Around 70 cooked pigs and hundreds of baskets of food were yesterday presented to Tonga's new king in a lavish traditional coronation ceremony for Polynesia's last monarchy.
King George Tupou V will be crowned officially tomorrow, before Tongan, British, Japanese and Thai royalty, as well as South Pacific chiefs and heads of state.
A 60-year-old bachelor without any known heir, he will be Tonga's 23rd and possibly last king.
Tonga is a group of 170 coral islands sprinkled across an area of about 2,000 km north of New Zealand.
It is also the South Pacific's last monarchy, where the royal family controls a semi-feudal political system, and where all Cabinet posts are decided by the king.
His people staged the Taumafa Kava ceremony yesterday.
"The Taumafa Kava is the traditional coronation ceremony for the Tongan people," Alfred Soakai, from the prime minister's office, said.
Wearing a traditional Tongan ta'ovala woven mat skirt and a garland of flowers, the new king arrived at the Taumafa Kava in the capital Nuku'alofa behind a spear-wielding warrior from Fiji. No Tongan can walk in front of the king or touch his food.
The new king sat on a pile of handwoven pandanus mats on an open pavilion facing the sea, while more than 200 Tongan nobles and chiefs dressed in woven skirts and sea shells circled him.
With hundreds of palm-leaf baskets of food and rows of cooked pigs trussed on wooden sticks laid out before him, the king took the first drink of kava, a mildly narcotic drink made from crushed kava root, signifying he was the first Tongan.
The Master of the Royal Household, Honourable Tu'ivanuavou, said that the ceremony "was an act of homage and a confirmation of allegiance".
Schoolchildren were to hold 30,000 torches yesterday night to proclaim King George Tupou V's coronation to the world.
In 2006 violent protests erupted in Tonga, in which eight people were killed and many of the island nation's businesses destroyed, as people demanded political reforms.
In April, Tongans voted pro-democracy lawmakers into parliament, with some of those elected still facing criminal charges for the riots.
Tonga's new king has said he will relinquish his political powers once on the throne "to meet the democratic aspirations of many of his people".
Tonga will spend $2.7 million on the coronation, which includes traditional ceremonies and a church service tomorrow reflecting Tonga's Christian nature, but also three royal balls, a military parade, an open-air concert.
The royal robes come from a Saville Row tailor in London.
The Tongan government said guests invited for the final coronation include Britain's Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Japan and Princess Sirindhorn of Thailand.
There will also be many South Pacific royals, including the Maori King from New Zealand, a Hawaiian princess, Samoan and Fijian royalty, and nobility from many of the island nations.
Questions:
1. What was presented to the King during the ceremony?
2. What is Kava?
3. What erupted in Tonga in 2006?
Answers:
1. Around 70 roasted pigs and hundreds of baskets of food.
2. A mildly narcotic drink made from crushed kava root。
3. Violent protests against the monarchy.
（英語點津 Helen 編輯）
Dylan Quinnell is a freelance journalist and photographer from New Zealand who has worked in TV, print, film and online. With a strong interest in international affairs, he has worked in Denmark, Indonesia and Australia, covering issues like the EU, indigenous people and deforestation. Dylan is in Beijing on an Asia New Zealand grant working as a copy editor for the English news department.
