Tongan folk belief has long used ideas such as tapu and mana to interpret sacred restriction, rank, health, fishing luck, natural signs, and contact with the unseen. Historical ethnographers recorded many of these practices after Christianity had already changed or displaced older ritual life, while later research in Vava‘u shows that spirit-related explanations can still appear in some family and healing settings. Seventy-two distinct Tongan folk beliefs, omens, and tapu-linked interpretations are documented here; many are historical, island-specific, or no longer widely observed, and they should not be treated as beliefs shared by every Tongan household.
Tongan Folk Belief, Tapu, and Mana
Older records often use the spelling tabu, while later scholarship commonly writes tapu. In the historical material, tapu could describe sacred restriction, a relationship between people of different rank, or a temporary condition created by contact. Mana could refer to efficacy, sacred force, or extraordinary capacity. These concepts belonged to wider systems of kinship, chiefly rank, religion, work, and ritual; calling every tapu a “superstition” would flatten those distinctions.
Many entries below come from early twentieth-century accounts that deliberately preserved memories of practices already fading at the time. Others come from later ethnography of spirits, healing, and childbirth. The wording therefore distinguishes remembered custom, historical ritual, regional folklore, and more recent practice rather than presenting them as one unchanged national system.
Pregnancy, Birth, and Coming-of-Age Beliefs
Neck Adornments and the Umbilical Cord
An early Tongan account says an expectant mother avoided putting a girdle, necklace, or similar loop around her neck. The feared result was sympathetic: the baby’s umbilical cord might become entangled around the neck during birth.
The Coconut Should Be Opened at the Top
Historical pregnancy lore prescribed drinking from a coconut pierced at the top rather than opened at the lower end. The form of the opening was symbolically linked with the child’s mouth, so the wrong opening was feared to affect its appearance.
Cutting With a Knife During Pregnancy
Some older accounts warned a pregnant woman against cutting objects with a knife. Through sympathetic reasoning, a cut made by the mother was feared to appear as a bodily mark or deformity on the child. This is a folk belief, not a medical mechanism.
Sitting in a Doorway
A pregnant woman was historically advised not to sit in a doorway with her body divided between inside and outside. The in-between position was believed capable of producing an uneven or divided effect on the baby’s facial form.
Stealing Could Mark the Child
One recorded pregnancy belief linked secret taking with the unborn child. If the mother stole an object, the child was feared to carry a mark connected with the act or the thing taken. The rule also reinforced ordinary expectations about proper conduct.
Permission Removed the Danger of Using Possessions
Older accounts made a distinction between unauthorized and permitted use of a husband’s property during pregnancy. Asking permission was said to remove the feared consequence. This shows that the belief concerned social authorization as much as physical contact with an object.
Turmeric After Childbirth
In pre-Christian birth rites, mother and baby were painted with turmeric, or enga. Later analysis connects its warm yellow-orange color with vitality and mana. The act belonged to a ritual treatment of the postnatal state rather than ordinary decoration.
Five Nights of Postnatal Seclusion
Historical sources describe mother and infant remaining secluded for five days after birth, with bathing restricted during that period. The seclusion marked a temporary tapu condition and a transition before ordinary social and bodily routines resumed.
A Blessing When the Umbilical Cord Was Cut
The senior household head historically cut the umbilical cord with an adze and voiced hopes for the child’s future. Recorded wishes included skill as a warrior or fisherman for a boy and admired adult qualities for a girl, reflecting the expectations of that era.
Burying the Umbilical Cord in a Known Place
The severed umbilical cord was historically buried outside the house in a small mound or otherwise recognizable place. Some accounts describe marking the location with a plant, tying the child’s first bodily separation to a remembered place on family land.
First Menstruation as a Temporary Tapu State
Historical puberty rites treated a girl’s first menstruation as a temporary relational tapu. She could be secluded, painted with turmeric, and kept from bathing until the bleeding ended. The practices marked a life transition and should not be read as modern medical advice.
An Aromatic Bath Released the Tapu
At the end of the first-menstruation observance, a postmenopausal female relative could take the girl to bathe with aromatic herbs. Historical interpretation treated this bath as the act that released the temporary tapu and restored ordinary social conditions.
Rank, Food, Sacred Contact, and Mourning
A Father’s Head Could Be Tapu to His Child
In the older kinship system, the head of a socially superior relative could be treated as especially tapu. Children were expected to avoid improper contact with a father’s head, while other kin relationships could carry different permissions and restrictions.
