Tonga's King George Tupou V was anointed yesterday as the South Pacific's newest king in a centuries-old ritual that included receiving gifts of dozens of roasted pigs and drinking the mild narcotic, kava.
The rites performed with dozens of tribal chiefs were the opening salvo in days of festivities marking George V’s formal coronation, though he in effect has been Tonga’s head of state and leader since his father’s death in 2006.
In the Taumafakava ceremony, the king was bestowed with the traditional chiefly Tui Kanokupolu title — making George V the 23rd head of the South Pacific nation’s ruling dynasty, founded in the 17th century. The ceremonies culminate tomorrow with a Christian coronation before foreign heads of state and other dignitaries.
PHOTO: AFP
Tribal leaders went through elaborate procedures preparing, presenting and drinking kava — a gritty concoction made from the roots of a pepper plant that numbs the lips and mouth and is widely used at important occasions across the South Pacific.
The kava bowl was presented to George V, who drank it in one gulp as is customary. Thousands of spectators roared their approval in cheers and wild applause.
“From that moment his majesty became king of Tonga, the country was his,” said Motu’puaka, the king’s official orator.
George V has agreed to give up much of the near-absolute power his family has held for generations over his tiny South Pacific nation in favor of a mainly elected parliament.
The decision announced on Monday moves Tonga a step closer to giving up its absolute monarchy. It is one of just a handful of countries in the world where the monarch runs the government day-to-day.
No time frame was given for the proposed changes to take effect.
The palace has for years promised democratic reforms, but progress has been slow and public dissatisfaction has been building.
Tensions at a pro-democracy rally in the capital, Nuku’alofa, boiled over into riots in 2006 that killed eight and left the downtown razed.
George V also accepted dozens of roast pigs and hundreds of baskets of food yesterday from the crowd — gifts meant to symbolize the abundance of the king’s lands.
Tu’ivanuavou, a senior official in the royal household, said the ceremony was a key tribal event, with the more conventional coronation to follow.
“It marked the sealing by the nobles, the chiefs and the people of the sacred authority from his majesty derived from his ancestry,” said Tu’ivanuavou, who like many Tongan nobles uses just one name. “It was an act of homage and a confirmation of allegiance.”
George V sat in an open-sided pavilion filled with layers of prized fine mats and topped by 183m lengths of folded mulberry bark tapa cloth.
He sat with his back against a framed piece of tree trunk — a centuries-old practice designed to protect against potential attacks by enemy assassins.
When King George arrived he was escorted by the spear-wielding Tui’soso, a Fijian chief whose task was to drive away evil spirits.
The chiefly families of Tonga and Fiji are closely linked by blood and marriage.
As night fell, schoolchildren held up 30,000 flaming torches to announce to the world that George V was the anointed King of Tonga.
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a