Pictured: Fire up the barbecue ... The feast fit for a king as the 'last' monarch of Tonga is crowned

Around 70 cooked pigs and hundreds of baskets of food were presented to Tonga's new king in a lavish coronation ceremony for Polynesia's last monarchy today.

King George Tupou V has no known heir and has promised to give up absolute power in keeping with his country's desire for a democracy.

Porky: Over 70 suckling pigs are spread out for today's coronation feast

He will be crowned officially on Friday, before Tongan, British, Japanese and Thai royalty, as well as South Pacific chiefs and heads of state.

A 60-year-old bachelor without any known heir, he will be Tonga's 23rd and possibly last king.

Tonga is a group of 170 coral islands sprinkled across an area of about 2,000 km (1,250 miles) north of New Zealand.

It is also the South Pacific's last monarchy, where the royal family controls a semi-feudal political system, and where all cabinet posts are decided by the king.

Today his people staged the Taumafa Kava ceremony.

"The Taumafa Kava is the traditional coronation ceremony for the Tongan people," Alfred Soakai, from the prime minister's office, said.

The last king?: King George Tupou V, right, is led from one of the ceremonies today

Wearing a traditional Tongan ta'ovala woven mat skirt and a garland of flowers, the new king arrived at the Taumafa Kava in the capital Nuku'alofa behind a spear-wielding warrior from Fiji. No Tongan can walk in front of the king or touch his food.

The new king sat on a pile of handwoven pandanus mats on an open pavilion facing the sea, while more than 200 Tongan nobles and chiefs dressed in woven skirts and sea shells circled him.

With hundreds of palm-leaf baskets of food and rows of cooked pigs trussed on wooden sticks laid out before him, the king took the first drink of kava, a mildly narcotic drink made from crushed kava root, signifying he was the first Tongan.

The Master of the Royal Household, Honourable Tu'ivanuavou, told the South Pacific news service PACNEWS that the ceremony "was an act of homage and a confirmation of allegiance".

"It marked the sealing by the nobles, the chiefs and the people of the sacred authority from his majesty derived from his ancestry," he said.

Pounded: Men perform a kava-making ceremony as part of coronation

Schoolchildren were to hold 30,000 torches tonight to proclaim King George Tupou V's coronation to the world.

Violent protests erupted in Tonga in 2006, in which eight people were killed and much of the island nation's businesses destroyed, as people demanded political reforms.

In April 2008, Tongans voted pro-democracy lawmakers into parliament, with some of those elected still facing sedition charges for the 2006 riots.

Tonga's new king has said he will relinquish his political powers once on the throne "to meet the democratic aspirations of many of his people".

Tonga will spend £1.35million on the coronation, which includes traditional ceremonies and a church service on Friday reflecting Tonga's Christian nature, but also three royal balls, a military parade, an open-air concert and fireworks displays.
The royal robes come from a Saville Row tailor in London.

People's rights: A ceremonial procession of the people at the coronation. The King has promised to give up absolute power in line with the people's aspirations

The Tongan government said guests invited for the final coronation include the Britain's Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Japan and Princess Sirindhorn of Thailand.

There will also be many South Pacific royals, including the Maori King from New Zealand, an Hawaiian princess, Samoan and Fijian royalty, and nobility from many island nations.

Tonga, like many small South Pacific nations, is rugby-mad, so there will also be a coronation rugby match involving players from Australia, New Zealand, Japan and England.