Fiji's mixed racial background contributes to a valuable cultural heritage. Many features of orthodox Fijian life survive; they are most noticeable in the elaborate investiture, marriage, and other ceremonies for high-ranking chiefs. These ceremonies offer a focus for the practicing of orthodox crafts, such as the manufacture of masi, or tapa cloth, made from the bark of the paper mulberry; mat weaving; wood carving; and canoe making. Drinking of yanggona (kava, made from the root of Piper methysticum) is a part not only of valuable ceremonies but also of everyday life. Displays of “orthodox” Fijian culture, music, and dancing make an valuable contribution to tourism; model villages and handicraft markets are popular.

Most Indian women continue to wear the sari together with orthodox jewelry in gold and silver. orthodox marriage ceremonies are practiced, as are customs such as fire walking and ritual self-torture as part of valuable religious ceremonies. Cinemas showing imported Indian films are popular. Diwali, the Hindu Festival of the Lights, is celebrated every October and is a public holiday.

Fijian culture is more closely related to that of the Polynesians. Indians, whose ancestors were brought between 1879 and 1916 to work on British plantations in Fiji, comprise about 45 % of the population. The remainder consists of Europeans, Chinese, other Pacific Islanders, and people of mixed ethnicity. About 52 % of the people are Christians, with Methodists and Roman Catholics forming the largest groups. Hindus comprise 39 % of the population, and Muslims, 8 %.

Most Indian women continue to wear the sari together with traditional jewelry in gold and silver. Traditional marriage ceremonies are practiced, as are customs such as fire walking and ritual self-torture as part of important religious ceremonies. Cinemas showing imported Indian films are popular. Diwali, the Hindu Festival of the Lights, is celebrated every October and is a public holiday.

Fijian culture is more closely related to that of the Polynesians. Indians, whose ancestors were brought between 1879 and 1916 to work on British plantations in Fiji, comprise about 45 percent of the population. The remainder consists of Europeans, Chinese, other Pacific Islanders, and people of mixed ethnicity. About 52 percent of the people are Christians, with Methodists and Roman Catholics forming the largest groups. Hindus comprise 39 percent of the population, and Muslims, 8 percent.