Papua New Guinea country • 1 • 2 •

•

Search: World Countries Papua New Guinea • all objects

Vast lands of the country are wild and undeveloped, with magnificent scenery that ranges from pristine coral atolls to volcanic mountains and dense tropical rainforest

Papua New Guinea is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands. Other major islands within Papua New Guinea include New Ireland, New Britain, Manus and Bougainville. Its capital, and one of its few major cities, is Port Moresby. The country is situated on the Pacific Ring of Fire, at the point of collision of several tectonic plates. There are a number of active volcanoes and eruptions are frequent. Earthquakes are relatively common, sometimes accompanied by tsunamis.The capital city of Port Moresby offers interesting Zoological gardens, the Parliament building, the museum, and general Melanesian atmosphere. Also one should visit 'Beautiful Madang', a city with breath-taking flights of bats in the evening, and yet more breathtaking diving.The country is one of the world's least explored, culturally and geographically, and many undiscovered species of plants and animals are thought to exist in the interior of Papua New Guinea. A spine of mountains runs the length of the island of New Guinea, forming a populous highlands region. Dense rainforests can be found in the lowland and coastal areas.Little was known in the West about the island until the nineteenth century, although traders from Southeast Asia had been visiting New Guinea as long as 5,000 years ago collecting bird of paradise plumes, and European explorers had encountered it as early as the sixteenth century.After being colonized by three external powers since 1884, Papua New Guinea gained its independence from Australia in 1975.Papua New Guinea has more languages than any other country, with over 820 indigenous languages. Indigenous languages are classified into two large groups: Austronesian languages and Papuan languages. There are three official languages for Papua New Guinea. English is an official language, and is the language of government and the education system. Many tribes in the isolated mountainous interior have little contact with each other, let alone with the outside world, and live within a non-monetarised economy, dependent on subsistence agriculture. Papua New Guinea is a place that often markets itself as 'the Last Unknown' or a place where you can still find 'Stone Age People'. The culture of Papua New Guinea is multi-faceted and complex. It is estimated that more than a thousand different cultural groups exist in Papua New Guinea. Because of this diversity, many different styles of cultural expression have emerged; each group has created its own expressive forms in art, dance, weaponry, costumes, singing, music, architecture and much more.