NUKU'ALOFA (Pacific Media Watch): The funeral for the late King of Tonga, George Tupou V, will begin shortly in Nuku'alofa, with the country joining the successor King Tupou VI in paying their respects.
The new King has surprised the Kingdom with a decision to limit the official mourning period from the standard 100 days to only five days.
Barbara Dreaver, reporting for TVNZ, said the new King was acutely aware of the economic situation of the country and did not want to impose anything that could make the matter worse.
The body of the late King arrived yesterday and lay in state at the Royal Palace before today's funeral.
The Tonga Defence Services Burial Party carried his coffin from the plane, accompanied by nobles in their traditional ta'oala funeral mats.
Matangi Tonga online said there was a "surreal quietness" at Fua'amotu airport yesterday.
The funeral can be viewed on TVNZ from 12 noon today.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.