A 65-year-old Thai woman stunned temple staff in Bangkok when they heard a faint knocking from inside her coffin after her brother brought her in for cremation. The incident took place at the Wat Rat Prakhong Tham temple, located in Nonthaburi province outside of Bangkok. The Buddhist temple, which offers free cremations, posted a Facebook video showing a woman in a white coffin in the back of a pickup truck moving her arms and head, leaving staff stunned.
Pairat Soodthoop, the general and financial affairs manager at the temple, told The Associated Press that he was discussing cremation with the woman’s brother when they heard the noise coming from inside the coffin. He explained that he was initially surprised and asked them to open the coffin, which led to everyone being startled. He described how he saw her opening her eyes slightly and knocking on the side of the coffin, indicating that she must have been knocking for quite some time.
The woman’s brother had driven her from Phitsan, a province in central Thailand, to be cremated, but the hospital and temple both initially refused to accept her without an official death certificate. The hospital, however, refused to accept the woman without the certificate, and the temple also turned her away for lacking the document. While Pairat was explaining how to obtain the certificate, they heard knocking from the coffin and confirmed that she was alive, sending her to a nearby hospital.
The abbot later said the temple would cover her medical expenses, according to Pairat. This incident highlights the challenges of verifying death and the importance of formal procedures in medical and religious settings. The staff at the temple were not only stunned by the woman’s apparent survival but were also concerned about the implications of such an occurrence. The situation has drawn attention to the potential for medical errors and the need for more rigorous verification processes in such cases.