NUKU‘ALOFA – Tonga’s King Tupou VI has been formally crowned before thousands of people including heads of state and dignitaries from around the world.

The new king also becomes the 24th Tu‘i Kanokupolu, an ancient Tongan title that pre-dates the European-style monarchy by centuries.

The 55-year-old Tupou VI officially took the Tongan throne of the only constitutional monarchy in the South Pacific, following the death of his brother in 2012.

An estimated 15,000 people, mainly expatriate Tongans, flew in for the coronation, with the invited guests including Japan’s Crown Prince Naruhito, his wife Princess Masako, and European royals Prince Georg von Habsburg from Hungary and Princess Marie-Therese von Hohenberg from Austria.

It was a day of royal pomp and ceremony on Saturday at the Centenary Church where Tupou VI was anointed with holy oil, adorned with a ring and sceptre, and crowned king of Tonga.

With the ceremony complete, the royal couple went for a drive to meet their subjects.

“This is very historical, it’s kind of once in a lifetime. Glorious and majestic and a blessing to all the Tongan people,” said one of the new king’s people.

“The whole atmosphere was wonderfully happy with the best singing one can find anywhere in the world,” said another.

Tonga’s pro-democracy prime minister, Akilisi Pohiva, has long advocated for less royal involvement in politics, but this weekend conceded the king is an important figurehead.

“We love our king we will continue to maintain our monarchy from now on until the future,” he said.

Retired Australian Methodist minister D’Arcy Wood was flown in to perform the crowning at the Cenetennary Church.

“No Tongan citizen can do it as it is forbidden for a Tongan to touch the king’s head,” the 78-year-old retired minister said. “Crowning a king is not something I have done before and it is something I don’t expect I will be asked to do again.

Reverend Wood was born in Tonga, where his father worked in 1924, and he met the new king when he was Tonga’s High Commissioner to Australia in the 1990s.

Celebrations and ancient rituals leading up to the coronation began a week ago with a taumafa kava, a traditional ceremony in which Tupou VI drank traditional kava to confirm his title as king of Tonga.

That launched seven days of street parties, black-tie balls, fashion shows and feasting before the king was crowned on Saturday by Reverend Wood.

During the week, the Sydney Morning Herald reported: “The king is everywhere. On street posters and water bottles and archways lit up like Christmas trees across Tonga. Bright balloons, flags and bunting line homes from the airport to the capital of Nuku’alofa. King Tupou VI’s face – looking a little bored and bemused by the fuss – is on every crisp banknote.”

Tonga’s monarchy can trace its history back 1000 years.

Tupou I, who converted to Christianity after coming under the influence of missionaries, was proclaimed king in 1845 after winning control of the monarchy from two other royal lines.

By 1900 the country had become a British protectorate and acquired its independence in 1970.

The reign of the new king’s brother, Tupou V, saw a six-year reign that introduced major reforms that expanded democracy in the nation of about 110,000 people.

Devotion to the monarchy is strong, despite the seemingly lavish expenditure on a European-styled royal tradition.

“Tonga’s affection for their monarch is deeply entrenched in their history,” Reverend Wood saaid. “The monarch represents for them continuity and security – a symbolic role which unites and reassures the people.”

Tonga’s Ministry of Tourism says the industry has been overwhelmed, after an estimated 15,000 overseas visitors have flooded the country during the week of the coronation.

Sione Moala Mafi from the ministry said it’s good for the economy but Tonga is at full capacity with virtually all hotel rooms and accommodation options booked out a month or two ago.

The 11 day celebrations will officially end today with a military tattoo performance.