The Art in Tonga

*In Tonga they have 2 traditional types of crafts they have the women's and the men's.

*In pre-contact Tonga women did not do the cooking or work in fields, they raised children,gathered shellfish on the reef, and made koloa, barkcloth and mats, which were a traditional form of wealth exchange at marriages and other ceremonila occasions.

*Among the typical koloa are:

-Bark cloth, or tapa

-Mats

-Waist mats

-Waist girdles

-And any other type of traditional clothing

* Weaving is what this art is called and it's one of the women's traditional craft.

*Some of the Art that the men did include:

*Woodcarving

*Canoe-building

*Traditional Architecture

*And Tattooing

Woodcarving

*Before western contact, many objects of daily use were made of carved wood for example:

-food bowls

-head rests

-war clubs

-spears

-and cult images

Tongan craftsmen were skilled at inlaying pearl-shell and ivory wood.

Canoe-building

*Tongan craftsmen were also adept at building canoes. Many canoes for daily use were simple dug-out canoes, shaped from a single log with fire and adze and outfitted with a single outrigger.

Traditional architechture

*The tradition Tongan fale consisted of a curved roof, which are branches lashed with sennit

and rope thatched with woven palm leaves, that rested on pillars made of tree trunks.

Woven screens filled in the area between the ground and the edge of the roof. They made

these roof s to survive hurricanes.

Tatooing

*Pre-contact Tongan males were often heavily tattooed. The practice of Tatatau dissapeared under heavy missionary dispproval , but was never completely suppressed. It is still very common for men to be decorated with some small tattoos. Nevertheless it is more popular for youngsters nowadays. They would tattoo their shoulders, wrists, ankles, legs, arms etc. They would often tattoo the high school that they went to, or the initials of one's name.

Words I dont know:

cult:a particular system of religious worship, esp. with reference to its rites and ceremonies.

adept:a skilled or proficient person; expert.

adze:An axlike tool with a curved blade at right angles to the handle, used for shaping wood
suppressed:To put an end to forcibly;