Tongan National Center Vacation and Tongan National Center Luxury Travel Package
The most important sights on Tongatapu lie east of Nuku'alofa. Yet there is another absolute "must" for visitors in an outlying district to the south of the city: the Tongan National Center, which is reached via Taufa'ahau Road. Its culture center, built on the Fanga'uta Lagoon (across from the Vaiola hospital) in 1988, offers an informative exhibition about Tonga cultural history, as well as demonstrations of traditional handicrafts, such as wood carving, tapa production, weaving, etc.
The Tongan women possess considerable abilities in the area of handicrafts. Among the most beautiful of their skillfully-made woven articles are the baskets which they make from hibiscus bast and the ribs of coconut palm leaves, and often adorn with decorative patterns.
A selection of these high-quality objects is for sale in the little souvenir shop; it also has a good selection of typically Tongan carving work using wood, coral and bone. It's a good place, too, to enjoy some Tongan cuisine. Chicken in coconut milk and freshly caught fish are to be had, cooked in an earth oven and served on a banana leaf. To top it all off, the islands' natives perform their traditional dances in the adjacent amphitheater.
Yet another attraction are the exotic plants, such as vanilla (vanilla planifoLia), kava (piper methysticum), the annatto tree (bixa orellana) and paper mulberry (broussonetia papyrifera), which are to be found in the well-tended gardens here.
The street continues circling the lagoon; almost 2 miles (3 km) to the south and inaccessible to the public, the residence of Crown Prince Tupouto'a is enthroned on a hillock. Across from it, two white tiger sculptures guard the home of Princess Pilolevu.
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