Taufa'ahau Tupou IV; Tonga's Longtime King

Tonga's King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, a towering figure in the tiny Pacific Island nation for four decades, died Sept. 10 at a New Zealand hospital. He was 88.

King Tupou IV's 41-year reign made him one of world's longest-serving sovereigns. He died after a long, unspecified illness in a hospital where he had spent most of the past several months, plunging the remote country into a mourning period expected to last for months.

The end of his reign is likely to fuel a push for more democracy in the near-feudal kingdom, where the royal family has ruled with absolute power since tribal groups of more than 170 Polynesian islands united to form a single kingdom in 1845.

King Tupou IV benefited from a historical reverence for the monarchy. That sentiment has waned in recent years, as most people languished in poverty even as members of the royal family enriched themselves from the nation's meager resources, fell prey to scam artists and oversaw bad economic decisions.

Formerly known as Crown Prince Tungi, he was prime minister of Tonga from 1949 to 1965. He ascended the throne after his mother, Queen Salote, died.

At age 14, the future king was one of Tonga's top athletes: He could pole vault more than nine feet; played tennis, cricket and rugby; and rowed competitively in a racing skiff.

Like many of his countrymen, he became obese and remained so for most of his adult life.

In the 1990s, King Tupou IV led his 108,000 people on a diet and exercise regime aimed at cutting the levels of fat in a nation where coconut flesh and mutton flaps are dietary staples.

From a weight listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the heaviest for any monarch -- 462 pounds -- the king shed about 154 pounds.