A Superior’s Leftovers Could Cause a Sore Throat
Historical Tongan tapu lore connected eating or drinking the remains of a socially superior person’s food with throat illness. The feared effect was understood through rank and sacred contact, not infection or modern physiology.
A Superior’s Touch Could Remove the Food Tapu
Where illness was attributed to improper contact with a superior person’s food, older practice could seek relief through that superior or someone of still higher rank touching or stroking the affected person. It was a ritual release of tapu rather than a medical treatment.
Eating Under a Superior’s Gaze Was Avoided
Historical rank rules could make eating in sight of a superior improper or dangerous in tapu terms. Because the open mouth was treated as vulnerable in older bodily ideas, meals became one setting in which rank had to be visibly respected.
Watching a Superior Eat Could Also Be Restricted
The direction of the gaze mattered both ways in some chiefly contexts. People of lower rank could avoid watching a superior eat, reflecting an older belief that the act of consumption exposed relations of tapu and hierarchy.
Kaitafoki: Eating With the Back Turned
One historical solution was kaitafoki, eating while turned away. By placing the back toward the higher-ranking person, the eater shielded the mouth from the superior’s gaze and observed the relational tapu associated with rank.
Facing Away While the Tu‘i Tonga Ate
Accounts of the sacred Tu‘i Tonga describe observers facing away during his meals. The practice expressed an unusually high degree of chiefly tapu and prevented ordinary people from directly sharing the visual space of royal consumption.
The Tu‘i Tonga’s Hair Must Not Fall to the Ground
The Tu‘i Tonga’s head and hair were historically treated as intensely sacred. During hair cutting, people took precautions so that cut hair would not simply fall onto ordinary ground, where contact could violate the status attached to the ruler’s body.
Royal Use Could Change the Status of Mats and Cloth
Items such as mats or cloth used by the Tu‘i Tonga could become bound to his sacred status and were not casually returned to their former owners. The belief treated close contact with a high chief as capable of changing an object’s social condition.
Mourners Sat Toward the Feet of a High-Ranking Dead Person
Older mourning rules placed lower-ranking attendants away from the head of a chiefly corpse and toward the feet. The arrangement reduced improper proximity to the most tapu part of the body and reproduced rank even after death.
Touching a Chiefly Corpse Could Make the Hands Tapu
Historical accounts describe the hands of those who handled a corpse as becoming temporarily tapu, with a more severe or prolonged restriction when the deceased was a high chief. The belief shaped who could perform funerary work and what they could do afterward.
Funerary Tapu Could Prevent Self-Feeding
Specialists who handled the body of a high-ranking person could be forbidden to feed themselves for a prescribed period. Someone else had to bring food to the mouth until the funerary tapu ended, with the length of restriction varying by rank and context.
Old Royal Tombs Were Treated as Inviolable Places
Royal burial places carried an enduring sacred character in older Tonga. People could avoid unnecessary entry, disturbance, or casual use of such ground because the tomb and the chiefly dead were linked with tapu beyond the funeral itself.
Fishing, Gardens, and Working Luck
Stepping Over a Growing Yam Shoot
Historical sources record a prohibition on a woman stepping across the green shoot of a sprouting yam. The act was feared to weaken the crop’s productive force, linking bodily passage with the success of a valued cultivated plant.
Do Not Step Over a Fishing Net Being Made
A fishing net under construction was not to be stepped across. Sympathetic reasoning connected the crossing movement with future fish passing over or escaping the net, so protecting the unfinished gear also protected its expected effectiveness.
Festival Flowers Should Dry Before Burning
Flowers used in leafy festival girdles were said to require complete drying before they were burned. Burning them while still fresh was feared to affect the parent tree, causing later blossoms to fade or die too quickly.
Do Not Reveal Where a Fisherman Has Gone
One early account says a wife avoided telling others exactly where her husband was fishing. Revealing his location was thought capable of damaging his luck. The author already considered the rule to be fading when it was recorded.
A Chief’s Presence Could Affect the Bonito Catch
Bonito fishing had local chiefly restrictions. At Ha‘ano in Ha‘apai, and in another reported Tongatapu setting, a particular chief was expected to remain indoors while bonito were present because his appearance was believed to make the fish refuse capture.
The First Bonito Followed a Prescribed Order
Early accounts describe the first bonito of a season or run as subject to special allocation before the fish became ordinary food. The sequence linked successful fishing with chiefly and sacred obligations rather than treating the first catch as an unrestricted private meal.
