( CNN ) -- Nelson Mandela ached to come home , his family says , and he did so Sunday -- his burial the last part of a long journey that had lasted nearly a century . The prisoner turned president 's funeral in his childhood village of Qunu marked the end of 10 days mourning , during which tribal elders guided Mandela 's transition to the afterlife . The funeral was a final chance for those who knew him best to say goodbye . Mandela 's daughter Maki told me her father had always been a country boy at heart , and wanted to return to his remote farm in the Eastern Cape , one of South Africa 's most rural areas . `` Even when my father was in jail , he had the fondest memories of Qunu , '' she said . `` And he really wanted to die here . '' Pointing to a chair in the living room she said : `` This is Tata 's special chair ... he would sit like this , with a cushion here , because he enjoyed looking out into the hills . '' Mandela 's casket lay in his bedroom overlooking those hills overnight ahead of his funeral . Tribal elders held a vigil and a family prayer service took place Sunday morning . The state funeral service was held in a huge domed tent , surrounded by cows grazing in the neighboring fields . Inside , 95 candles burned , each representing one year of his life . Inside that tent -- filled with the sweet scent of white roses and lilies -- the Mandela family shared their grief with some 4,000 guests and television cameras broadcasting the service to the world . Friends and family mourned alongside heads of state , royalty and celebrities who had made their way along South Africa 's back roads to Mandela 's burial place . As well as being about family and loss , the state funeral was a mixture of power and politics , of belonging and belief . Mandela had a canny knack of building relationships and among those at his funeral were those who represented the old apartheid order . The great reconciliator continued to bring people together in death , just as he had in life . Mandela 's burial , however , was private . A few hundred mourners walked up the hills where he had played as a child to say goodbye . Mandela 's eldest daughter carried a reed mat that was laid on the floor of the grave , evoking the sense Mandela was going to rest on a traditional sleeping mat . The television coverage turned skyward to catch a flypast of planes and helicopters as Mandela was finally laid to rest , in a grave surrounded by local plants designed to evoke the journey of his life . Mandela 's granddaughter Tukwini said it had been a challenge to organize the funeral in the remote location `` but my grandfather was born here . '' `` This is where my grandfather told us who we were as Mandelas , '' she explained . Mandela 's family says his spirit is now in Qunu . Finally , after a life journey that was long , proud and honored , Nelson Mandela is home . Hamba Kahle Tata . Lala Kahle Tata . Goodbye father . Sleep well . Read more : Mandela used humor to charm and cajole . Read more : A look inside Mandela 's memorial garden . Read more : Nelson Mandela laid to rest in Qunu .
Anti - apartheid hero Nelson Mandela laid to rest in his childhood village . Death and burial ended 10 days of mourning for South Africa 's first black president . More than 4,000 people gathered at Mandela 's funeral service in a tent in the Qunu area . His family told CNN 's Chris Johnson they believed his spirit was now at home .