Order of Queen Sālote Tupou III Order of Queen Sālote Tupou III The "Most Illustrious" Order of Queen Salote Tupou III is a knighthood order of the Kingdom of Tonga. The Order was established on 28 June 2008 by His Late Majesty King George Tupou V to commemorate the grand figure of his grandmother, Queen Sālote Tupou III, who, during the nearly fifty years of her government (5 April 1918 – 16 December 1965), had guided the state of Tonga to a substantial economical and social evolution. The Order has been created as the principal civil reward for meritorious personal services to the sovereign. Above all,
George Tupou V the 19th century. The ceremony involved having "kava", hundreds of baskets of food, and seventy cooked pigs presented to the King and the assembly of chiefs and nobles, Later that night, schoolchildren held 30,000 torches to proclaim the coronation in what is known as a "tupakapakanava". The traditional torch spectacle was held that time at a spot overlooking the Pacific and is an ancient honour reserved solely for the Tongan sovereign and Royal Family. A second, European-style coronation ceremony took place on 1 August 2008 in the Centennial Chapel, Nuku’alofa. Anglican Archbishop of Polynesia Jabez Bryce invested George Tupou V