King Tupou of Tonga: Tonga's King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV was a towering figure in the tiny Pacific Island nation for four decades, earning him the distinction of being one of the world's longest-serving monarchs.
He also held the record for being the heaviest. In the 1970s he mounted the luggage scales at Tonga airport - the only scales in the country that could bear him - and recorded a weight of 462lb, earning himself a place in the Guinness Book of Records.
Although size was traditionally a badge of status in Tonga, in later years he led a nationwide campaign promoting exercise and moderate eating among his 108,000 subjects, and he managed to shed about 154 pounds.
He was born on July 4th, 1918, in Tonga, a group of more than 170 Polynesian islands united to form a single kingdom in 1845. He was schooled there and later in Australia. He was a good scholar, and was said to have been the first Tongan to earn a university degree, which he was awarded at university in Sydney. He was also an accomplished athlete in his younger years. At age 14 he could pole vault more than nine feet; he played tennis, cricket and rugby, and rowed competitively in a racing skiff.
Although he came to be known as a firm and conservative ruler, he was also promoted in Tonga as an innovator. He arranged the country's first television broadcast and started its first newspaper.
He also worked to produce a dictionary and a book of grammar, and he was credited with introducing a method for writing classical western music in the traditional Tongan musical notation.
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. In the years before her death she had gradually ceded more power to him, giving him a number of ministerial portfolios to handle directly along with his prime ministerial responsibilities.
King Tupou IV's 41-year reign made him one of the world's longest-serving sovereigns. In recent years he suffered a persistent, unspecified illness which brought him to hospital in New Zealand for his final months.
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, due to a series of monopolies which they enjoy.
As an absolute ruler - the majority of the country's parliamentarians are directly appointed by the king - Taufa'ahau Tupou faced a series of demands over recent years for democratic reforms, including a number of rallies in the streets.
He showed no sign of yielding to the demands, but commentators expect that his death will remove one of the last bulwarks against change.
The formal announcement of King Tupou IV's death stated: "The sun has set in the Kingdom of Tonga."
It said the king was surrounded by his wife, Queen Halaevalu Mata'aho, and members of the royal family.
New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark said the people of Tonga had revered the king throughout his 41-year reign.
She said he had presided over Tonga's transformation into a fully fledged member of the Commonwealth and the United Nations as an independent sovereign state.
He had followed a path of peace and stability for his country, she added.
While retaining the important cultural heritage and institutions of Tonga, he also sought to place Tonga in a position to take advantage of the benefits of economic globalisation. "Achieving this difficult balance will be perhaps the king's greatest legacy for Tonga," she said.
Upon his death his heir, Crown Prince Tupouto'a, became king - but a lengthy mourning period has been initiated and a formal coronation was likely to be a year away.
The travel writer Paul Theroux recalled that when he visited, the king spoke to him at length about the origins of the Franco-Prussian War, before he explained the Chinese etymology of certain Japanese words. He also discussed the political activities of the French.
Theroux described him as "an amazing man. Big-hearted, sensible and very intelligent."
King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV: born July 4th, 1918; died September 10th, 2006