this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2025
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A woman in Thailand shocked temple staff when she started moving in her coffin after being brought in for cremation.

Wat Rat Prakhong Tham, a Buddhist temple in the province of Nonthaburi on the outskirts of Bangkok, posted a video on its Facebook page, showing a woman lying in a white coffin in the back of a pick-up truck, slightly moving her arms and head, leaving temple staff bewildered.

Pairat Soodthoop, the temple’s general and financial affairs manager, told The Associated Press on Monday that the 65-year-old woman’s brother drove her from the province of Phitsanulok to be cremated.

He said they heard a faint knock coming from the coffin.

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[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 85 points 9 hours ago (3 children)

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 500-kilometer (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.

Thank God that everyone insisted on a death certificate. One regulatory misstep in this story and you either gut or burn someone alive.

That being said, knocking coming from the inside of a coffin is top 10 on my list of things that would make my blood immediately run cold.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 37 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

Apparently dead people waking up happens from time to time. Sometimes vital signs are really hard to detect without hospital equipment.

And usually they do actually check to make sure someone is dead before harvesting their organs.

[–] Blumpkinhead@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

That "usually" is making me a little uncomfortable.

[–] insaneinthemembrane@lemmy.world 25 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

That's why you always do a wake!

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 15 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Holy crap! Is that where the term comes from or is this just a really good pun?

[–] SereneSadie@quokk.au 9 points 6 hours ago

Really loose recollection and paraphrasing;

Trace contaminations in alcohol could lead heavy drinkers to pass out in a coma-like state for potentially days at a time. Given the frequency, holding a wake to be absolutely sure it wasn't one of these poisonings became a useful custom.

And then of course, changes and regulations mean the contaminations are weeded out of the process, but the ritual itself persists because of human habit.

[–] Psythik@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago

TIL that's why it's called that.

[–] ronl2k@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Apparently dead people waking up happens from time to time.

It happened often enough that embalming became commonplace to ensure that the dead couldn't wake up.

[–] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 3 points 7 hours ago

Or double tap, just to be sure.

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 6 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I would hope that whoever would be in charge of organ retrieval would check for those things regardless of death certificate, but at least it didn't get that far.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 9 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

The organ harvesting makes no sense in any case. You can't run a corpse 300 miles down the highway and expect anything salvageable.

[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 7 hours ago

True, but I think that the dude was just trying his best to fulfill their wishes. Grief leads people to do odd things sometimes.

[–] sik0fewl@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Makes me think that there was a reason that he didn't try to get a death certificate.

[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 6 hours ago

Eh, I doubt there was ill intent here. Sounds like dude is poor and doing his best. Otherwise, why bother to try to get a free cremation or organ transplant? A random hole in the ground would be a much more effective hiding spot.