TONGA: One thousand pallbearers carry Tonga king to his grave
- 00:00:14
- ITN Source
TONGA: One thousand pallbearers carry Tonga king to his grave
Thousands of Tongans turned out on Thursday (September 19, 2006) to farewell their long-reigning monarch, King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV. Carried aloft by 1,000 pallbearers, the King was buried in a ceremony combining Christian hymn-singing and ancient Polynesian ritual. Many were deeply upset to say goodbye to King Tupou IV, who ruled for 41-years Tupou IV died in a New Zealand hospital on September 10 after a long illness. Foreign dignitaries including Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and Australian Governor-General Michael Jeffery joined up to 10,000 ordinary Tongans in a Wesleyan Christian funeral service. The pallbearers, dressed in traditional ta'ovala grass mats, carried Tupou IV's heavy wooden catafalque in relays of 150 from the palace where he had lain in state to the Mala'e Kula, the site of Tongan royal tombs The 88-year-old king, entered the record books in the 1970s as the world's heaviest monarch. Ten years ago he set a sensational example to his subjects in a weight-loss programme across the many islands of his kingdom. The king lost a mammoth 70 kilogrammes (175 pounds) before issuing a royal decree to many weight-challenged Tongans that they take part in the Tonga Healthy Weight Loss competition He is succeeded by his son, George Tupou V. Tupou IV's mahogany and lead-lined coffin was then lowered into his tomb and covered with woven mats before the nima tapu, the royal undertakers called "sacred hands", then filled the grave with sand. He was buried next to the tomb of his mother, Queen Salote Tupou III, who he succeeded to the throne in 1965. The Polynesian nation, dubbed the Friendly Islands by British explorer James Cook, holds its royal family in deep esteem. Praised in official biographies for leaving a "towering legacy", Tupou IV was the first Tongan to gain a university degree and placed great emphasis on education. The royal family controls a semi-feudal political system in the nation of some 105,000 people about 2,000 km (1,250 miles) north of New Zealand. Tonga witnessed unprecedented demonstrations in May 2005, when an estimated 10,000 people took to the streets to demand democracy and public ownership of assets.
ITN Source | September 19, 2006