Harmony Was Required for Shark Fishing
Shark-fishing parties were expected to begin in social harmony. Hidden resentment or quarrels among fishers, or among close relatives ashore, could be blamed for failure. The belief turned cooperation and repaired relationships into part of fishing preparation.
The Fishing Leader’s House Became Restricted
Before a shark-fishing expedition, the head fisherman’s house could be closed and treated as the “house of the fishing.” People were expected not to approach it until the party returned, protecting the ritual condition of the expedition.
A Crying Child Ashore Could Spoil Shark Fishing
One recorded shark-fishing belief held that a child crying after the fishers left could ruin the catch. To avoid the feared connection, a child likely to cry might accompany the party. The rule belongs to historical fishing ritual, not child-safety guidance.
A Shark’s Failure to Appear Signaled a Broken Tapu
If sharks did not come as expected, fishers could interpret the failure as evidence that someone had broken a tapu or concealed resentment. The party might return ashore to identify and repair the social or ritual problem before trying again.
A Persistently Unlucky Boat Could Gain a Bad Reputation
Repeated failure was not always blamed on skill or conditions. A boat that continually returned without success could acquire a reputation for being unlucky or accursed, making the vessel itself part of the explanation for poor fishing.
Approaching a Shark-God Place With a “Right Heart”
An ‘Eua tradition connected a cavern associated with a great shark deity to moral or emotional fitness. A person whose “heart” was not right was said to be unable to approach safely, linking sacred geography with personal conduct.
A Coconut-Leaf Shark Could Guard a Garden
A plantation could be protected by a small shark representation made from coconut leaf. In the recorded belief, the symbol invoked the dangerous authority of a shark-associated being so that people would fear taking produce without permission.
Medicine Bundles Could Protect a Plantation
Historical plantation protection sometimes used small prepared bundles or charms placed on the property. Their purpose was deterrence: unauthorized taking was believed capable of bringing a particular illness controlled by the specialist who set the protection.
Touching a Protected Garden Was Feared to Cause Illness
The plantation charm worked through a matching fear: a trespasser who touched protected produce might become ill and then seek the specialist who could remove the condition. The account shows how supernatural sanction could support ordinary property boundaries.
A White Tern Could Lead Shark Fishers
A historical Ha‘apai account linked a white tern, tala, with the weather deity Aloalo. Shark fishers were said to follow the god’s bird toward a favorable fishing ground, treating its movement as guidance connected with the deity.
Birds, Animals, Sea, and Weather Omens
The Red Spring of ‘Uiha as a Chiefly Omen
On ‘Uiha in Ha‘apai, a spring was reported to turn red before the death of chiefs associated with the place. Historical folklore treated the color change as a warning sign tied to chiefly fate, not as a verified prediction.
A Western Tongatapu Rock Could Signal Chiefly Loss
Another localized omen attached warning power to a rock in western Tongatapu. Changes or signs associated with it were connected in oral accounts with the approaching death of a chief, showing how particular landscape features could carry regional meanings.
A Banyan Branch Breaking in Calm Weather
A large banyan branch breaking without strong wind was recorded as an omen of the death of a great chief. The unusual timing of an ordinary natural event made it memorable and available for interpretation as a warning.
A Roaring Sea on the Western Flats
Along the broad western flats of Tongatapu, an unusual roaring of the sea could be interpreted as a chiefly death omen. The meaning belonged to a particular coastal soundscape and should not be generalized to every island or every rough sea.
Long Rain Could Be Read as Nature Mourning a Ruler
After the death of King George Tupou I, prolonged rain was interpreted by some observers through older supernatural ideas, as though powers in nature were responding to royal death. This was an interpretation of an event rather than a repeatable weather rule.
A Great Shoal of Fish as a Royal Death Omen
A very large shoal approaching the Tongatapu coast was remembered in connection with the death of King George Tupou I. In folk interpretation, the exceptional arrival of fish could become a portent attached to the ruler’s passing.
A White Flying Fox at Kolovai
At Kolovai in western Tongatapu, the appearance of a white flying fox among the local colony was reported as an omen concerning the high chief ‘Ata. The recorder noted that white individuals were genuinely seen, while the predicted outcome did not always follow.
Mist or Fog as a Chiefly Death Sign
Historical informants connected unusual mist with the death of a chief, though accounts differed over whether the meaningful fog lay over land or sea. The disagreement is a reminder that omen traditions could vary even within Tonga.
