A 65-year-old woman in Thailand shocked temple staff when she was found alive inside her coffin at a Buddhist temple where her brother had brought her for cremation. The incident occurred Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, at Wat Rat Prakhong Tham temple in Nonthaburi province, on the outskirts of Bangkok.
Pairat Soodthoop, the temple’s general and financial affairs manager, said staff heard a faint knocking sound coming from inside the coffin while he was speaking with the woman’s brother about obtaining a death certificate. When they opened the coffin, temple workers discovered the woman showing signs of life.
“I was a bit surprised, so I asked them to open the coffin, and everyone was startled,” Pairat told the Associated Press. “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, from Phitsanulok province, had been bedridden for two years before her health deteriorated. Her brother reported that she appeared to stop breathing two days before their arrival at the temple. Believing his sister had died, he placed her in a coffin and traveled approximately 500 kilometers to Bangkok.
The brother first attempted to fulfill what he said was his sister’s wish to donate her organs, bringing her to a hospital in Bangkok. However, the hospital refused to accept the woman’s body without an official death certificate. This requirement, while seemingly bureaucratic, ultimately saved the woman’s life by preventing immediate organ harvesting procedures.
After being turned away from the hospital, the brother sought out Wat Rat Prakhong Tham temple, which offers free cremation services to families in need. Such charitable cremation programs are common at Buddhist temples throughout Thailand, providing essential support to families who cannot afford funeral costs. However, the temple also refused to proceed without proper documentation.
The temple posted a video on Facebook showing the woman lying in a white coffin in the back of a pickup truck. In the footage, she can be seen slightly moving her arms and head, demonstrating clear signs of life that had gone unnoticed by her brother.
Temple staff immediately assessed the woman’s condition and transported her to a nearby hospital for medical treatment. The temple’s abbot pledged to cover all of her medical expenses, taking responsibility for ensuring she received proper care.
Medical professionals at the hospital diagnosed the woman with severe hypoglycemia, a condition characterized by critically low blood sugar levels. Doctors confirmed that the woman had not experienced cardiac arrest or respiratory failure, despite her brother’s belief that she had stopped breathing.
The case highlights the critical importance of proper death certification procedures and medical verification before cremation or organ donation. In Thailand, as in most countries, legal safeguards require official medical confirmation of death to prevent exactly this type of scenario. The insistence by both the hospital and temple on obtaining proper documentation proved life-saving.
The woman’s prolonged period of being bedridden for two years suggests she may have had underlying health conditions that contributed to her hypoglycemic episode. Extended immobility can complicate various health issues and make individuals more vulnerable to metabolic disturbances.
Temple manager Pairat noted that the brother appeared to have been explaining the certificate process when they heard the knocking, indicating the discovery came at a crucial moment before any cremation procedures could begin. The temple’s standard operating procedures and refusal to bypass legal requirements ultimately prevented what would have been an irreversible mistake.
The incident has drawn attention to the need for proper medical assessment when someone appears to have died, particularly in cases involving individuals with chronic illnesses or conditions that affect consciousness. It also underscores the protective function of death certification requirements, which exist precisely to prevent premature cremation or burial.
