The sun has set in Tonga

[Kahnee]

From PA:

 

Tongan King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, a towering figure in the tiny Pacific Island nation for four decades, has died in a New Zealand hospital, Tonga's government announced today. He was 88.

"The sun has set in the Kingdom of Tonga," the government said in the formal announcement of his death.

Tupou's death came at the end of a long, but unspecified, illness after he had spent most of the past several months in the hospital.

Crown Prince Tupouto'a, 57, who will take over the king's duties, took the vows in the Tongan Constitution in front of the nation's chief justice today in the capital, Nuku'alofa, said Lord Chamberlain Hon. Fielakepa. He has taken the name King Taufa'ahau Tupou V, said Fielakepa, a member of the Tongan nobility assigned to serve the monarch.

Under Tongan tradition, mourning will continue for nearly a year, with special rituals 10 days and 100 days after the king's burial in Tonga.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer paid tribute to Tupou IV in a statement that described peace and stability as hallmarks of his reign.

Edited September 11, 2006 by Kahnee

[cymrococh]

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