A Kingfisher Following a Traveler
A kingfisher persistently flying around or following a traveler could be taken as a warning to abandon the journey and return home. The bird’s behavior was read as an omen rather than merely an encounter on the road.
A Kingfisher Entering the House
A kingfisher entering a room or dwelling was also recorded as an unfavorable sign. This was related to a broader historical association between the bird and ominous events, but the exact feared consequence was not always stated.
An Owl Hoot Near a House Could Announce Pregnancy
One recorded omen interpreted an owl calling near a dwelling in the evening as announcing that a woman in the household was pregnant. The birdcall served as social “news” in the folk explanation, not as a reliable pregnancy test.
A Cock Crowing at an Unusual Hour
A cock crowing in the afternoon or early evening could be treated as an evil omen. One version said the danger was canceled if another cock answered, turning an unusual call-and-response into a small system for interpreting luck.
The Night Cry and Flight of a Rail
A rail crying at night could be linked with an approaching death. In one reported version, the direction in which the bird flew also suggested where a burial might occur, combining sound and movement in the same omen tradition.
A Fuleheu Entering a Room
The fuleheu, a Tongan honeyeater, was recorded among birds whose unexpected entry into a room could be read as bad luck. As with other bird omens, the meaning depended on unusual behavior rather than the normal presence of the species outdoors.
Divination, Mana, and Knowledge at a Distance
A White Flying Fox Used for Divination
A separate historical account describes a white flying fox associated with divination. Where it settled in relation to a canoe or party could be read as favorable or unfavorable, giving the unusual animal a role beyond the chiefly death omen recorded at Kolovai.
Spinning a Coconut to Question the Unknown
Spinning a coconut and observing how it came to rest was an old method of divination. It could be used when asking about the fate of a sick person or when trying to identify wrongdoing believed to lie behind misfortune.
A Cowrie Shell Could Show a Deity’s Will
Some historical religious accounts describe a sacred cowrie whose position or movement was interpreted as an answer. An unusual stance, such as standing on end, could be taken as a sign of a deity’s response to a question.
A Temple War Club Could “Vote” on War
War clubs kept in sacred settings could be consulted before conflict. A club that shook was interpreted as the god favoring war, while a still club could mean opposition. The object’s movement was treated as a divine decision.
Tongafiji Diviners Claimed Distant Sight
Historical sources mention diviners called tongafiji who were credited with perceiving people or events far away in space or time. Their claimed ability did not necessarily depend on priestly possession, distinguishing them from some other religious specialists.
Hema Was Credited With Knowing Distant Events
A famous ‘Eua figure named Hema was remembered as knowing the outcome of events taking place elsewhere and predicting the return of an absent pet bird. Such stories belong to the Tongan tradition of extraordinary knowledge at a distance.
Loau Was Said to Know What Happened Elsewhere
Loau of Ha‘amea appears in tradition as a person of exceptional knowledge. He was said to understand events occurring at a distance while remaining at home, a reputation that blurred the line between wisdom, legendary insight, and supernatural perception.
Reading the Sea to Identify One’s Location
Gifted navigators were sometimes credited with identifying the sea area around Vava‘u, Tongatapu, or another island by scooping up and examining seawater. The story combines real navigational expertise with a legendary degree of perception.
A Sovereign’s Bowl or Plate Could Carry Divining Authority
Older accounts connect a bowl, and later a metal plate associated with sovereign authority, with divination and the removal of certain tapu conditions. The object functioned as a ritual surrogate for chiefly presence rather than as ordinary tableware.
Spirits, Illness, Sacred Objects, and Protective Power
Dead Relatives May Remain Socially Present
Later ethnography records Tongan accounts in which spirits of deceased relatives remain part of the social field. Respect, memory, dreams, stories, and unexplained experiences can preserve a practical relationship between living family members and the dead.
Some Illness or Unusual Behavior May Be Interpreted Through Tēvolo
Ethnographic work in Vava‘u records some families interpreting illness or unusual behavior through encounters with tēvolo, spirits often understood as deceased persons. This is a cultural explanation and should not replace medical or mental-health assessment.
“Bad Blood” Could Be Linked With Displeased Ancestors
Research on Tongan ethnomedicine has recorded fakatoto kovi, “bad blood,” among traditional explanations for illness, sometimes connected with displeased deceased ancestors. The phrase belongs to an ethnomedical model rather than modern laboratory diagnosis.
