Tsunami prayers mark Christmas in Thailand

Indian Christian tsunami survivor children offer prayers during a Christmas mass at a church in Nagapattinam some 350km south of Chennai yesterday. India lost more than 16,000 people in the December 26, 2004 tsunami as villages were wiped out along its southern coast and on the Andaman and Nicobar island chain.. PHOTO: AFP

"I will have to die before I can forget," said 80-year-old Thai Sorjia Aiawsakul, who lost her son, daughter-in-law and niece in the December 26 tragedy, which killed an estimated 231,000 people in Asia and Africa.

Thailand's official death toll stands at 5,395.

"He was the son I liked most. Even though a year has passed I think about him each day. I still cry every day," she said as saffron-robed monks intoned Buddhist chants at Wat Ban Muang on Khao Lak, the coastline where most of Thailand's victims died.

In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the temple served as a temporary morgue for the hundreds of bodies of foreign holidaymakers and Thais dragged from the waves and debris.

On Sunday, it hosted around 300 mourners -- both Thai and foreigners -- seeking a chance for quiet reflection before Monday's planned mass commemorations.

"We wanted to come here to remember those who died," said 17-year-old New Yorker Joann Johnson, who is teaching English and art at a school in the nearby fishing village of Ban Nam Khem, which has been totally rebuilt in the last year.

While many of the physical scars of the tsunami have disappeared with the reconstruction in Thailand, the mental scars of victims -- and orphans in particular -- remain.

"There are many at my school who lost their relatives. It's a very difficult time right now for the kids," said Johnson, who was accompanied by her parents and two sisters.