On Whit Monday, 30 May 1898, some 10,000 people gathered in the Borders village of Kirk Yetholm for the coronation of Scotland’s Romanes King.

It was a huge number of people for the time and the elaborate ceremony, attended by lords and ladies, was reported in newspapers across Britain. But who were the Romanes Kings of Scotland and where are they now?

Despite the size of the congregation and the pomp surrounding the coronation, the Romanes Kings of Scotland have passed out of living memory – or perhaps these mysterious people have decided to retreat once more into their own ways and refuse to tell the gorgies (the Romany word for non-gypsies) the truth about the current Romanes King.

Romanes were first recorded in Scotland in 1492, the same year that Columbus landed in the West Indies, in the reign of James IV. The word ‘gypsy’ is derived from ‘Egyptian’, but the people themselves are more likely to have been nomadic Roma from northern India. Indeed, by 1492 they had already been travelling in Europe for hundreds of years and were an accepted part of society.

One gypsy in particular found favour with King James V. In 1539 the Stuart monarch granted John Faa the right to call himself King of the Romanes. Historical records show that there was a writ of the Privy Council recognising the right of a ‘John Faw’, the ‘Lord of Litill Egypt’ to rule and enforce laws over his ‘people’. There was another writ, dated February 1540, also signed by James V, which records the granting of protection to ‘our lovit Johnnie Faa, Lord and Erle of Littil Egipt’.

Link: https://www.scottishfield.co.uk/culture/charles-faa-blythe-the-last-king-of-scotlands-gypsies/

In front of a hundred interested Japanese people on August 11 in Tokyo

Athenée Français Cultural Center presented and showed a documentary film about the origin, history, tradition and language of the Roma, which is a product of SP BTR Production. The event was organized by the IRU delegate from Japan and Roma activist Sumi Yusuke.

On that occasion, before the screening of the film, the producer of that film and also the president of the IRU, Zoran Dimov, gave his welcome speech to the audience and his video address.

After the end of the projection, Sumi Yusuke had his own presentation and acquaintance with part of the Roma culture, tradition, history and language of the present guests.

The general impression was that the attendees were impressed by the Roma culture and tradition, which for many of them was their first acquaintance with the Roma.

As it was mentioned by the organizer Yusuke, this type of presentation will grow into a tradition in the future, and such events related to Roma will be organized in this distant country from the Far East – Japan.