Grieving relatives gathered on beaches and at mass graves yesterday to remember the 216,000 people killed or washed away by the tsunami that crashed into coastlines from Asia to Africa one year ago.
As final preparations were made for official commemoration ceremonies today marking one year to the day since the disaster, mourners held mostly small, quiet prayer gatherings of their own on the anniversary's eve.
Western tourists who survived the tsunami were among those who returned to rebuilt resorts in Thailand to remember family and friends who did not. In India, children dressed in white marched down a street where thousands were washed away.
In Indonesia's worst-hit Aceh Province, some survivors went to a mass grave where the unidentified bodies of almost 47,000 victims are buried -- many of them to mourn loved ones who simply vanished in the waves.
Countries left reeling by the 10m-high waves sent crashing ashore in 12 countries by the huge earthquake off Indonesia's coast were preparing to mark the anniversary with official ceremonies and a minute's silence today.
Monuments were being erected, beaches scoured and security tightened -- making for a somber Christmas in some places.
In a solemn private ceremony, Sigi Gsteu, of Feldkirch, Austria, wiped away tears as he remembered three close friends who died when the torrents flooded their Thai resort bungalow last year.
"When a person is missing and you don't have [a body], you cannot say goodbye," he said, placing two simple wooden plaques engraved with his friends' names beneath a pine tree where the resort once stood.
This was his "chance to say goodbye."
Overnight, at one Catholic midnight Mass in a hotel on Thailand's Patong beach, the priest urged attendees to "remember all those who lost their lives in the tsunami." Outside, revelers partied with bar staff dressed in Christmas hats in the beach's notorious nightclub district.
In India, more than 300 people attended an interfaith service of Hindu, Christian and Muslim prayers yesterday before joining a march led by children dressed in white through Nagapattinam, where thousands were washed away.
"Our purpose is to express solidarity with the survivors and pledge ourselves to rebuild Nagapattinam," said S.P. Rajendran, a march organizer.
In Sri Lanka, where the tsunami killed more than 31,000, Buddhist monks planned to chant and sing hymns in an all-night vigil yesterday to bless those who died and help them become reincarnated.
During a visit to a home for tsunami orphans in Sumatra, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his wife Ani Yudhoyono both began weeping as they hugged children.
"We promise to rebuild the future for the Acehnese," Yudhoyono told more than 200 orphans at the home in Medan City, which wasn't damaged by the tsunami. The president was due to lead a commemoration ceremony and attend prayers in Banda Aceh today.
At least 216,000 people were killed or disappeared in the waves, according to an assessment of government and credible relief agency figures for each country hit -- though the UN puts the number at least 223,000.
The true toll will probably never be known -- many bodies were lost at sea and in some cases the populations of places struck were not accurately recorded.
One year on, survivors and officials were taking stock of one of the world's largest relief operations and peace drives in Sri Lanka and Aceh.
Success has been mixed.
Almost 400,000 houses were reduced to rubble and more than 2 million people left homeless, the UN says.
The tsunami generated one of the most generous outpourings of foreign aid ever known, with US$13.6 billion pledged -- the bulk of which has already been secured, the UN says.
Rebuilding has started, but refugee camps remain full and frustration has grown that the pace of reconstruction is too slow. Aid agencies have urged patience, saying initial problems such as chaotic planning and lack of building materials are being overcome.
In Aceh, the tsunami resulted in a cease-fire between the government and guerillas that has ended a decades-old separatist conflict.
No such progress was made in Sri Lanka, where disputes over aid and an upsurge in violence have dashed hopes for an end to the longrunning conflict there.
In the latest violence, unidentified gunmen shot and killed a pro-rebel legislator as he attended midnight Mass at a church in the country's east, the military said.
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