An Indonesian man has been rescued by a passing ship after surviving for eight days afloat on an uprooted tree floating in the Indian Ocean.

Rizal Shahputra, 23, from the devastated province of Aceh, lived off rainwater and coconuts that floated by.

Apart from some cuts on his legs, he appeared amazingly healthy when he arrived in Malaysia's western Port Klang aboard a container vessel.

"When I saw him I was very surprised," said Huang Wen Feng, a crew member of the Malaysian cargo ship that picked him up on Monday evening 100 nautical miles out to sea.

"He waved at me, he was standing on what look like a tree."

Rizal said he was cleaning a mosque when the tsunami struck his village.

"Everybody sank, my family members sank. There were bodies around me," he told reporters.

Huang, whose ship was returning from South Africa, said Rizal was healthy when picked up and had normal body temperature despite the ordeal, but he was later sent to hospital for checks.

It was the second tsunami rescue by Malaysian ships.

On Friday, a Malaysian tuna-fishing boat rescued a 23-year-old woman from Aceh who had clung on to the trunk of a palm tree for five days after being swept out to sea.