Judy and Alan (Qld) in Tonga

Judy and Alan are teaching at Sia'atoutai Theological College in Tonga. They write:

I am using this letter to tell you about the funeral of the King's nephew, Prince Tu'i Pelehake and his wife, Princess Kaimanawhich, made the news all over the world. Funerals are big here, and students seem to disappear frequently to sing at a wake during the night!
What an amazing experience this state funeral of the prince and princess was - and what a privilege to be able to observe first hand such a rich traditional ceremony.
The observances spanned two full days and the connecting night. There was a beautifully printed program which officials in town received early in the week. We acquired a copy at the burial.
It all began when the bodies were flown in from the USA. They arrived onThursday morning and were then processed from the airport along 20 kms of roads lined with school children to the Royal Palace in Nuku’alofa (the capital). The children all sat, cross-legged and heads bowed, as the procession passed as a sign of respect. Their uniforms are all tunics in bright colours (red, blue depending on the school) and make a wonderful splash of colour in the bright sunlight. People in the town also sat along the roads - they must always be below the level of royalty as they pass. Businesses and many houses along the way are swathed in black and purple bunting.
When the coffins were installed at the palace, the stream of local dignitaries began to come to pay their respects and sign the condolence book. Then came the turn of the local churches , which each had a time slot for singing and prayers at the wake right through the night. After each contribution, the people were fed and moved on to make way for another group - all highly organised.
The next morning, when the final church group had finished their singing and praying, the bell of the Centenary Church, the Nuku’alofa Free Weselyan Church of Tonga (the King’s church quite near the palace) began to toll. The Funeral Cortege assembled at the Palace and made its way slowly towards the church where thousands of people had gathered. (It holds about 2000 normally). The Royal Party which comprised the Queen (the King is currently too ill to attend public functions - he is 88 and spends a lot of time in NZ under medical supervision), the Crown Prince and the Princess.
The service was long and moving - lots of singing, readings, biographical accounts of their lives, and sermon. Then began the procession to the cemetery. There is a special graveyard for the current Royal Family in town, but this burial was at the village of Mua which was the site of the early capital of Tonga, where there are huge, old pyramid-like tombs where the ancient royals were buried. Stories differ, but we gather that this was a place where both the Prince and Princess could be buried together - the Princess is descended from one of the lines of kings, but not the one from which the Royal Family come.
And this is where we were able to be. Students from the College were invited to be pall bearers and so the European men on the College staff went with them. Everyone was dressed in black, and the Tongans wore formal woven mats belted around the waist, with an apron of loose leaves on top of that as a special sign of respect.
The funeral cortege went by truck and car from the church in town to the village of Lapoho and there they assembled for the walk to the final resting place. A huge construction like a full beach shelter had been prepared in black to carry both bodies together to the tombs down the road. It must have weighed a ton! They had a couple of hundred pall bearers and the idea was to keep changing on the way because of the weight. Alan saw them practising how to lift and turn - they drilled the men for half an hour before the cortege arrived and then they set off, led again by the Royal Party and dignitaries. The coffins were covered with Tongan flags and the Prince’s had his military symbols on top. When Alan and the other European men had seen the procession depart from Lapaha, Koloti (the Acting Head Tutor) took them round via a back route and they were able to have a good view of the proceedings at the tombs.
Meanwhile, the ‘palangi’ women had gone with the women students and we had been taken direct to the old tombs. We weren’t sure where to sit and most of the good vantage points had been taken by local people who had obviously been there for hours. Eventually the students negotiated not only places but seats for us at the back of one of the official tents - it was a good view of most of it but not easy to take pictures because of the tarpaulin shelters erected for shade.
The ceremony was fascinating.
The army band played music (hymns) the whole time that things were happening. The actual ceremony was short on the program, but took a long time to complete some of the components! The feat of taking the coffins from the bier and negotiating them up a flight of steps to the top of the tomb was a marvel in itself. They were placed formally under another shelter, brighter colours this time. A number of Tongans had traditional roles and there were lots of men up there to attend to various duties.
There was a hymn, a prayer, and then began the formal rites. Dignitaries from various contries filed up individually to present huge wreaths of artificial flowers, to pause before the coffins and then to acknowledge royalty seated under a canopy across on the top of an adjacent ‘pyramid’.
A number of women apeared to place the wreaths and keep order around the coffins. Then began traditional rites which we did not follow but which Mohonoa, the Principal (sitting next to me) explained were to ask the spirits for permission to access their territory. There was much movement backwards and forwards - the flags were removed from the coffins, the coffins lifted to the graves which had been dug alongside the shelter, the band played the Last Post and Reveille, the lids were put in place and finally huge slabs of cement were placed over the top of the coffins. The last rite was to empty hundreds of bags of sand over the top to create the mound which is common to all Tongan graves, then a representative of the Royal Family thanked everyone for coming and we were all free to go home.
That is, we were all free to join the thousands of people leaving together! But is was an orderly exit - people streamed along the sides of the roads and traffic crawled along the centre. But we did get home by about 6.30 pm (we had left the College about midday) - a long but fascinating day. An amazing exercise in organisation and in a blending of Christian and Tongan traditional practices - an experience which will stay with us!
If you've managed to wade through all this - congratulations! It's hard to share the feeling of the event but I hope I've conveyed some of the drama and atmosphere of love, respect, deep sorrow underlying all the ritual.
Love, Judy and Alan

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