The tribes of a remote South Pacific island who worship Prince Philip as a god were devastated when they learned of his death.
The news spread quickly through the village of Yaohnanen, which is part of a rainforest on Tanna Island with irregular communications, after an employee of the Vanuatu Cultural Center broke the news on Saturday.
The Duke of Edinburgh died peacefully at his home in Windsor Castle, England, on Friday at the age of 99 after a two-month illness for which he was hospitalized in February.
“People were very sad to learn of the passage of this great man,” said Jean-Pascal Wahé, the worker in charge of driving for four hours in the isolated area and delivering the sad message. “He was a very important man to all of us and it is a great loss.”
An estimated 700 Indians belong to the so-called Prince Philip movement, believing that the British queen’s husband descended from a mountain deity who looks after his crops and well-being.
The former naval officer made a big impression during decades of visits to the Vanuata archipelago, of which Tanna is an island, making these particular inhabitants adopt him as a type of god.
Now his idol is dead, fans are expected to transfer his attention to his eldest son, Prince Charles, who is the first in line to the throne of the United Kingdom.
First, however, they prepare for an epic “day of mourning” Monday to celebrate and commemorate Prince Philip.
“They are sending messages to neighboring villages so that people have news of the plans,” Wahé told The Post exclusively. “It’s impossible to know exactly how many people will come, but we expect between 100 and 500.”
The event will involve ritual mourning, traditional dance and “spiritual” food prepared by the women of the sect. Men will enjoy a celebrated narcotic drink known as Kava, made from a locally grown root.
Meanwhile, framed photographs of the villagers ’idol (some of which were gifted by the Duke of Edinburgh) will be displayed as the British Union flag falls at half-staff.
“We will share stories about the life of Prince Philip and there will be many discussions about the future of the cult,” Wahé added. “But since Prince Charles is his son, he will now be revered.”
The sect began in the early 1970s, unlike the “burdened cults” that formed after World War II when the natives related the deliveries of goods from more technologically advanced societies to certain rituals.
Former Buckingham Palace spokesman Dickie Arbiter explained how the Duke was revered during a visit to Vanuatu with Queen Elizabeth II in 1974.
“One of the rowers who brought them ashore was a Tanna man named Chief Jack,” Arbiter said. “He thought Philip was a long-time warrior who had come down from the mountains and gone to England in search of a bride.”
“The bride is Mrs. Queen, so Philip is the god,” he said. Unfortunately, Prince Philip never set foot on Tanna Island, although he received a delegation of five Yaohnanen men at Windsor Castle (the royal residence where he died) in 2007.
But, as anthropologist Kirk Huffman pointed out in The Post, members of the sect can be comforted by their belief that their soul will be “recycled.”
They also argue that while Prince Philip’s body will be buried in England, “his spirit could return to the island.”