Mourners place candles on the beach at Boxing Day tsunami memorial 20 years after deadly giant wave swept Indian Ocean and killed 230,000

Thousands of mourners descended on beaches throughout Southeast Asia today to lay candles at memorial sites marking 20 years since the massive Indian Ocean Boxing Day tsunami, one of modern history's worst natural disasters. A person lights a candle during a vigil to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2004 tsunami at Tsunami Memorial Park in Ban Nam Khem, Phang Nga province, southern Thailand, 26 December 2024 Relatives and friends of tsunami victims attend a candlelight vigil to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2004 tsunami at Tsunami Memorial Park in Ban Nam Khem, Phang Nga province, southern Thailand Even though 20 years have passed, the grief remains and survivors still remember their loved ones, lost to the giant waves that flattened buildings in most of the coastal areas of Aceh - all the way to the city of Banda Aceh. Family members of a 2004 tsunami victim comfort each other during a religious memorial service to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2004 tsunami at Tsunami Memorial Park in Ban Nam Khem, Phang Nga province, southern Thailand Family members of the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, offer prayers at a memorial monument on the 20th anniversary of the disaster, in Peraliya on December 26, 2024 A Thai villager is assisted to lay a flower for his father who was killed in the 2004 tsunami, on a memorial wall during a religious memorial service to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2004 tsunami at Tsunami Memorial Park in Ban Nam Khem, Phang Nga province, southern Thailand Family members of a 2004 tsunami victim weep during a religious memorial service Karin Svard, a policewoman from Sweden, can be seen running into the sea after her husband, three sons and brother A photograph of the Boxing Day tsunami crashing through Ao Nang, Krabi Province, Thailand An aerial view of the city of Banda Aceh, damaged by the quake-triggered tsunami, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra The wreckage of an excavator amid debris in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, on January 10 2005 The epicentre of the earthquake that triggered the tsunami was just 100 miles off the coast of Indonesia. A Sri Lankan tsunami survivor weeps near a mass grave during the 20th anniversary commemoration of 2004 tsunami victims in the Peraliya suburb of Galle, Sri Lanka Acehnese people attend a ceremony commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Indian Ocean Tsunami at the Baiturrahman Mosque, an Aceh landmark that survived from the tsunami, in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, 26 December 2024 Tidal waves of the Boxing Day Tsunami wash through houses at Maddampegama, about 38 miles south of Colombo, Sri Lanka More than 35,000 people were killed by the tsunami in Sri Lanka alone Acehnese residents seen wading through flooded street to higher ground a moment after the tsunami strike in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, Indonesia This photo taken on December 26 2004 shows people fleeing as a tsunami comes crashing ashore at Koh Raya, Thailand Satellite imagery shows the devastation wrought on Sri Lanka by the Boxing Day tsunami The infrastructure in Aceh has been rebuilt and is now more resilient than it was before the tsunami struck. US Navy Seahawk helicopter crew from carrier USS Abraham Lincoln observe the devastation caused by the Indian Ocean tsunami on January 8, 2005, Aceh, Indonesia Tsunami survivors rummage through the debris at the commercial area of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province in northwest Indonesia in this December 31, 2004 photo Displaced Indonesians fight for relief food brought in by a US military helicopter at a UN refugee camp south of Panga in Aceh province, on Sumatra Island on Thursday Jan. 20, 2005 This picture of an Indian woman mourning the death of a relative who was killed in the Boxing Day tsunami won the premier award in the World Press Photo competition that same year Siwat Rawangkun, an official in Phang Nga, this morning chaired religious ceremonies for Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims before placing flowers at the Ban Nam Khem Tsunami Memorial Park.