Tupoutoʻa Explained

Tupoutoʻa is a Tongan noble title. It is the most recent of the 33 hereditary titles and is principally used by crown princes of Tonga.

Queen Sālote Tupou III created the title in 1924, with a portion of land estate in Haʻapai, for former Prime Minister Sione Tupou Mateialona, a grandson of King George Tupou I. Mateialona died three years later without an heir, and the title thus reverted to the crown. It was not used again until the 1930s, when the then-crown prince Tāufaʻāhau was conferred with the title by the Queen. It has since become customary for the heir to the throne of Tonga to bear the title.^[1]

As with all titles of the Tongan nobility, the holder is responsible for the welfare of commoners residing on lands which are associated with the title.^{[2] [3] [4]} The holder of the title is also eligible to vote alongside other nobles during legislative elections, and can be elected to the Legislative Assembly of Tonga as a representative of the nobility.^[5]

Notes and References

1. Marcus . George E. . 1978 . The nobility and the chiefly tradition in the modern Kingdom of Tonga . The Journal of the Polynesian Society . 87 . 1 . 41 . 0032-4000.
2. https://archive.today/20121216075544/http://www.islandsbusiness.com/news/index_dynamic/containerNameToReplace=MiddleMiddle/focusModuleID=130/focusContentID=5646/tableName=mediaRelease/overideSkinName=newsArticle-full.tpl "Mailefihi becomes 7th Tuʻipelehake"
3. Book: Sharing the earth, dividing the land: land and territory in the Austronesian world . 2006 . ANU E Press . 978-1-920942-69-4 . Reuter . Thomas Anton . Comparative Austronesian Series . Canberra.
4. Web site: 1994 . Royal Tongan Celebration . 2024-09-02 . dl.nfsa.gov.au . National Film and Sound Archive (Australia) . en-au.
5. Web site: 2012-04-22 . Nobles prepare for Elections of district electoral representatives . https://web.archive.org/web/20120422182301/http://mic.gov.to/press-releases/1878-preparing-for-electtions-of-electoral-district-representatives-of-nobles.html . 2012-04-22 . 2024-09-02 . Government of Tonga.