Modern Cambodian monks tend to regard Brahmanical rituals as meaningful yet ultimately secondary elements within a predominantly Buddhist framework. These rites—whether connected to astrology, blessings, or life‑cycle ceremonies—are often treated as culturally significant practices that help maintain social cohesion and Khmer heritage, especially in relation to royal and state ceremonies. Rather than being upheld as independent religious systems, they are reinterpreted as part of the broader Buddhist cosmos and subordinated to Buddhist ethics, meditation, and wisdom. In this way, continuity with Angkorian and courtly traditions is preserved without granting Brahmanical theology a dominant place.

A common interpretive strategy is to recast these rituals as forms of skillful means, employed to address the fears, hopes, and everyday concerns of laypeople. Protective chants, house consecrations, and blessing ceremonies are said to calm anxiety, encourage generosity, and create favorable conditions for the practice of the Dhamma, even though they are not considered liberating in themselves. Through this lens, the rituals function as supportive conditions for merit‑making and moral resolve, rather than as channels of direct divine intervention. Older notions of fate or purity are thus quietly absorbed into a karmic and ethical understanding of cause and effect.

The presence of Hindu deities and symbols is likewise integrated into a Buddhist worldview. Figures such as Brahmā, Vishnu, or Shiva may appear in iconography or ritual language, yet they are explained as powerful devas or protector beings who remain subject to samsara and karma. Their invocation in ceremonies for protection, prosperity, or communal well‑being is tolerated, even encouraged, so long as these beings are not treated as supreme creators. This theological repositioning allows monks to participate in syncretic practices while affirming Buddhist doctrinal primacy.

Among monks themselves, attitudes range along a spectrum. Many, especially in rural settings, continue to preserve a rich syncretic ritual life, blending Brahmanical elements with Pali chanting and Buddhist teachings. Others, often more reform‑minded or meditation‑oriented, seek to reduce highly magical or transactional aspects, sometimes characterizing them as beliefs suited to those not yet ready for deeper doctrine. Across this diversity, a shared pattern emerges: Brahmanical rituals are accepted as valuable on a conventional level, yet consistently framed as subordinate to the supramundane aims of morality, meditation, and insight into the nature of reality.