Tonga is one of the few countries in the world to have a monarchy that actively rules the nation. Although both Hawaii and Tahiti both had a royal family at one point in time, they have since given it up, leaving Tonga as the only island nation with a monarchy system in the Pacific.
The first King of Tonga was King George Tupou. He took the name George after his baptism by Wesleyan missionaries in 1831. Before this date, the line of heredity stretched far back with a series of high chiefs who held great power on the Tongan archipelago. In ancient times, the political structure and relationships between islands and their chiefs was not always clear. Captain Cook had particular trouble trying to find out who was the supreme leader of the islands and was led by various Tongans from chief to chief, each of whom claimed to be of the highest power. This sort of independence continues today and the people of Va'vau consider themselves somewhat separate from the rest of Tonga.
Tongan Kings and high chiefs tended to be very big men and women. It was a common Tongan belief that a small man could not be a powerful man. Because of this, the former King was once listed in the Guinness book of World Records weighing in at 440 lbs. It was also claimed that he ate 23 Big Macs on a trip to America and Disneyland. This was before he went on a fitness kick in the 1990s and lost a third of his weight by jogging around the palace grounds every morning.
The current king is King George Tupou V and he was inaugurated in 2008. After riots occurred in 2006 protesting the mismanagement of public funds, the new King has made steps to relinquish much of his power in favor of a more democratic system.
SOG
