Thread: Can hangi...

I was invited to attend the royal funeral of the (then) King of Tonga's second son, Hon. Ma'atu Fatafehi Alaivahamama'o Tuku'aho, on Feb. 25th 2004. Was really fortunate to be able to be right amongst all the paegentry at the service when the locals had to watch from outside the netting fence.

The umus (Tongan hangi) they used for the nights leading up to and after the funerals were huge. The local villages and Nuku'alofa suburbs built massive umu pits about 20m long, 5m wide and 1.5-ish metres deep; by hand. Just one of the sites had 3 of them going and fed over 7000 people on the funeral night. The umus went for about a week leading up to the funeral and a few days after.

They had massive steel and wire baskets (about a metre square and deep,that fitted the holes. They were chocka full of pork, beef, boar's heads, cannon bones (split), lamb chops, and chicken thighs and turkey tails. Plus veges like sweet potato, taro, taro leaves etc. I flagged the thighs because they were so tightly packed that they were still pink in the middle when they came out... Was pretty astonishing how everything just clicked into place.

The side streets were lined with bamboo cages with pigs that were going to be dinner at some stage. All of the neighbouring villages donated pigs, cattle and veges. The slides of the event are in storage so only have a scanned pic of the funeral procession and not the food sorry... Was an amazing spectacle and a priviledge to be asked to attend....



The catafalque being carried into the burial ground by the Traditional Royal Undertakers (approx 500 pallbearers). The pallbearers were drawn from the Free Wesleyan Church Theological College. The catafalque is only used for members of the Royal Family. The man standing on the catafalque (His name was Lauaki) is the head of the Traditional Royal Undertakers who traditionally accompanies the body. Sorry if this has sidetracked the discussion



The Prince’s tomb. Nuku’alofa, Tongatapu. I had to buy a tupenu and borrowed a ta'ovala to attend.