Staff at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok were shocked to discover that a woman believed to be dead was still alive just moments before her scheduled cremation.
Pairat Soodthoop, general manager of the Wat Rat Prakhong Tham temple, told the Associated Press he was “startled” when he heard a faint knocking from inside the coffin during preparations for the ceremony.
He immediately asked for the coffin to be opened, only to find the 65-year-old woman slowly opening her eyes and tapping weakly on the wooden interior. “She must have been knocking for quite some time,” he said.
The woman’s brother had earlier informed the temple that local officials had pronounced her dead. However, Mr Soodthoop said the family did not present a formal death certificate, and he had been explaining the process of obtaining one when the knocking began.
Once it became clear the woman was alive, the temple’s abbot instructed staff to rush her to hospital. Doctors later confirmed she had suffered severe hypoglycaemia — a dangerous drop in blood sugar — but had not experienced cardiac or respiratory arrest.
According to the brother, his sister had been bedridden for two years, and after her condition worsened on Saturday, she appeared to stop breathing. The family had travelled nearly 500km from Phitsanulok province to Bangkok for what they believed would be her cremation.
Local reports have since described the incident as one of the most startling near-mistakes seen at a Thai temple, with staff grateful that the faint knock was heard in time.
Melissa Enoch
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