You might have seen them on the pitch—big, strong, muscular men with flawless brown skin. The imposing brawn of Tonga’s rugged rugby players certainly makes a statement about the country’s level of testosterone. Then again, so do the Fakaleitis, who balance their compatriots’ athletic aggression with more than a touch of feminine virtue.
Fakaleitis (which means ‘ladylike’) hold an esteemed place in Tongan culture; their annual Miss Galaxy International contest attracts participants from across the Pacific and enjoys patronage of the Tongan royal family, still very much revered in Tongan culture.
Few people know much about the Kingdom of Tonga, a country composed of a sprinkling of islands flung across the South Pacific like many pearls fallen from an over-clutched strand.
Those travellers who seek idyllic hideaways in picture-perfect settings may already know Tonga’s islands are pristine jewels untainted by the overbearing presence of international mega-resorts.
Tongan society is one of the world’s cultures most accepting of gender self-identification, a place where the stark insufficiency of Western concepts of male and female are revealed by a panoply of gender and sexual identities, which may be the same, or different, fluid or fixed, conventional or unconventional.
As occurs in several South Pacific cultures, sex, gender, and identity are separate concepts. Some boys born male are raised female and perform traditional female roles in society.
There are also butch women who take on traditional male responsibilities—in every respect.
Making presumtions about gender being linked to sexuality is dangerous however as basically, sexual activity in Tonga follows gender in its inability to be conveniently classified.
The Kingdom of Tonga is composed of 176 islands found in four distinct island groups. Less than 40 of these islands are inhabited, making Tonga an ideal place for travellers seeking a tropical paradise to call their own.
Beautiful scenery by day gives way to a night sky glowing with ten zillion stars that remind us what we are missing by living under urban skies, where such marvels of the universe are blocked from view by human-created light pollution. Once you put down your iPod, iPhone, iPad, and iPopcorn machine, it’s very easy getting used to Life Without Being On Call 24 Hours A Day.
There is no word for ‘time’ in the Tongan language and that seems to suit visitors just fine.
The main island and home to the national capital, Nuku’alofa, Tongatapu is the Kingdom Of Tonga’s place for government affairs and commerce. A small town by world capital standards, Nuku’alofa has the stereotypical air of a languid, tropical village of the South Pacific; the only real sights of note are the Royal Palace, a Victorian-era mansion enjoying a privileged location on the waterfront, and the Royal Tombs, set in the centre of a sprawling, meticulously maintained lawn.
Traditional cultures lives on here, and it is not uncommon to see men young and old wearing the traditional tupenu and ta’ovala mat and sarong around their waists.
To the east of Nuku’alofa is the expansive lagoon where the Captain Cook landing site is located; the lagoon is also the base for Fatai Global, a kayaking company for would-be marine adventurers to explore the waters around the island either on their own or on an organised excursion around the lagoon or further afield to one of the many beautiful uninhabited islands in the Tongatapu group. One island, Fafa, is home to a barefoot luxury resort from where the rest of the world is in a place far, far away.
The Ha’apai island group consists mostly of low lying coral atolls which from the air are reminiscent of the Maldives, the ocean surrounding the Sandy Beach resort on the island of Foa offers the same vivid shades of blue as its Indian Ocean counterpart. The flight from Nuku’alofa’s Fua’amotu International Airport to Ha’apai’s capital, Pangai, takes only 30 minutes. Even in little Pangai, where the food market is the day’s one burst of activity, proud Tongans have their coat of arms on display. And lets not forget the whales, which are part of folklore as well as daily reality during the whale watching season.
A statue of 19th-century Tonga premier Shirley Baker stands just outside of town. Shirley was a man, by the way.
There is virtually no tourism infrastructure on the island of ‘Eua, which is at once its charm and its challenge. Just an eight-minute flight from Tongatapu—one of the shortest commercial flights in the world—the Tongan island of ‘Eua is worlds and millennia away from the Kingdom’s largest island just across the water. ‘Eua is a unique destination in the Kingdom of Tonga, where low-lying atolls surrounded by turquoise waters are the norm; in contrast, ‘Eua is an emerald-green island whose dramatic cliffs, abundant flora, and unique fauna are reminiscent of both Ireland and Jurassic Park, though it is another film that has a much closer association. Did you see Avatar? Do you remember the name of the mother tree? It was Eywa. Coincidence?
I don’t think so. One of ‘Eua’s most majestic attractions is an enormous banyan tree growing out of a sinkhole, giving the effect of a tree floating above the ground, as the roots are exposed where the sinkhole has eroded. If anything, it is even more impressive than the Eywa in Avatar.
The easiest way to reach the Kingdom of Tonga from Western Australia is with Virgin Australia’s flights via Sydney to Nuku’alofa. Chathams Pacific’s handsome Australian pilots fly the flights between islands.
The Tonga Visitors’ Bureau has an exceptionally comprehensive website to assist in travel planning, though be warned that the more you read about this unheralded piece of gender Heaven on Earth, the less likely you will ever go back to city life with the same perspective—and that’s a good thing.
MORE INFORMATION
www.tongaholiday.com
www.virginaustralia.com
www.chathamspacific.com
www.fataiglobal.com
www.fafaislandresort.com
www.sandybeachresort.de
Robert La Bua
***
