VANAUTU – Last week Prince Charles touched down in Vanuatu on a side trip from his visit to Australia for the Commonwealth Games, but unfortunately he might not have been the British prince that some of the islanders had been hoping for. It is his father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who is regarded in a very spiritual way to a community of Tanna islanders. When he visited in 1974 many believed Philip was a reincarnation of an ancient warrior. Philip, the husband of the Queen of England, may hold a string of grand titles but for the small community, deep in the rainforests on the southwestern part of the island of Tanna, he is regarded as a an demi-god. “For them Philip is a tabu man – human but possessing qualities and powers that make him sacred,” Matthew Baylis, the British author of Man Belong Mrs Queen: My Adventures with the Philip Worshippers, who spent time living with the villagers, told the ABC. He said the people have a special relationship with the Duke of Edinburgh that is more complex than simple worship. “The closest parallel I can think of is the way we treat our war dead,” Baylis said. “We honour them, remember them, hold ceremonies for them, but we’re not actually worshipping them.” A group of people living around Yaohnanen village on Tanna have an ancient legend, describing a band of warriors who left the island to fight a war to protect and preserve their culture. The leader of the warrior group vowed to one day return with a rich, powerful – and white wife. In 1974, the British Royal family visited Vanuatu – then known as New Hebrides – as part of a tour of the Commonwealth. While he and Queen Elizabeth did not visit the isolated community, it is said that Prince Philip handed a symbolic white pig to a Tanna man in the country’s capital, Port Vila. It is believed that from that gesture the Tanna people formed a strong bond with Prince Philip, believing him to be a physical representation of the ancient warrior leader returning home with his wife. According to Kirk Huffman, a research associate at the Australian Museum in Sydney and honorary curator of the National Museum of Vanuatu, it’s a link they are very serious about. “On Tanna, traditional spiritual belief systems are a 24/7 situation,” Huffman told the ABC.

“To them, Prince Philip rules England with the help of the Queen and is very supportive of traditional ways of life.”

He said it is also a belief system that Prince Philip is aware of, with the Duke of Edinburgh having previously welcomed five Tannese men to Windsor Castle for a private meeting in 2007.

The 96-year-old Duke of Edinburgh largely retired from public life last year and is resting after a hip replacement earlier this week.

But despite his old age, the villagers believe he will one day return to Tanna, probably in a spiritual form.

“On Tanna there is actually no death in the way we know it, they believe souls get recycled,” explained Huffman.

“Prince Philip is just one link in an ongoing and endless chain – there is no beginning and no end.”

But while Prince Charles’ visit to Vanuatu may have excited the locals, Huffman said it is unlikely the villagers will form a similar relationship with the Prince of Wales, even after Prince Phillip dies.

“Interestingly enough, Prince Charles hasn’t turned up in the stories there at all, he doesn’t figure in them,” he said.

“The stories are all fixated on Prince Philip.”

However, during his brief visit to Vanuatu on Saturday, April 7, Prince Charles was given a great honour – he was made a high chief – after being greeted by one of the most lavish displays of kastom seen on these shores, arguably since his mother Queen Elizabeth visited on the royal yacht in 1974.

Hundreds turned out to see the Prince as he arrived at the chiefs’ nakamal (meeting house) in Port Vila.

Accompanied by the Malvatumauri (National Council of Chiefs) president, Chief Seni Mau Tirsupe, and welcomed by dozens of other high ranking chiefs, the Prince walked on red mats laid the length of the roadway from the gate to the entrance of the nakamal itself.

On arriving outside the Nakamal, Prince Charles presented the president of the Malvatumaturi with gifts.

The gift given in return by the chiefs of Vanuatu was quite literally priceless.

Chiefly titles are not bestowed lightly, and carry obligation as well as honour. To bestow a title on even visiting royalty is something to be done with care and consideration.

Charles was dressed in chiefly regalia before the ceremony could begin.

Pentecost Chief Viraleo, leader of the Turaga kastom movement, bedecked the Prince with ornately woven kastom clothes. Although these clothes are normally worn over bare skin, the Prince was allowed to retain his suit and tie.

A leaf of the local namele palm was placed in the back of the Prince’s attire. The namele leaf is accompanied by extremely strong tabu. It is a sign of chiefly authority, and is present on Vanuatu’s coat of arms and in various other official insignia.

The Prince was then led to the side of the nakamal, where he was presented with a nalnal, a customary club and sign of authority.

Under normal circumstances, a newly-designated chief would be expected to use the club to kill at least one pig. Although pigs were present at the ceremony, their sacrifice was omitted in recognition of the Prince’s stance against animal cruelty.

Chief Tirsupe and the Prince then shared a coconut shell filled with kava.

Prince Charles then received the name of Mal Menaringmanu.

The name was chosen to reflect his high rank in the world.

The title, according to the Malvatumauri council of chiefs, is more than just a high chief.

It is a name that reflects authority that is wise and unwavering and whose roots are as old as the mountains – and whose mandate stems from a higher existence.

Once the ceremony was complete, the entire delegation accompanied the Prince in an exuberant, uproarious procession led by kastom dancers from Tanna and other islands.

The procession led the Prince down to nearby Saralana Park, where a crowd of thousands stood by to welcome the Prince.

His first words of greeting, spoken in Bislama, or Vanuatu pidgin, were met with a resounding roar from the crowd.

Meanwhile, a massive kastom dance was unfolding. An estimated 200 men and women from Tanna performed a celebratory dance in the field, while another group performed a kastom story immediately below the stage.

At the end of the dance, Prince Charles was greeted by a chief from the Tanna community that believes his father Prince Philip is one of their own spiritual deities.

The Prince Phillip followers achieved a final coup before the day was done.

In the final minutes before his departure, the Prince had a one-on-one encounter with JJ, who hails from Yakel village, at the heart of the Prince Philip community.

He passed on a message from his people to Charles’ father – and asked Charles to pass on a carved walking stick to Prince Philip – to aid him on his return to Vanuatu some day.

- PNC sources