rule, it became a way of extending Athens' power. The Demos or voting citizens would control the operation of the temple by elected boards. During times of war or for other necessity the Demos would borrow money from the treasury of the temple. Neighboring cities under Athens' control were required to give offerings from their harvests. This served to enrich Athens and extend her power. Much of this

3827-546: The amount of the tithe. First Corinthians, in the New Testament , referred to Jesus' resurrection as a type of First Fruit, "But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep." In the canonical gospels , the harvest of First Fruits is used metaphorically and allegorically . In the Gospel of Matthew , Jesus is described as stating that "in the time of harvest" he would instruct

3916-707: The archipelago is so named because it is the southernmost group among the island groups of western Polynesia. The word tonga is cognate to the Hawaiian word kona meaning 'leeward', which is the origin of the name for the Kona District in Hawaiʻi . Tonga became known in the West as the "Friendly Islands" because of the congenial reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit in 1773. He arrived at

4005-653: The country. As of February 2004, those papers denied licenses under the new act included the Taimi ʻo Tonga ( Tongan Times ), the Keleʻa, and the Matangi Tonga  – while those permitted licenses were uniformly church-based or pro-government. The bill was opposed in a several-thousand-strong protest march in the capital, a call by the Tuʻi Pelehake (a prince, nephew of the king and elected member of parliament) for Australia and other nations to pressure

4094-468: The decree came from a special board of 'draftsmen' (syngrapheis), which suggests that the matter was deemed relatively complicated. Sacrifices were to be paid for out of the proceeds from the barley and wheat, votive offerings were to be made to the two goddesses, and the rest of the grain was to be sold. There were clearly concerns that some allies might avoid offering grain by claiming that they had come to Athens but never been received by officials there. So,

4183-517: The demigod Maui drew up a group of islands from the ocean, first appearing Tongatapu , the Ha'apai Islands and Vava'u , integrating into what became modern-day Tonga. An Austronesian -speaking group linked to what archaeologists call the Lapita culture covered from Island Melanesia to Samoa , and then on to inhabit Tonga sometime between 1500 and 1000 BC. Scholars still debate exactly when Tonga

4272-499: The democratic aspirations of many of his people." The previous week, the government said the king had sold state assets that had contributed to much of the royal family's wealth. On 15 March 2012, King George Tupou V contracted pneumonia and was brought to Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong . He was later diagnosed with leukaemia. His health deteriorated significantly shortly thereafter, and he died at 3:15 pm on 18 March 2012. He

4361-633: The draft decree: that the decree should be inscribed on stelai both in Eleusis and in Athens, that there should be an intercalary month in the following year, and that the Pelargikon (sacred land around the western end of the Acropolis ) should be tidied up and protected. This demonstrates the authority which he gained from his expertise as a seer – notable since the Athenians tended to shy away from

4450-499: The dry season and are more frequent in southern Tonga than in the northern islands. The tropical cyclone season currently runs from 1 November to 30 April, though tropical cyclones can form and affect Tonga outside of the season. According to the WorldRiskReport 2021, Tonga ranks third among the countries with the highest disaster risk worldwide – mainly due to the country's exposure to multiple natural hazards. Tonga contains

4539-796: The earliest regular Western visitors. The first of these on record is the Ann and Hope , which was reported to have been seen among the islands of Tonga in June 1799. The last known whaling visitor was the Albatross in 1899. That ship arrived in Tonga seeking a resupply of water, food, and wood. The islands most regularly visited by Westerners were Ata, 'Eua, Ha'apai, Tongatapu and Vava'u. Sometimes, Tongan men were recruited to serve as crewmen on these vessels. The United States Exploring Expedition visited Tonga in 1840. In 1845, an ambitious young Tongan warrior, strategist, and orator named Tāufaʻāhau united Tonga into

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4628-403: The east and Kermadec (New Zealand) to the southwest. Tonga is about 1,800 km (1,100 mi) from New Zealand's North Island . Tonga was first inhabited roughly 2,500 years ago by the Lapita civilization, Polynesian settlers who gradually evolved a distinct and strong ethnic identity, language , and culture as the Tongan people. They were quick to establish a powerful footing across

4717-522: The east. Tuʻi Tonga became renowned for its economic, ethnic, and cultural influence over the Pacific, which remained strong even after the Samoan revolution of the 13th century and Europeans' discovery of the islands in 1616. From 1900 to 1970, Tonga had British protected-state status . The United Kingdom looked after Tonga's foreign affairs under a Treaty of Friendship , but Tonga never relinquished its sovereignty to any foreign power. In 2010, Tonga took

