The largest mass grave in Aceh province holds some 46,000 bodies, dumped three-deep in hastily dug pits in the days after the tsunami. One year on, relatives of those died flocked to the site to pray for their souls -- and to try to come to terms with their grief.
"After I come here I somehow feel satisfied," said Dasniati, who traveled 15 hours to lay petals yesterday on the field where she believes her 10-year-old daughter is buried. "I pray that Allah accepts her at his side."
After the Dec. 26 disaster last year, the soccer pitch-sized field resembled a scene from hell.
Bloated, rotting corpses lay piled up on the ground, as backhoes picked them up and dropped them into 10m-deep pits. The stench of dead bodies could be detected a kilometer up the road.
These days, grass and flowers cover what was once churned up mud, and birds sing in the trees behind the field. Three stilted huts provide shelter for the streams of families that make the pilgrimage.
At least 216,000 people were killed or disappeared in the tsunami, almost two-thirds of them in Aceh, the province closest to the epicenter of the monster earthquake that spawned the giant waves.
Only a tiny fraction of those killed here were ever identified. Many were washed out to sea.
The grave at Lamboro on the outskirts of Banda Aceh is the largest of several that dot the province's devastated west coast. A sign outside says it holds the remains of 46,718 victims.
The mourners sit on pieces of newspaper or on felled coconut trees in shady corners of the field. Many bring a packed lunch which they eat in the shelters.
Those visiting the graves do not know for sure whether they are praying at the spot where their dead relatives are buried.
"We will never know, but these visits always manage to still my heart," said Amin Ullah, who lost his wife and only daughter in the tsunami.
He said he planned to pray at the three other grave sites in and around Banda Aceh later yesterday.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is also scheduled to pray at three mass graves when he visits Aceh today to mark the one-year anniversary of the disaster.
Aceh is overwhelmingly Muslim, as were the vast majority of the victims. Most of the mourners that visit the graves read traditional verses from the Koran, Islam's holy book. They also pour water on the ground and sprinkle petals -- local Indonesian traditions that predate Islam's arrival to the country.
Yesterday, an Indonesian-Chinese Buddhist family also prayed at the site, burning incense and piles of fake money according to Chinese tradition. They attracted curious looks from other mourners, many of whom had never seen such rites performed before.
Indonesia's Red Cross, the lead agency in collecting and burying the dead, said it planned to renovate the Lamboro site still further in the months ahead, perhaps even building separate areas for people from different faiths to pray.
"If people die and their relatives have no place to go, then their hearts are not at peace," said Bustari, the head of the agency in Aceh. "It doesn't matter if you are Christian, Buddhist or Muslim."
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