The waves on Dec. 26, 2004, spawned by the mightiest earthquake in 40 years, killed around 230,000 people in 12 Indian Ocean nations, just under half of them in the Indonesian province of Aceh on Sumatra island.
Coastal communities in Sri Lanka and India lost some 45,000 people between them. The waves also crashed into tourist resorts in southern Thailand, killing more than 5,000, half of them foreign vacationers.
The disaster overwhelmed authorities in Aceh, where bodies littered devastated neighborhoods for weeks. Most victims were never formally identified and tens of thousands were buried in mass graves.
Nur Aini lost her husband and one of her two children to the waves.
"We are praying for them today even though I don't know where they are buried," she said. "My remaining child still calls out for his father."
The disaster, one of the deadliest of the modern age, promoted a global outpouring of sympathy, with governments, individuals and corporations pledging more than $13 billion in aid.
In Aceh, more than 100,000 houses, scores of schools and hospitals and miles of roads have been rebuilt. Whilst there have been complaints of corruption and waste, most people involved in the reconstruction process say it has gone well.
"I hope we can turn a new page now and leave sadness, cries and tears behind us," Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf told hundreds gathered at a prayer ceremony in the hard-hit town of Calang. "I hope one day we can pay our debt to the world by becoming a donor to other countries hit by disasters."