4806-595: The faithful for their benefit and blessing. The blessing of first fruits traditionally begins on the Great Feast of the Transfiguration (August 6), with the blessing of grapes . In localities where grapes are not grown, other early-ripening fruits such as apples may be offered. There is a special ceremony at the end of the Divine Liturgy at which the priest blesses the first fruits, asking "that

4895-702: The first-grown fruits were brought to the Temple and laid by the altar, and a special declaration recited. The command to bring first-fruits to the Temple appears in the Torah , in Exodus 23:19 and Deuteronomy 26:1–11 . The latter passage records the declaration (also known as the Avowal) which was recited upon presenting the first-fruits to the priest ( Deuteronomy 26:3–10 ). The detailed laws of this offering were recorded by

4984-612: The four major rows in the tables below. This gives us 12 main groups. In addition, possessive pronouns are either alienable (reddish) or inalienable (greenish), which Churchward termed subjective and objective . This marks a distinction that has been referred to, in some analyses of other Polynesian languages , as a-possession versus o-possession , respectively, though more Tongan-appropriate version would be ʻe-possession and ho-possession . Subjective and objective are fitting labels when dealing with verbs: ʻeku taki "my leading" vs. hoku taki "my being led". However, this

5073-525: The harvesters (i.e., the angels ) to gather the "tares", bind them into bundles, and burn them, but to "gather the wheat into [his] barn" ( Matthew 13:30 ). Some argue that this teaching is about the Last Judgment rather than offering any thanksgiving to a deity, the “tares” being sinners or unbelievers of God and his son Jesus and the "wheat" being believers of God, although it also fits the rapture as noted in Matthew 24:31 and Revelation 14:4 . Other Christians, as well as early Gnostic writers, argued it

5162-428: The inscription insists that the Hieropoioi accept the grain within five days, or otherwise be subject to a substantial fine of 1000 drachmas. In order to draw in other Greeks, the Hieropoioi were then to record the weight of grain received on a board and distribute it to other cities, encouraging them to contribute. Lampon, a renowned seer in fifth-century Athens, moved a rider in which he proposed several changes to

5251-444: The interim. On 5 July 2006, a driver in Menlo Park, California , caused the deaths of Prince Tuʻipelehake ʻUluvalu , his wife, and their driver. Tuʻipelehake, 55, was the cochairman of the constitutional reform commission and a nephew of the king. The public expected some changes when George Tupou V succeeded his father in September 2006. On 16 November 2006, rioting broke out in the capital city of Nukuʻalofa when it seemed that

5340-571: The island of ʻUvea in the 15th and 16th centuries. The earliest attempts to transcribe the Tongan language were made by Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire of the Dutch East India Company when they first arrived in 1616. They transcribed a limited number of nouns and verbs using phonetic Dutch spelling and added them to a growing list of Polynesian vocabulary. Abel Tasman , also of the Dutch East India Company , attempted to converse with indigenous Tongans using vocabulary from this list when he arrived on Tongatapu on 20 January 1643, although he

5429-415: The literal meaning of "First Mass", repeated a limited amount of times. The first-fruits of such a priest's power-to-bless are held in alike esteem. In the Book of Mormon , a canon of scripture used by the Latter Day Saint movement , a similar passage is found stating "the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass

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5518-455: The main island of Tongatapu, erupted , causing a tsunami which inundated parts of the archipelago, including the capital Nukuʻalofa. The eruption affected the kingdom heavily, cutting off most communications and killing four people in Tonga. In Peru , two women drowned due to abnormal tsunami waves. It took around five weeks to repair a submarine fiber optic cable used in the Tonga Cable System for internet and telephone connectivity. Tonga

5607-411: The monetary sector of the economy – particularly the telecommunications and satellite services. Tonga was named the sixth-most corrupt country in the world by Forbes magazine in 2008. Tonga was ranked the 165th-safest investment destination in the world in the March 2011 Euromoney Country Risk rankings. Tongan language Tongan is one of the multiple languages in the Polynesian branch of

5696-510: The normal alienable possessive pronouns, the latter the stressed alienable pronouns, which are sometimes used as reflexive pronouns , or with kia te in front the inalienable possessive forms. (There is no possession involved in the cardinal pronouns and therefore no alienable or inalienable forms). Examples of use. Another archaic aspect of Tongan is the retention of preposed pronouns. They are used much less frequently in Samoan and have completely disappeared in East Polynesian languages, where

5785-448: The northern island of Niuatoputapu ); and Abel Tasman (who visited Tongatapu and Haʻapai ) in 1643. Later noteworthy European visitors included James Cook, of the British Royal Navy, in 1773, 1774, and 1777; Spanish Navy explorers Francisco Mourelle de la Rúa in 1781; Alessandro Malaspina in 1793; the first London missionaries in 1797; and a Wesleyan Methodist minister, Reverend Walter Lawry, in 1822. Whaling vessels were among

