The three-month anniversary of the worst natural disaster to hit the island was marked with an overnight ceremony that ended with lunch being offered by villagers to 238 monks — symbolising the number of villagers who perished.

"The idea of this ceremony is to invoke blessings on those who died from this village as well as across the country and in Asia," chief monk Veliulle Dhamitha told AFP.

"We believe in reincarnation and some may not have enough good karma to be born in a good place so the relatives can through a ceremony like this transfer merit to the dear departed."

Dhamitha said there had been a shortage of Buddhist monks for the three-month celebrations because they were in high demand to attend private ceremonies at homes of the bereaved.

Most of the monks who took part in the rituals here had been invited from other towns that were unaffected by the tsunamis.

About 70 percent of Sri Lanka’s 19 million people are Buddhists, but the number of monks is estimated at between 20,000 and 30,000.

Peraliya is better known for a train tragedy which is also the biggest single loss in a commuter train in the world.

Some 1,500 people were aboard the "Ocean Queen" train that was engulfed by giant waves here on December 26. Only 200 to 300 escaped while the others were drowned. At least 900 bodies were buried in a mass grave here.

Buddhist monks were offered lunch at a school overlooking the restored railway track. Three compartments of the ill-fated train are kept here as a token of remembrance.