The Tanga Islands are an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

group in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

, located north-east of New Ireland and part of the

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km. History The first inhabitants o ...

. Tanga is made up of four main islands — Boang, Maledok, Lif and Tefa — and a number of smaller, uninhabited islands. Boang (ca. 27 km²) consists entirely of a raised, relatively flat-topped plateau of Pleistocene, coralline limestone, which rises up to 170 m above sea level (asl.) and has sheer cliffs around a large part of its perimeter. The islands are the remnants of a

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and per ...

which collapsed to form a

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

. Lif (283 m), Tefa (155 m), and Malendok (472 m) islands are on the caldera rim, while Bitlik and Bitbok islands are

lava dome In volcanology, a lava dome is a circular mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano. Dome-building eruptions are common, particularly in convergent plate boundary settings. Around 6% of eruptions on ...

s constructed near the center of the caldera. They are inhabited by the

Tanga people Tanga people are a tribe of Papua New Guinea that lives in the Tanga Islands and Feni Islands of Tanir Rural LLG and three villages (Sena, Muliama and Warangansau) in the Matalai Rural LLG of Namatanai District of New Ireland Province. They spea ...

. Former

Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea The prime minister of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Prai Minista bilong Papua Niugini) is Papua New Guinea's head of government, consequent on being the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in the National P ...

Sir Julius Chan Sir Julius Chan (born 29 August 1939) served as Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea from 1980 to 1982 and from 1994 to 1997. He is Member of Parliament for New Ireland Province, having won the seat in the 2007 national election. He is also the c ...

and

Sumsuma Sumsuma (1903?–1965), the leader of the Rabaul Strike of 1929 was from Sasa village on Boang Island and Tefa Island in the Tanga Islands of New Ireland Province New Ireland Province, formerly New Mecklenburg (german: Neu-Mecklenburg), and No ...

, the leader of the Rabaul Strike of 1929 and Papua New Guinea's First Unionist are from the Tanga Islands. Secret Societies practiced on the Islands are Sokapana, Tubuan and Ingiet. Mask dances include Lor, Tedak and Kipong are performed during cultural occasions.

References

* *F. L. S. Bell Sokapana: A Melanesian Secret Society The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute Vol. 65'' (Jul. - Dec., 1935), pp. 311–341 *Foster, Robert J. 1995, Social Reproduction and History in Melanesia: Mortuary Ritual, Gift Exchange and Custom in the Tanga Islands. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Holding, A. 2000. Anatomy of Context: Issues in Understanding of Tangan Views of Illness, Unpublished PhD thesis,Darwin College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge. * Garling, Stephanie J 2007 Post-Lapita Evolutions or Revolutions?Interaction and Exchange in Island Melanesia:The View from the Tanga Islands Canberra: Australian National University. Archipelagoes of Papua New Guinea Bismarck Archipelago New Ireland Province Stratovolcanoes of Papua New Guinea Calderas of Papua New Guinea {{PapuaNewGuinea-island-stub