5874-497: The only Pacific nation to retain its monarchical government. The Tongan monarchy follows an uninterrupted succession of hereditary rulers from one family. The 1918 flu pandemic , brought to Tonga by a ship from New Zealand, killed 1,800 Tongans, a mortality rate of about 8%. The Treaty of Friendship and Tonga's protection status ended in 1970 under arrangements that had been established by Tonga's Queen Salote Tupou III before her death in 1965. Owing to its British ties, Tonga joined

5963-507: The orthography of the Tongan language. However, C. M. Churchward's grammar and dictionary favoured the standard European alphabetical order, which, since his time, has been in use exclusively: Notes: The above order is strictly followed in proper dictionaries. Therefore, ngatu follows nusi , ʻa follows vunga and it also follows z if foreign words occur. Words with long vowels come directly after those with short vowels. Improper wordlists may or may not follow these rules. (For example,

6052-433: The parliament would adjourn for the year without having made any advances in increasing democracy in government. Pro-democracy activists burned and looted shops, offices, and government buildings. As a result, more than 60% of the downtown area was destroyed and as many as six people died. The disturbances were ended by action from Tongan Security Forces and troops from New Zealand-led Joint Task Force. On 29 July 2008,

6141-424: The payment new clerics made to the bishop or the Pope of all profits from the territory the new cleric controlled. This payment was called both Annates and First Fruits. A less agricultural sort of First Fruits ( primitiae in Latin) is the "Primice" as it is called in some languages, that is, the First Mass said by a newly ordained priest; it is customarily celebrated with special magnificence, and even, despite

6230-417: The power of the chiefs. Tonga became a protected state under a Treaty of Friendship with Britain on 18 May 1900, when European settlers and rival Tongan chiefs unsuccessfully tried to oust the man who had succeeded Tāufaʻāhau as king. The treaty posted no higher permanent representative on Tonga than a British consul (1901–1970). Under the protection of Britain, Tonga maintained its sovereignty and remained

6319-399: The precedents of Queen Sālote and the counsel of numerous international advisors, the government of Tonga under King Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV (reigned 1965–2006) monetised the economy, internationalised the medical and education systems, and enabled access by commoners to increasing forms of material wealth (houses, cars, and other commodities), education, and overseas travel. Male homosexuality

6408-405: The pronouns are cognate with the Tongan postposed form minus ki- . (We love you: ʻOku ʻofa kimautolu kia te kimoutolu; Māori: e aroha nei mātou i a koutou). The possessives for every person and number (1st person plural, 3rd person dual, etc.) can be further divided into normal or ordinary (light colour), emotional (medium colour) and emphatic (bright colour) forms. The latter is rarely used, but

6497-452: The proper keystrokes, and it grew into a habit to put the accent after the vowel instead of on it: not á but a´ . But as this distance seemed to be too big, a demand arose for Tongan fonts where the acute accent was shifted to the right, a position halfway in between the two extremes above. Most papers still follow this practice. English uses only two articles : By contrast, Tongan has three articles, and possessives also have

6586-582: The rabbis in the Bikkurim tractate of the Talmud . In Christianity, the Old Testament , "when the harvest ripened the priest went into the field and gathered a sheaf of first-ripened grain. Then he took that sheaf into the temple and waved it before the Lord." The Didache of the early Church enjoined firstfruits be given of "money, clothes, and all of your possessions" (13:7). The practice of having

6675-403: The recognition of experts in most fields. The motivation behind the offering of first fruits is a combination of three religious factors: the need to honour the two goddesses, obedience to Apollo (in the form of the oracle), and 'ancestral custom'. The last two factors suggest that a recent oracle was in line with an older practice which had either fallen into disuse, or was being transformed into

6764-686: The south to 27 °C (80.6 °F) and 2,970 mm (116.9 in) on the more northerly islands closer to the Equator. The average wettest period is around March, with on average 263 mm (10.4 in). The average daily humidity is 80%. The highest temperature recorded in Tonga was 35 °C (95 °F) on 11 February 1979 in Vava'u. The coldest temperature recorded in Tonga was 8.7 °C (47.7 °F) on 8 September 1994 in Fua'amotu. Temperatures of 15 °C (59 °F) or lower are usually measured in

6853-433: The southern Pacific Ocean . As of 2021, according to Johnson's Tribune, Tonga has a population of 104,494, 70% of whom reside on the main island, Tongatapu . The country stretches approximately 800 km (500 mi) north-south. It is surrounded by Fiji and Wallis and Futuna (France) to the northwest, Samoa to the northeast, New Caledonia (France) and Vanuatu to the west, Niue (the nearest foreign territory) to

