Figure 1.--Tongans today mostly still wear traditional dress. The principal male garment is the tupenu, a cloth that wraps around the waist and reaches below the knees and looks like a skirt. It is worn with a shirt. Another garment is the ta'ovala which is a woven mat that men wear around their waist and tie it with a kafa. These boys on Niuatoputapu wear grey shirts with tupenus for their school uniform. Two of the boys have the ta'ovala mats.

Most Tongan schools seem to have basic uniforms. The few images we have all show rhe children weating unigorms. There are a large number of relatively small islands and thus quite a number of small schools. Each school determines the uniform for the children. The boys seem to wear shirts with short pants or a skirt affair. We do not know what it is called in Tonga. Presumably it as based on traditional dress. Tongans today mostly still wear traditional dress. The principal male garment is the tupenu, a cloth that wraps around the waist and reaches below the knees and looks like a skirt. It is worn with a shirt. Another garment is the ta'ovala which is a woven mat that men wear around their waist and tie it with a kafa. These boys on Niuatoputapu wear grey shirts with tupenus for their school uniform (figure 1). Two of the boys have the ta'ovala mats. We suspect that many other colors are worn in the various different islands. We note different colored shirts. Khaki shorts seem common. The girls wear blouses and skirts or blouses with jumpers (gym slips). We see white blouses and red skirts and dresses. There may have been other colors, but becuse red and white are the colors of the Tongan flag, this may have been a popular and patriotic choice. The boys uniforms seem more muted. We have infotmtion on only few islands so there may be different types of uniforms and different colors on the many different islands that make up Tonga.

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Created: 9:13 AM 12/10/2010
Last updated: 9:01 AM 9/23/2011