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South Pacific Photos: Tonga

Tonga Travel Photos

The Kingdom of Tonga stretches between Samoa and New Zealand, just west of the International Dateline. In this 19th century autocracy, only nine of the 30 members of parliament are elected, and criticism of the king and other members of the royal family is prohibited.

Tonga has the highest ratio of followers of the Church of Latter-day Saints in the world, a result of missionary efforts financed by the American church. Tonga's political and religious conservatism has stiffled economic development and led many Tongans to emigrate to New Zealand and the United States.

All photos on Pacific-Pictures.com are by David Stanley, author of Moon Handbooks South Pacific. The images on this page are details. To view the complete photos, click on the thumbnails.

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Hufangalupe Beach, Tongatapu Hufangalupe Beach offers secluded stretches of sand between the coral rocks. Over millennia Tongatapu's south coast has been lifted out of the sea, creating limestone cliffs with blowholes.
		Neiafu, Vavau, with Port of Refuge Harbor and Mt. Talau.

		High cliffs along the uninhabited east coast of Eua Island.

Mormon missionaries, Pangai, Lifuka Island Haapai.	Tonga's wooden House of Parliament, erected in 1894.	Akilisi Pohiva of the pro-democracy movement.

Pumping gas by hand at a fuel stop in Futu village, Eua Island.	A tridacna clam, the world's largest seashell, at a Tongan market.	Tongans singe body hair from a pig bound for an underground oven.

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Tonga Travel Photos

Hufangalupe Beach, Tongatapu