Spirit Healers May Describe Guidance Through Visions
Some Tongan healing traditions describe specialists learning about spirits through discernment, dreams, or visions of a helping spirit. Such claims are understood within the healer’s religious and family setting and are not evidence of supernatural diagnosis.
Vava‘u Spirit Healing Can Blend Several Traditions
Research in Vava‘u describes spirit healers whose practices draw on family relationships, ancestors, Christian language, local knowledge, and contact with hospitals. The combinations vary by healer, so there is no single standardized “Tongan spirit-healing” ritual.
A Bible Oath Could Be Feared After Illness or Misfortune
Collocott recorded a Christian-era folk practice in which partners swore mutual fidelity on a Bible. Later sickness or family loss could be interpreted as a consequence of the oath, and clergy might be asked to release it, showing older supernatural reasoning applied to a Christian object.
Tapua Could Embody a Deity
Historical tapua, often fashioned from whale ivory or related materials, could be treated as embodiments or resting places of Tongan gods. In one Ha‘apai account, a sacred whale-tooth object moved before the deity was said to enter the priest.
Weapons Could Acquire Mana
A successful warrior’s weapon could be credited with mana through its association with the wielder, while weapons kept in temples could be understood as receiving sacred efficacy from gods. The belief treated an object’s history and relationships as part of its potency.
Regional Variations Across Tonga
Tongan folklore is not geographically uniform. Tongatapu supplies many of the older chiefly and royal examples, including western-coast omens and traditions surrounding the Tu‘i Tonga. Ha‘apai records preserve localized bonito and shark-fishing restrictions, while ‘Uiha has its red-spring omen. ‘Eua appears in traditions about a shark-associated cavern and people credited with unusual knowledge. Kolovai has its own flying-fox tradition.
Vava‘u is especially important in later ethnographic work on spirits and healing. Those studies show local explanations being negotiated among relatives, churches, healers, and biomedical services rather than following one fixed rule. Even within a single island group, families may disagree about what a spirit encounter means or whether an older belief should be taken seriously.
Historical Roots and Cultural Transmission
Many older beliefs were organized through relationships rather than isolated “lucky” or “unlucky” acts. Rank could determine whose head, food, body, or possessions were tapu to another person. Fishing rules tied success to cooperation, sexual and family relations, chiefly authority, and sacred beings. Birth and puberty rites marked changes in bodily and social status. Omens attached unusual animal behavior, weather, sound, and landscape events to moments of uncertainty.
Transmission occurred through family instruction, oral accounts, specialists, place-based stories, ceremonial speech, and performance. UNESCO’s recognition of lakalaka illustrates the wider Tongan practice of carrying history, social knowledge, and collective memory through sung speech and dance. That does not make lakalaka itself a superstition; it helps explain how cultural knowledge can survive through performed forms as well as written records.
Christian conversion reshaped the older religious setting, and Collocott explicitly noted that many practices he described were already memories rather than living observances. Some motifs disappeared, some survived as stories or warnings, and others were reinterpreted through Christian language. The Bible-oath belief is a clear example of older supernatural reasoning attaching itself to a newer sacred object.
Observation, Memory, and Coincidence
Omens often begin with events that are genuinely unusual: a pale flying fox, a bird entering a house, a branch breaking in calm weather, an unexpected animal call, a large fish shoal, or a striking change in the sea. Human memory gives unusual coincidences more weight than uneventful occasions. Once a connection is culturally familiar, later matches between sign and event are easier to notice and remember than the many times no feared event follows.
Fishing beliefs also show how practical and supernatural explanations can overlap. Harmony within a crew can improve coordination, and experienced navigators really can read wind, swell, stars, birds, currents, and other environmental cues. Those practical skills do not demonstrate that a quarrel, crying child, birdcall, or sacred object controls the catch. Folk explanation and environmental observation should therefore be separated rather than treated as the same kind of claim.
Health and Safety Notes
Pregnancy taboos involving necklaces, knives, doorways, coconuts, bathing, or other symbolic acts do not predict congenital conditions or obstetric complications. Modern clinical care should guide pregnancy, childbirth, newborn care, and menstrual health. A culturally meaningful family practice may be retained when it is safe, but urgent symptoms need assessment by qualified health professionals.
The same distinction applies to spirit-related illness explanations and traditional healing. Prayer, family support, and culturally valued healing may be meaningful to patients, yet they should not delay emergency care, treatment of infection, severe pain, breathing difficulty, pregnancy complications, or mental-health crises. Historical practices involving bloodletting or other invasive procedures should not be recreated.
