Yahoo – AFP,
4 July 2015
Tonga's
King Tupou VI (L) and Queen Nanasipau'u attend "Education Day" at
the
Teufaiva Stadium during the week-long coronation celebrations in
Nuku'alofa on
July 1, 2015 (AFP Photo/Pesi Fonua)
|
Nuku'alofa
(Tonga) (AFP) - Tupou VI was formally crowned King of Tonga on Saturday before
thousands of people including heads of state and dignitaries from around the
world, capping a week steeped in traditional rites.
Because it
is taboo for Tongans to touch their king's head, a retired Australian minister
was flown in to perform the televised crowning.
The new
king also becomes the 24th Tu'i Kanokupolu, an ancient Tongan title that
pre-dates the monarchy by centuries.
Japan's
Crown Prince Naruhito
(centre L) and Crown Princess Masako
(centre R) arrives
at Nuku'alofa on
July 3, 2015 (AFP Photo)
|
The
historic rite -- in which about 150 nobles, wearing traditional ta'ovala mats
around their waists, sat in a circle to drink kava from coconut shells --
launched seven days of street parties, black-tie balls, fashion shows and
feasting before the king was crowned by Australian D'Arcy Wood.
"No
Tongan citizen can do it as it is forbidden for a Tongan to touch the king's
head," the 78-year-old retired Methodist minister said last week before
flying to Tonga from his home near Melbourne.
Wood was
born in Tonga when his father worked there in 1924 and met the new king when he
was Tonga's High Commissioner to Australia in the 1990s.
Tupou VI,
55, ascended to the throne following the death of his bachelor brother Tupou V,
who died in 2012 after a six-year reign of major reforms that expanded
democracy in the nation of about 110,000 people.
An
estimated 15,000 people, mainly expatriate Tongans, flew in for the coronation,
with the invited guests including Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito, his wife
Princess Masako, and European royals Prince Georg von Habsburg from Hungary and
Princess Marie-Therese von Hohenberg from Austria.
Hundreds of
school children sitting on traditional mats, formed a guard of honour as the
robed King Tupou VI and his wife, Queen Nanasipau'u arrived at the Free
Wesleyan Centenary Church for the ceremony.
The
celebrations were to continue in the evening with a Tupakapakanava -- the
lighting of torches along the coast line -- and will end on Tuesday with a
military tattoo.
Deep
respect for Tongan monarchy
Although
Tonga has economic problems including high youth unemployment, most of its
citizens have deep respect for their monarchy and the lavishness of the
coronation was not a concern.
Auckland-based
Ofa Taufo'ou, who returned home for the celebrations, told Radio New Zealand
that Tongans valued their royalty and culture.
"I
don't have the words to explain how much it means to me to have royalty, and to
have this occasion," he said.
Wood said
Tonga's affection for their monarch was deeply entrenched in their history.
"The
monarch represents for them continuity and security -- a symbolic role which
unites and reassures the people."
Tonga's
monarchy can trace its history back 1,000 years and by the 13th century the
nation wielded power and influence over surrounding islands, including Samoa,
nearly 900 kilometres (560 miles) to the east.
Tupou I,
who converted to Christianity after coming under the influence of missionaries,
was proclaimed king in 1845 after winning control of the monarchy from two
other royal lines.
By 1900 the
country had become a British protectorate and acquired its independence in
1970. It remains the only monarchy among South Pacific island nations.
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