You won’t believe this story from Thailand. A 65-year-old woman was brought to a Buddhist temple to be cremated. But then she suddenly started moving inside her coffin. This shocked the temple workers and saved her life.
This is just crazy. The amazing incident happened at Wat Rat Prakhong Tham, a temple in Nonthaburi province near Bangkok. According to AP News, the temple even shared video proof on Facebook. It showed the woman lying in a white coffin in the back of a pickup truck, moving her head and arms a little bit.
The woman’s brother had made a huge 500-kilometer (300-mile) trip to bring her to the temple. That’s a serious commitment, driving all that way from Phitsanulok province just to lay his sister to rest. Pairat Soodthoop works at the temple as the general and financial affairs manager. He explained the shocking discovery. He told the media that he and others heard a quiet knocking sound coming from the coffin.
Red tape actually saves a woman’s life
“I was a bit surprised, so I asked them to open the coffin, and everyone was startled,” Pairat said. You just know everyone would be frozen in that moment. Imagine the shock! He went on to explain exactly what happened next.
“I saw her opening her eyes slightly and knocking on the side of the coffin. She must have been knocking for quite some time,” he said. The whole reason the woman was in the coffin is really sad. The brother said his sister had been stuck in bed for about two years.
Recently, her health got much worse, and she became completely unresponsive. She seemed to stop breathing two days before the long trip started. But the missing official paperwork is what actually saved her life. These kinds of shocking discoveries leave people with unexpected questions.
The brother had first driven her all the way to a Bangkok hospital. Why? Because the woman had told him before that she wanted to donate her organs. That’s a really kind final wish, but paperwork got in the way, and thankfully it did.
Pairat explained that the hospital refused to accept the organ donation. The reason was simple: the brother didn’t have an official death certificate. Hospitals have strict rules, and while that’s usually annoying, in this case, it was a miracle. Since the hospital turned him away, the brother came to Wat Rat Prakhong Tham on Sunday.
The temple offers free cremation service, which is a wonderful help for the community. But the temple also had to refuse the service because of that missing official death document. Pairat said he was actually explaining to the brother how to get a death certificate when they heard the quiet knocking sound. Stories going viral often need clarification about surprising details.
If the hospital had taken her body, or if the temple had been less strict about paperwork, this woman would have been cremated while still alive. That’s truly scary to think about. Once they realized what was happening, the temple workers quickly checked on the 65-year-old woman and rushed her to a nearby hospital for proper medical care.
In a wonderful show of support, Pairat confirmed that the abbot has promised to pay for all of her medical bills. It’s a great outcome for a situation that started out so terrible. This is definitely a reminder that sometimes, delays and paperwork can actually be a good thing.
Published: Nov 25, 2025 05:45 pm