Taufaʻahau Tupou IV.

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Taufaʻahau Tupou IV. (1985)
Tupou IV.
Tupou IV (1967)

Taufa'ahau Tupou IV (born July 4, 1918 in Nukuʻalofa , † September 10, 2006 in Auckland , New Zealand ) was the king of Tonga from 1965 until his death .

family

Tupou IV was born in 1918 as the son of Queen Salote Tupou III. (1900–1965) and her husband Viliami Tupoulahi. He received his schooling mostly abroad (e.g. at the University of New South Wales in Sydney ). Taufaʻahau Tupou IV married Halaevalu Mataʻaho (* 1926) on June 10, 1947 , with whom he had four children:

  • His eldest son, George Tupou V. ( 1948-2012 ), was appointed his successor the day after his death. He remained unmarried and had an illegitimate daughter.
  • His daughter, Princess Salote Pilolevu Tuita (* 1951), married a Tongan diplomat in 1976 and lived in California. She has four daughters.
  • Prince Fatafehi ​​ʻAlaivahamamaʻo Tukuʻaho (* 1954, † 2004) was excluded from the line of succession in 1980 because of his marriage to a commoner.
  • His youngest son Tupou VI. (* 1959) was Prime Minister of the country from 2000 to February 2006 and has been king since 2012. He has three children, including the Crown Prince Tupoutoʻa ʻUlukalala (* 1985).

Tupou IV died in 2006 in a New Zealand clinic. His death was described as "peaceful" by the royal chamberlain, Fielakepa. A month of national mourning was scheduled after his death .

His body was buried in Nuku'alofa on September 19, 2006 after it was transported from New Zealand. 1000 pallbearers carried the bier with the coffin from the palace to the family crypt of the royal dynasty. In addition to the new monarch, George Tupou V, 15,000 mourners (more than 10% of the island's population) attended the ceremony accompanied by the thunder of cannons. Numerous foreign guests of honor also attended the funeral, including the Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito , New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. The royal chaplain preached a sermon at the tomb. Then the coffin was let into the crypt accompanied by Richard Wagner's music . After the Christian burial, royal funeral directors performed centuries-old rituals. These should accompany the transition of the king into the " Pulotu ", the Polynesian underworld.

politics

Taufaʻahau Tupou IV took over the first political offices in 1943 as Minister of Education and 1944–1949 as Minister of Health; from 1949 he was Tonga's prime minister . After his mother's death, he was crowned her successor on December 16, 1965.

In 1970 Taufaʻahau Tupou IV proclaimed complete independence from Great Britain, which Tonga had occupied as a protectorate since 1900. He launched Tonga's first daily newspaper and was the administrative chairman of Tonga's first television company.

He was against nuclear weapons and the dumping of nuclear waste in the Pacific Ocean . However, the last French nuclear tests in Mururoa did not lead to any protests in Tonga, as in Samoa and Fiji , which the French bought with the donation of some old ships. There was also talk of dumping nuclear waste from the United States in the crater lake of Niuafo'ou for years .

The king enjoyed a high reputation abroad, as he was very close to the people on trips abroad and was considered extremely humorous. However, he ruled Tonga increasingly autocratically , especially in his later years . He was involved in an investment scandal, and nepotism has corrupted the Tongan economy more and more in recent years . Journalists who reported on this were prevented from carrying out their work several times, and Tongan newspapers printed in New Zealand were repeatedly confiscated by customs.

Pro-democratic candidates had consistently gained seats in parliament since the early 1990s, but were routinely outvoted by the 21 members chosen by the king and noble families.

Others

Taufaʻahau Tupou IV was a lay preacher in the Free Wesleyan Church . He spoke German relatively well and was a great admirer of Bismarck . Every year he went on a skiing holiday to St. Moritz .

Taufaʻahau Tupou IV. Is one of the physically heaviest heads of state of the 20th century. In 1976 the weight of the 1.90 meter tall monarch was measured on the luggage scale at Tonga Airport as 209.5 kilograms. A special armchair had to be made for his participation in the wedding ceremony of Prince Charles and Lady Diana in 1981. His attitude to his weight changed in the 1990s, Tupou lost a lot of weight. He later had the capital's airport regularly closed in order to use the runways for cycling.

gallery

  • Front of the 1- Pa'anga note

  • Reverse side of a 2 pa'anga coin

  • Crown Prince (1936)

Web links

Commons : Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  • Westfälische Rundschau from September 20, 2006
  1. ↑ Michael T. Kaufman: "King Taufaʻahau Tupou IV, Ruler of Tonga, Dies at 88" , New York Times , September 12, 2006
  2. ↑ "Obituary: Taufaʻahau Tupou IV" , BBC , September 11, 2006
personal data
SURNAME Taufaʻahau Tupou IV.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Taufaʻahau Tupou, Siaosi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Tongan nobleman, King of Tonga
DATE OF BIRTH 4th July 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuku'alofa
DATE OF DEATH September 10, 2006
Place of death Auckland , New Zealand