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Tongans or Tongan people are a Polynesian ethnic group native to Tonga, a Polynesian archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. Tongans represent more than 98% of the inhabitants of Tonga. The rest are European (the majority are British ), mixed European, and other Pacific Islanders .
Tonga is about 1,800 km (1,100 mi; 970 nmi) 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.
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.
As of 2016, Tongan New Zealanders make up 1.2% of New Zealand's population of approximately 5 million people. [7] There is a Tongan Australian population of 32,691 people, which is over 0.1% of Australia's population. 60% of Tongan people live in New South Wales.
The Indigenous Māori people form the largest Polynesian population, [9] followed by Samoans, Native Hawaiians, Tahitians, Tongans, and Cook Islands Māori. [ citation needed ] As of 2012 [update] , there were an estimated 2 million ethnic Polynesians (both full and part) worldwide.
Not much is known about Tonga before European contact because of the lack of a writing system during prehistoric times other than the oral history told to the early European explorers. The first time the Tongan people encountered Europeans was in April 1616 when Jacob Le Maire and Willem Schouten made a short visit to the islands to trade with ...
However, the former Tongan flag bearer still took part in the celebrations ahead of the July 26 event. Earlier in the day, Taufatofua participated in the torch relay, along with a slew of other ...
As of 2011, Utah has around 30 branches of Tongan Latter-day Saint churches. About one of four people of Tongan descent living in the U.S. live in Utah. Salt Lake County has more than 9,000 Tongan Americans in residence. At least 2,000 people of Tongan descent live in Salt Lake City alone, making up one percent of the city's population. [9]