Royal treatment

• Source: Global Times
• [23:41 December 09 2009]
• Comments

Curtis Leonard Tu'ihalangingie wearing the Tongan ta'ovala. Photo: courtesy of Tu'ihalangingie

It's not often that The Kingdom of Tonga has been honored in a ceremony at Peking University. Most of the student body might not even know where this island nation is located, not to mention what a Tongan looks like.

But if you happened to be strolling through the campus in September 2008 you would have observed a rather curious scene. Curtis Leonard Tu'ihalangingie, the first Tongan to study at the univer-sity was standing next to the flagpole, watching the Tongan flag being raised in a ceremony attended by the Tongan Ambassador.

You might think that Tu'ihalangingie, 24, would have been embarrassed by all the attention. But for Tu'ihalangingie it was not unusual to be a witness at ceremonial occasions. For most of his life, he has been around royalty, and for half of it, he has served the Tongan Royal Family as a personal assistant to the King.