Romania's self-proclaimed "king of Gypsies" Florin Cioaba was buried in Transylvania on Friday, as some 2,000 mourners gathered to pay their last respects.
Cioaba died of a heart attack, aged 58, in a Turkish hospital last Sunday.
In 1997, Cioaba had proclaimed himself "king of Gypsies all over the world", shortly after his father's death.
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Despite his title, only a minority of Roma recognised him as such.
However, his family passed on a similar title to his eldest son just a few hours ahead of the burial in Sibiu, central Romania.
A "crown council", made up of members of his family, proclaimed his elder son Dorin as "international king of Roma" and his younger son Daniel as the "king of Romanian Roma".
In 2003 Cioaba sparked major controversy when he married his 12-year-old daughter to a Roma boy aged 15.
This provoked a storm of criticism, prompting a pledge from Cioaba to try and change the widespread tradition of child marriages among the Roma.
He also encouraged Roma families to send their children to school in a bid to fight poverty stemming from a lack of education.
In 2004 he ran for a seat in Romania's parliament but failed to get enough votes.
Romania has the largest Roma minority in Europe. The last census put their number at 619,000 people, but NGOs say the true figure may be as high as up to two million.
Enslaved for centuries, they still face widespread discrimination in the job and housing markets, despite limited progress in recent years.