Countries With Related Folk Beliefs
Tonga shares linguistic ancestry, migration histories, religious concepts, and exchange networks with other Pacific societies, especially within Polynesia and the neighboring Fiji–Tonga region. Similar words such as tapu or tabu and mana do not mean that every society used them in identical ways. Local rank systems, deities, ritual objects, and omen traditions developed their own forms.
| Shared Motif | Tongan Form | Comparable Forms |
|---|---|---|
| Sacred restriction | Tapu could regulate kin relations, rank, food, bodies, work, and sacred places. | Samoa and Aotearoa New Zealand have cognate tapu concepts; Fiji uses tabu, with locally different social and religious applications. |
| Mana and efficacy | Mana could be associated with chiefs, skilled people, weapons, sacred objects, and extraordinary capacity. | Related mana concepts occur across Polynesia, including Samoa and Māori traditions, but their grammar, theology, and social use differ. |
| Sea and fishing observances | Bonito and shark fishing could involve rank, household restrictions, harmony, and sacred guidance. | Samoa and Fiji also preserve customary marine restrictions and ritualized fishing traditions, though the species, authorities, and rules are not interchangeable. |
| Ancestors and spirits | Some Tongan accounts maintain relationships with deceased relatives and interpret certain experiences through spirits. | Samoan, Māori, and Fijian traditions also contain ancestral or spirit relationships, each shaped by different local categories and histories. |
| Sacred valuables | Historical tapua could embody Tongan deities and were linked with chiefly and religious authority. | Fijian tabua, usually whale teeth, became major ceremonial valuables; related histories show exchange and transformation rather than simple identity. |
📚 Roots of Belief
- eHRAF World Cultures — The Supernatural in Tonga — Human Relations Area Files summarizes Collocott’s ethnography of Tongan tapu, mana, birth, death, fishing, omens, divination, and spirit belief, while noting that many practices were already historical memories. (HRAF is a long-established Yale-based anthropological research organization.)
- American Anthropologist — “The Supernatural in Tonga” by E. E. V. Collocott — The original peer-reviewed article behind many historical pregnancy, rank, fishing, omen, divination, and mana entries. (American Anthropologist is the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association and is hosted by Wiley.)
- ANU Press — “Bodies Permeable and Divine: Tapu, Mana and the Embodiment of Hegemony in Pre-Christian Tonga” — Examines historical Tongan tapu and mana in kinship, childbirth, puberty, death, food, and rank, including turmeric, umbilical rites, seclusion, and tapu-releasing baths. (ANU Press is the scholarly press of the Australian National University.)
- Kent Academic Repository — “‘Traditional’ Healers, Speaking and Motivation in Vava‘u, Tonga” — Ethnographic research on Vava‘u spirit healers, syncretic practice, family relationships, Christianity, and health services. (The repository is maintained by the University of Kent and preserves peer-reviewed academic work.)
- Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry — “A View from the Other Side: The Place of Spirits in the Tongan Social Field” — Discusses the place of spirits, deceased relatives, and social relationships in more recent Tongan ethnography. (Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry is a peer-reviewed Springer journal.)
- PubMed — “Honoring Motherhood: The Meaning of Childbirth for Tongan Women” — Reports an ethnographic study of Tongan women’s childbirth experiences, including spiritual dimensions, cultural practices, respect, and individual care preferences. (PubMed is maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.)
- Journal of the Polynesian Society — “Tapua: ‘Polished Ivory Shrines’ of Tongan Gods” — Documents historical tapua, deity embodiment, Ha‘apai sanctuary traditions, the white tern associated with shark fishing, and ritual signs surrounding sacred objects. (The Journal of the Polynesian Society is a long-running scholarly journal devoted to Pacific research.)
- UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage — Lakalaka, Dances and Sung Speeches of Tonga — Records lakalaka as a Tongan form joining choreography, sung speech, history, legends, values, and social knowledge, supporting the discussion of cultural transmission. (UNESCO is the United Nations agency responsible for the international intangible-heritage convention.)
- BMC Public Health — “Living With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in the Kingdom of Tonga” — Provides contemporary health research showing how prayer, traditional medicine, family life, and biomedical care can coexist in Tongan health experience. (BMC Public Health is a peer-reviewed public-health journal published by Springer Nature.)