King's funeral brings capital to halt

The funeral procession of King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV makes its way from the Royal Palace in Nuku'alofa towards the Royal Tombs. Picture / Alan Gibson

NUKU'ALOFA - The body of the late king of Tonga has been laid to rest in the capital Nuku'alofa.

The casket was lowered into a grave at 2.40pm (1.40pm NZ Time) and covered in fine mats before Tonga's royal undertakers - nima tapu - began to fill the grave with sand carried in woven baskets.

The Pacific nation is farewelling its beloved King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV in an elaborate state funeral that mixed tribal traditions with Christian prayers, royal pomp with village-style feasts.

Led by his son and successor, King Siaosi Tupou V, dignitaries from 30 nations lay wreaths and joined an estimated 10,000 people in a Wesleyan Christian funeral service at the Tongan Royal Tombs, Mala'e Kula.

Tupou IV died at age 88 in Auckland on Sept. 11.

The body of the late king of Tonga was carried through the streets of the capital Nuku'alofa by hundreds of pallbearers to his burial place.

At midday local time (11am NZ Time), the casket carrying the body of the 88-year-old, king, who ruled the country for nearly half a century, was carried from the royal palace.

It was placed carefully on a catafalque, a decorated platform to carry the casket to the tomb at the mala'e kula burial grounds.

Ten minutes later, the sound of a 21 gun salute fired into the harbour echoed around the capital.

Hundreds of Tongans gathered on the corner of each block as the catafalque was borne through the streets by 150 men at a time.

One thousand men took turns to support each side of the platform, which carried the heavy mahogany and lead-lined casket as well as senior undertakers.

The pallbearers were either former students of Tupou College or men from villages throughout the main island of Tongatapu.

Dignitaries have gathered from around the Pacific as well as from France, Greece, Sweden, and Switzerland.

New Zealand is represented by Prime Minister Helen Clark, and Australia by Governor-General Michael Jeffery.

The 120-strong New Zealand delegation also includes members of the local Tongan community, Maori representatives and Pacific Island leaders.

Little known details of monarch's life

You often learn something you didn't know about a person after they die and King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV is no exception.

Attached to the official schedule of today's funeral proceedings an official biography covers his better known achievements like his "towering legacy" in public education but includes a few details that would not be so well known outside Tonga.

For instance when the Tongan Government did not have enough money to start the country's first high school, the King thought laterally and acquired a movie projector.

He staged film screenings around the country for a small entrance fee and raised enough money to set up what is now Tonga High School.

It might also have come as some surprise to learn that in the King's personal life he did not "indulge his children" and some close to His Majesty described him as "frugal and thrifty and not interested in luxury".

The biography said his "myriad intellectual interests" included subjects like the military and shipping, and his love of reading had extended in later years to Chinese civilisation as well as practical topics like pig and poultry farming.

It reminds us how King Tupou IV had been described as a "renaissance man" by Time magazine.

The King is credited as an amateur archaeologist for unlocking secrets of Tongan archaeology by solving the mystery of the ancient Ha'amonga-'a-Maui trilithon, the great stone archway on the eastern corner of Tongatapu.

Some had suggested it was an entry to a royal compound but the King conducted his own scientific investigations, with the assistance of surveyors, to discover a previously unknown v-shaped notch on the upper side of the lintel.

"His Majesty found that the notch indicated on the horizon the rising point of the sun on the longest and shortest day of the year. This enabled the ancient Tongans to predict the seasons accurately and as a consequence they knew which part of the sky to look for the constellations at different times of the year."

He reformed the Tongan alphabet and was an expert in the use of the abacus.

King Tupou IV had embraced a special interest in mathematics, becoming a member of the International Mathematics Association, and also became a music composer and arranger.

The biography said his talents as a guitarist found new public acclaim when he was a featured instrumentalist on the compact disc, Millennium 2000, which remained popular to this day.

He was in his youth a gymnast, keen sportsman and at age 14 set a pole vault record that stood for many years.

When age slowed him down King Tupou IV, who had long battled weight problems associated with a "naturally large physique", had exercised by regularly climbing and descending the palace stairs or walking in the grounds of the palace residence.