PATONG, Thailand: Thousands of candles lit up Thailand’s Patong beach, thousands of saffron-robed Buddhist monks marched and people held vigils as Asia marked the fifth anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami on Saturday.
Hundreds of lanterns floated into the sky at Patong in one of many events across the region in memory of one of history’s worst natural disasters when towering waves crashed ashore with little warning, killing 226,000 people in 13 countries.
“We came here to remember those who died,” said Sainamphueng Kachan, 32, who lost 20 friends in the tsunami and was among the tourists, mourners and tsunami survivors gathered in bustling Patong to light candles dug into holes in the beach.
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-story house after being swept miles inland.
Indonesia was the worst hit with more than 166,000 dead and missing. Massive reconstruction aid in Banda Aceh has rebuilt a new city on top of the ruins but survivors are only now putting memories of the disaster 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 meters, triggered by an undersea earthquake off the Indonesian 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.
“When the water got higher, suddenly a boat landed on top of the house. We climbed and stayed there until afternoon. We saw the waves from atop.”
Indonesian Vice President Boediono attended another ceremony in Ulee Lheu, a port about 5 km from Banda Aceh, which was worst hit by the tsunami.
“After five years, the government of Aceh and Aceh people, with the help of the central government and the international society, have resurrected Aceh to start a new life and rebuild Aceh,” he told a gathering of about 1,000 people.
Some locals such as Taufik Rahmat say they have moved on, helped along by new homes in the Banda Aceh region following one of the largest foreign fund-raising exercises. But still pockets of people in his village remain homeless. “Not all elements have been fulfilled, I think about 80 percent to 90 percent of the people still don’t have proper housing,” he said.
Thousands of Buddhist monks chanted and marched in Ban Nam Khem, a small fishing village on Thailand’s Andaman Sea coast that lost nearly half its 5,000 people.
“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.
Ban Nam Khem village is a shadow of its former self. Its once-thriving center of dense waterfront stores, restaurants and wooden homes is gone, replaced with souvenir shops, a wave-shaped monument and a small building filled with photographs of the tsunami recovery effort.
In Thailand, 5,398 people were killed, including several thousand foreign tourists, when the waves swamped six coastal provinces, turning some of the world’s most beautiful beaches into mass graves. Many are still missing.
Almost all of those killed were on holiday on or around the southern island of Phuket, a region that had contributed as much as 40 percent of Thailand’s annual tourism income.
