Tonga,
or the Kingdom of Tonga, lies in the south of the
Pacific Ocean and it includes one hundred and sixty-nine
islands. Of all these islands, about thirty-nine of them
are populated.
Tonga is basically an island nation and
it is the only self-governing monarchy among the island
nations that are situated in the Pacific Ocean that has
been able to avoid formal colonization. People from
different parts of the world regard Tonga as a friendly
country because of its friendly treatment to Captain
Cook when he first visited the nation.
There are about
101,991 people living in Tonga and of this number, about
70% of the people have settled on the main island of the
country and this is the Tongatapu.
The culture of the people in Tonga has been influenced
by Christianity and also by the Polynesian traditions.
Most of the people living in this country are
Christians. There are different ethnic groups in the
country and some of the major ethnic groups are
Polynesians, Mixed Europeans and people from other
Pacific islands.
There were about three thousand to four
thousand Chinese living in the country (in the year
2001) but the number has reduced significantly. The
official language of Tonga is the Tongan language.
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