People across Asia have paused to remember the day five years ago when an undersea earthquake unleashed a devastating wave that killed more than 220,000 people.
A solemn day of prayers and remembrance to mark one of the world's worst natural disasters was held in Indonesia's Aceh province, which lost almost 170,000 people in the Asian tsunami of 26 December, 2004.
Prayers were said in mosques and beside mass graves near the local capital of Banda Aceh.
At the site of one of the graves, where more than 14,000 unidentified victims are buried, an elderly woman sat on the ground weeping and reciting Koranic verses for the 40 members of her family who died.
'None of my family members survived in the tsunami. My children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, they all have gone and left me alone here,' Siti Aminah, 72, said.
'This is the mass grave situated close to our residence blocks. They may be buried here or might have been swept away to sea as we were living by the beach,' she said.
Aminah, a spice seller, was on the second floor of a local market building some 5km from her family home, when the tsunami struck.
'Though I don't know for sure where they were buried, I always come here every year to pray for them so that God will let them rest in peace,' she said.
Some 2km away, Indonesian Vice-President Boediono led a sombre prayer ceremony in the port of Ulee Lheu in memory of those lost in the tsunami.
'Five years on, Acehnese people with support from international communities have managed to rise again and to lead a new life to rebuild their social, economic and cultural life in a peaceful situation,' he told about 1,000 residents, schoolchildren and officials.
In Sri Lanka, the anniversary was marked with a nationwide two-minute silence in memory of the tens of thousands of local victims.
State-run radio and television stations halted their regular programmes at 9.25am (3.55 Irish time), about the time the tsunami hit.
An estimated 31,000 people were killed in Sri Lanka, while a million people were driven out of their homes.
In Thailand, where the tsunami killed 5,395 people according to an official toll, religious ceremonies were held on the beach in Phang Nga on the west coast, which was worst hit, and on the southern tourist isle of Phuket.
Police said some 1,000 Thais and foreigners attended the ceremony at Ban Namkhem in Phang Nga Saturday morning, while 200 people gathered at Patong beach in Phuket for prayers and to see flower wreaths laid in commemoration.
Thousands of floating lanterns were to be released in from the beaches at sunset.
