The Tanga Islands are an

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

group in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

, 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 . History The first inhabitants of the archipela ...

. Tanga is made up of four main islands — Boang, Malendok, 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 typically conical volcano built up by many alternating layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with ...

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 volcanic eruption. An eruption that ejects large volumes of magma over a short period of time can cause significant detriment to the str ...

. 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 ...

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

Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea The prime minister of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea () is Papua New Guinea's head of government, elected by the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea, National Parliament and formally appointed by the Governor-General of Papua New ...

Sir Julius Chan Sir Julius Chan (29 August 1939 – 30 January 2025) was a Papua New Guinean politician who served as Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea from 1980 to 1982 and from 1994 to 1997. He was Member of Parliament for New Ireland Province, having won t ...

and Sumsuma, 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. Bismarck Archipelago New Ireland Province Stratovolcanoes of Papua New Guinea Calderas of Papua New Guinea {{PapuaNewGuinea-island-stub