A 65-year-old bedridden woman startled temple workers on Sunday when she began knocking from inside a coffin her brother had brought for cremation at a Buddhist temple outside Bangkok.
The brother told staff at Wat Rat Prakhong Tham temple that his sister appeared to stop breathing two days earlier after being ill for about two years. He first drove 300 miles from Phitsanulok province to a Bangkok hospital, hoping to donate her organs, but was refused because he lacked an official death certificate. The temple, which offers free cremations, also turned him away for the same reason.
While temple manager Pairat Soodthoop explained how to obtain the document, knocking came from the coffin in the back of the brother’s pickup truck.
“I was a bit surprised, so I asked them to open the coffin, and everyone was startled,” Pairat told the Associated Press on Monday. “I saw her opening her eyes slightly and knocking on the side of the coffin. She must have been knocking for quite some time.”
Video posted on social media showed the woman moving her arms and head slightly while lying in the white coffin.
She was immediately taken to a nearby hospital. Pairat said the temple’s abbot agreed to cover her medical costs.