NONTHABURI, THAILAND—In a miraculous and deeply unsettling incident that stunned a Buddhist temple community, a 65-year-old Thai woman, believed to have been dead for two days, was discovered alive inside her coffin just moments before her body was due to be placed in the crematorium oven.
The shocking discovery was made at the Wat Rat Prakhong Tham temple on the outskirts of Bangkok after temple staff, preparing for the service, heard faint but distinct knocking sounds emanating from the closed casket.
The 500-Kilometer Journey of the ‘Deceased’
The woman, identified as Chonthirat Sakulkoo, had been transported over 500 kilometers (300 miles) from her home in Phitsanulok province by her brother, Mongkol Sakulkoo.
According to Pairat Soodthoop, the temple’s general and financial affairs manager, the brother explained that Chonthirat had been bedridden for two years and had become unresponsive two days prior, appearing to have stopped breathing. Believing she had passed away, he had placed her in the coffin.
- Failed Organ Donation: The brother first drove the body to a hospital in Bangkok, hoping to fulfill his sister’s wish to donate her organs. However, the hospital refused to accept the body because the family did not possess an official death certificate.
- The Cremation Request: He then approached the temple, which offers a free cremation service. Temple staff also initially refused to proceed due to the lack of official paperwork.
It was while Mr. Soodthoop was explaining the bureaucratic procedure for obtaining a death certificate that the silence of the temple grounds was pierced by the sound of a desperate tapping.
‘Everyone Was Startled’
“I was a bit surprised, so I asked them to open the coffin, and everyone was startled,” Mr. Soodthoop 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.”
A video later shared by the temple on its official social media page showed the woman, lying in a white coffin in the back of a pickup truck, visibly moving her arms and head as bewildered staff looked on.
Temple officials immediately suspended the scheduled cremation. An ambulance was called, and the woman was rushed to a nearby hospital in Nonthaburi province.
Doctors there determined that Chonthirat Sakulkoo had not suffered cardiac arrest or respiratory failure. Instead, they diagnosed her with a severe case of hypoglycemia—critically low blood sugar—which likely induced a deep, coma-like state that mimicked death.
The temple’s abbot has since ordered that the temple will cover all of the woman’s medical expenses. The incident serves as a harrowing reminder of the dangers of delayed medical intervention and the urgent need for proper certification before the rites of death are finalized.