A WOMAN in Thailand shocked temple staff after she began moving inside her coffin, moments before her scheduled cremation, officials said today.
Video shared by Wat Rat Prakhong Tham, a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok in Nonthaburi province, shows the woman lying in a white coffin in the back of a pick-up truck, moving her arms and head, leaving temple workers bewildered.
Pairat Soodthoop, the temple’s general and financial affairs manager, told The Associated Press that the woman’s brother had driven her 500 kilometres from Phitsanulok after she appeared to stop breathing two days earlier.
“I was a bit surprised, so I asked them to open the coffin, and everyone was startled,” he said. “I saw her opening her eyes slightly and knocking on the side of the coffin. She must have been knocking for quite some time.”
The woman, 65, had been bedridden for approximately two years. Her brother sought to honour her wish to donate her organs by taking her to a hospital in Bangkok, but the facility refused to accept her without an official death certificate.
He then approached the temple, which offers free cremation services, only to be turned away for the same reason.
While explaining the procedure for obtaining a death certificate, temple staff heard the faint knocking from the coffin and immediately assessed her condition.
She was subsequently sent to a nearby hospital, where the abbot confirmed that the temple would cover her medical expenses. - November 25, 2025
