Wellington, New Zealand ? Taufa’ahau Tupou IV, a towering figure in the tiny Pacific Island nation of Tonga for four decades, has died at age 88 in a New Zealand hospital.

His death ended one of the world’s longest reigns by a monarch in modern times.

The end of Tupou IV’s reign is likely to fuel a push for more democracy in the near-feudal kingdom, where the royal family has ruled with absolute power since tribal groups on more than 170 Polynesian islands united into a single kingdom in 1845.

A top athlete in his youth, the king, like many of his countrymen, became obese and remained so for most of his adult life. In the 1990s, Tupou IV led his 108,000 people on a diet and exercise regime aimed at cutting the levels of fat in a nation where coconut flesh and mutton flaps are dietary staples.