Thousands of saffron-robed Thai monks chanted and prayed for victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami today as Asia marked the fifth anniversary of one of history's worst natural disasters.
The gathering of monks in Ban Nam Khem, a small fishing village on Thailand's Andaman Sea coast that lost nearly half its 5,000 people, was one of hundreds of solemn events across Asia in memory of the towering waves that crashed ashore with little warning on December. 26th 2004, killing 226,000 people in 13 countries.
"All souls from all nationalities, wherever you are now, please receive the prayers the monks are saying for you," said Kularb Pliamyai, who lost 10 family members in Ban Nam Khem.
In Indonesia's Banda Aceh, about 100 people took part in a prayer ceremony close to a fishing boat that landed on the rooftop of a two-storey house after being swept miles inland.
Indonesia was the worst hit with the number of dead and missing over 166,000.
Massive reconstruction aid in Banda Aceh has rebuilt a new city on top of the ruins, and many survivors are only now putting memories of the waves behind them.
Some villagers shed tears as they remembered the day their homes and lives were destroyed by the wall of water that rose as high as 30 metres, triggered by an undersea earthquake off the island of Sumatra.
"I will never forget it in all my life. After the earthquake, we ran out of the house and within minutes people screamed on seeing the towering water," said Ambasiah, 40, owner of the house with the fishing boat where about 50 people took refuge.
Sri Lanka observed two minutes of silence to mark the fifth anniversary of the devastating tsunami, that killed over 23,000 people in the island nation. In the southern city of Galle, where more than 1,000 people were killed after the tsunami swept away a passing train and buried at a nearby mass grave, relatives wept with flowers in their hands at a ceremony to remember the victims.
Tsunami aid efforts have mostly finished, said Patrick Fuller, Tsunami Communications Coordinator at the Red Cross.
"A lot of the physical reconstruction has ended. There are some major infrastructure projects that are still going on. There are some road projects, longer term projects. But all the housing projects are pretty much wrapped up," he said.
The Red Cross built 51,000 houses over the past five years, mostly in the Maldives and Indonesia.
But locals say they need more than new buildings, clean-water plants and other infrastructure.