BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) – Hundreds of Indonesian tsunami survivors gathered up their meager belongings and tramped out of an emergency camp Saturday, exactly three months after giant waves wiped out their homes and killed 174,000 around the Indian Ocean rim.

Holding prayer mats, tents and bags of clothes, more than 1,200 farmers and fishermen from the village of Lampaya traded in their tents for military-style barracks or, for those lucky enough, flood-damaged homes.

Their move underscored the gradual transition from the emergency relief operation after the Dec. 26 disaster to the rebuilding phase.

“I’m very happy about going. I’ve got rice fields that are damaged and I’ve got to figure that out,” said Mukhtar Zainal Abidin, who was breaking down his tent and heading back to his home along the main highway. “This is what I’ve got to do. Living here makes me sick. I don’t want to only depend on donations.”

The magnitude-9 undersea earthquake, the world’s biggest in 40 years, and the huge tsunami it sent charging across the Indian Ocean at the speed of a passenger jet killed more than 174,000 people and left another 106,000 missing.

More than 1.5 million people were left homeless in 11 countries.

At a 300-year-old temple in Sri Lanka near where the giant waves swept as many as 2,000 train passengers to their deaths, Buddhist monks chanted at an all-night ceremony to help the wandering spirits of the dead.

Parents went to temples to make offerings of the favorite foods of children killed by the tsunami.

“My son loved soya, potato and leek curry. So I prepared the dish and offered it,” Mala Gunnatilleke said of her 19-year-old son.

Special prayers were planned for residents of Peraliya, a village close to the Janagangarama temple, which was annihilated when waves described by survivors to be as big as elephants smashed into Sri Lanka’s coastline.

It was in Peraliya that the entire Queen of the Sea commuter train was washed away, in the single worst tragedy of the tsunami. Some of the dead were passengers while others were villagers who clambered atop the train, trying to get above the rising water.

“We may not have a home, but we will do anything to ensure that the spirits of our dead relatives get a better life,” said Chandra Gamage, whose small village nearby lost 38 people.

In Thailand, where more than 5,000 perished as waves slammed into popular island tourist resorts such as Phi Phi and Phuket, two Buddhist temples that have served as makeshift morgues finally were handed back this week to monks.

Most of the foreign troops who poured into the region to help deliver aid – including thousands of Americans – have left, and it is unclear how many overseas aid organizations will be allowed to stay in Indonesia.

After suggesting some aid groups would be forced to leave by March 26, the government pushed the deadline back by at least a month. Still, the U.N. refugee agency pulled out this week, saying Jakarta had not approved its plans to build new homes for survivors.

Indonesia on Saturday sent a team of ministers, led by Vice President Jusuf Kalla, to explain Jakarta’s reconstruction plans to Acehnese leaders. Aceh province bore the brunt of the tsunami.

The government said it will put no limits on coastal development but would require villages in the path of tsunami to build homes that could withstand a disaster and a means of escape.

“The government will not force people to move from their land if they choose to stay,” Planning Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said. “But it is the government’s responsibility to first explain that the place is dangerous and then provide them with escape hills or escape routes.”

Just outside the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, the sounds of hammering echoed through a coconut grove as residents from Lampaya dismantled makeshift kitchens and took down their tents. Most were joining the parade of pickup trucks and motorbikes that waited at the camp entrance, but some were less willing than others.

A few families said they feared leaving a place where they were ensured clean water, food and the company of fellow survivors. They complained they had few prospects for employment and felt forced by the government to move into crowded barracks or homes that remained damaged.

Efforts also continue to set up an early warning system to prevent such a huge loss of life in the event of another tsunami.

It cannot come soon enough for Ainul, who was moving out of the Lampaya camp Saturday.

“I’m very happy to be moving back, but I’m still very afraid another tsunami will come,” she said. “There was an earthquake yesterday morning and we were all so afraid it would cause another tsunami.”

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