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BANGKOK (AP) — In an astonishing turn of events at a temple in Thailand, a woman was discovered to be alive in her coffin just moments before her scheduled cremation.
At Wat Rat Prakhong Tham, a Buddhist temple located in Nonthaburi province near Bangkok, a startling scene unfolded when temple staff noticed movement in a white coffin transported in the back of a pickup truck. The temple captured this unusual occurrence in a video shared on their Facebook page, showing the woman slightly moving her arms and head, leaving onlookers in disbelief.
Pairat Soodthoop, who oversees general and financial affairs at the temple, explained to The Associated Press that the woman’s brother had brought her from Phitsanulok province for cremation. She was 65 years old.
As the events unfolded, a faint knocking sound was heard emanating from the coffin.
“I was taken aback,” Pairat remarked. “I requested that they open the coffin, and what we saw was astonishing. The woman was slightly opening her eyes and tapping on the coffin’s side. It was clear she had been doing so for quite some time.”
According to Pairat, the brother said his sister had been bedridden for about two years, when her health deteriorated and she became unresponsive, appearing to stop breathing two days ago. The brother then placed her in a coffin and made the 300-mile journey to a hospital in Bangkok, to which the woman had previously expressed a wish to donate her organs.
The hospital refused to accept the brother’s offer as he didn’t have an official death certificate, Pairat said. His temple offers a free cremation service, which is why the brother approached them on Sunday, but was also refused due to the missing document.
The temple manager said that while he was explaining how to get a death certificate when they heard the knocking. They then assessed her and sent her to a nearby hospital.
The abbot said the temple would cover her medical expenses, according to Pairat.