Malaekula or Malae Kula (red square) is the proper name of the royal burial grounds in central Nukualofa in the Kingdom of

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

in the southern

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. The kings of Tonga and their very close relatives (wives, husbands, children) are buried there. Those who are a little farther away from the mainline (cousins, nephews, nieces, inlaws) are buried elsewhere, in other chiefly cemeteries. Kings from older times, (i.e. the

Tui Tonga Tui or TUI may refer to: Places * Tui, Pontevedra, Spain * Tui, Iran, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Tui, North Khorasan, North Khorasan Province, Iran * Tui Province, Burkina Faso * Tuis District, Costa Rica * Tui railway station, New Zealand ...

dynasty), are mostly buried in the langi in Mua. Malaekula is a short distance south of the

royal palace This is a list of royal palaces, sorted by continent. Africa * Abdin Palace, Cairo * Al-Gawhara Palace, Cairo * Koubbeh Palace, Cairo * Tahra Palace, Cairo * Menelik Palace * Jubilee Palace * Guenete Leul Palace * Imperial Palace- Massa ...

along the Hala Tui (''kings road''). Kings Road is the official name of this road and its name means that this is the last road every Tongan King will travel during his reign, toward his resting place in Mala'ekula. This road is also known as the Hala Paini (''pine road'') because of the

Norfolk pines ''Araucaria heterophylla'' (synonym ''A. excelsa'') is a species of conifer. As its vernacular name Norfolk Island pine (or Norfolk pine) implies, the tree is endemic to Norfolk Island, an external territory of Australia located in the Pacific ...

(a royal tree in Tonga) which were planted by Europeans along this road but all have disappeared due to the deep roots reaching the underground seawater. The cemetery was established when the first king of modern Tonga died, Siaosi Tāufaāhau Tupou I. His tomb is positioned in the middle of the field, such that one can see it there when looking from the palace grounds straight along the Hala Tui . The word ''malae'' means in Tongan: (village)-green, park, playground, etc. but it is also the royal word for ''cemetery''. ''Kula'' means ''red''. It is a reminder of the famous ''kātoanga kula'' (red festival) held at that place in 1885. The festival was a fundraising event for

Tonga college Tonga College is a Tongan secondary school, founded by the Tongan government in 1882. Its origination was a joint effort between King George Tupou I and Reverend Shirley Waldemar Baker who also both formed the Free Church of Tonga in 1885. The sch ...

(whose corporate colour is vermilion-red, opened 1882), and everybody was dressed in red that day.

References

* Hixon, Margaret, 2000. ''Sālote, Queen of Paradise, A Biography''. University of Otago Press. * Wood-Ellem, Elizabeth, 1999. ''Queen Sālote of Tonga''. Auckland University Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mala'ekula Cemeteries in Tonga Nukuʻalofa Tongan monarchy