Saffron-robed Buddhist monks, Nepali Sherpas and grey-bearded mountaineers paid homage on Tuesday to Sir Edmund Hillary, the man who conquered Everest, as thousands gathered in New Zealand to watch his state funeral.
"His loss to us is bigger and heavier than Mount Everest," Ang Rita Sherpa told the service in a small church in Auckland.
"He is our true guardian and our second father, but he has left us behind today," he said.
The funeral of the first man to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain was, in keeping with the man himself, modest, with 600 family, friends and dignitaries in the church.
Hillary's coffin was draped in the New Zealand flag, cream-coloured Nepali prayer scarves, and Hillary's climbing axe and specially carved walking stick.
"We mourn as a nation because we know we're saying goodbye to a friend," Prime Minister Helen Clark told the service. "Sir Ed described himself as a person of modest abilities. In reality he was a colossus. He was our hero. He brought fame to our country."
Among those attending the funeral was the son of Tenzing Norgay, the Nepali Sherpa who accompanied Hillary to Everest's 8,850 metre (29,035 feet) summit.
"While we mourn his loss, his spirit will forever live and protect the great mountain and the people he loved so much," said Norbu Tenzing Norgay.
Thousands, young and old, had filed past the coffin in the previous 24 hours to pay their last respects to the former beekeeper, adventurer, and humanitarian, who died at the age of 88 on January 11 after a heart attack.
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