Tongan king crowned in traditional ceremony

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)

Celebrations and ancient rituals leading up to the coronation began last Saturday with a Taumafa Kava, a traditional ceremony in which Tupou VI drank the mildly narcotic kava drink to confirm his title as king of Tonga.

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.

Schoolchildren perform for Tonga's King Tupou VI and Queen Nanasipau'u on

 "Education Day" at the Teufaiva Stadium during the week-long coronation 

celebrations in Nuku'alofa on July 1, 2015 (AFP Photo/Linny Folau)

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.