6942-609: The status quo, and place further pressure on the monarchy. In 2005, the government spent several weeks negotiating with striking civil-service workers before reaching a settlement. The civil unrest that ensued was not limited to Tonga; protests outside the King's New Zealand residence made headlines. Prime Minister Prince ʻAhoʻeitu ʻUnuakiʻotonga Tukuʻaho (Lavaka Ata ʻUlukālala) (now King Tupou VI) resigned suddenly on 11 February 2006 and also gave up his other cabinet portfolios. The elected minister of labour, Feleti Sevele , replaced him in

7031-566: The time of the annual ʻinasi festival, which centres on the donation of the First Fruits to the Tuʻi Tonga (the islands' monarch), so he received an invitation to the festivities. Ironically, according to the writer William Mariner , the political leaders actually wanted to kill Cook during the gathering, but did not go through with it because they could not agree on a plan of action for accomplishing it. According to Tongan mythology ,

7120-494: The tithes—called la dîme —were a land and agricultural tax. The offering of first fruits was also referred to as new fruits. In French churches in the Middle Ages, new fruits were at given seasons presented at Mass for blessing. The blessed fruits were kept by the church and divided between the clergy and the poor. Similar customs during the Middle Ages could be found in all European countries. First Fruits also refers to

7209-497: The two former are common and further subdivided in definite (saturated colour) and indefinite (greyish colour) forms. Notes: Examples of use. These are the remainders: the pronominal adjectives (mine), indirect object pronouns or pronominal adverbs (for me) and the adverbial possessives (as me). Notes: Examples of use: In Tongan, "telephone-style" numerals can be used: reading numbers by simply saying their digits one by one. For 'simple' two-digit multiples of ten both

7298-477: Was based on the phases of the moon and had 13 months. The main purpose of the calendar, for Tongans, was to determine the time for the planting and cultivation of yams, which were Tonga's most important staple food. First Fruits First Fruits is a religious offering of the first agricultural produce of the harvest . In classical Greek , Roman , and Hebrew religions, the first fruits were given to priests as an offering to deity . Beginning in 1966

7387-795: Was completed in April 2014, and the UK presented Operational Service Medals to each of the soldiers involved during a parade held in Tonga. Tonga has contributed troops and police to the Bougainville conflict in Papua-New Guinea and to the Australian-led RAMSI force in the Solomon Islands . Tonga is subdivided into five administrative divisions: ʻEua , Haʻapai , Niuas , Tongatapu , and Vavaʻu . Located in Oceania , Tonga

7476-517: Was first settled, but thorium dating confirms that settlers had arrived in the earliest known inhabited town, Nukuleka, by 888 BC, ± 8 years. Tonga's precontact history was shared via oral history , which was passed down from generation to generation. By the 12th century, Tongans and the Tongan monarch, the Tuʻi Tonga , had acquired a reputation across the central Pacific – from Niue , Samoa , Rotuma , Wallis and Futuna , New Caledonia to Tikopia , leading some historians to speak of

7565-419: Was less about sin and more about following Jesus' teachings and abandoning the teachings they had formerly known. In the Gospel of John , Jesus is described as stating "he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together" ( John 4:36 ), which some Christians argue is about rewards from God for those who perform God's work. In

7654-488: Was not banned during that time. Pōhiva, however, had been subjected to harassment in the form of barratry (frequent lawsuits). In mid-2003, the government passed a radical constitutional amendment to "Tonganize" the press, by licensing and limiting freedom of the press, so as to protect the image of the monarchy. The amendment was defended by the government and by royalists on the basis of traditional cultural values. Licensure criteria include 80% ownership by Tongans living in

7743-513: Was poorly understood, likely using words added from different Polynesian languages. Tongan is presently written in a subset of the Latin script . In the old, "missionary" alphabet , the order of the letters was modified: the vowels were put first and then followed by the consonants : a, e, i, o, u, with variation of letter ā. That was still so as of the Privy Council decision of 1943 on

7832-541: Was shown in the temple reports which were carved in stone when the governing body (called the epistatai ) of the temple changed hands. In the stone IG I 386-387 it can be seen how the finances of the Eleusinian temples worked. Doctor Maureen B. Cavanaugh who translated stone IG I 386–387, argues that there were heavy implications of the funding realized from the First Fruits donations to the temple, in particular that it brought significant impact on Athenian power. This

7921-428: Was succeeded by his brother Tupou VI , who was crowned on 4 July 2015. Tonga's foreign policy as of January 2009 was described by Matangi Tonga as "Look East" – specifically, as establishing closer diplomatic and economic relations with Asia (which actually lies to the north-west of the Pacific kingdom). As of 2021, China has attained great influence in Tonga, financing infrastructure projects, including

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