In Cambodia, the blending of Brahmanical Hinduism and Buddhism is perhaps most visible in the refined world of classical performance. Classical Khmer dance, often known as the Royal Ballet of Cambodia or Robam Preah Reach Trop, stages narratives drawn from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana (locally the Reamker) and the Mahabharata, yet these stories are consistently reframed through Buddhist ethics of compassion, non‑violence, and righteous kingship. Dancers embody figures like Vishnu, Shiva, Hanuman, and celestial beings, while the moral atmosphere of the performance is steeped in Theravāda Buddhist understandings of karma and virtuous conduct. The hand gestures and postures recall Hindu mudrā‑like forms, yet they are deployed to express a cosmology in which the Buddhist dhammarāja ideal has absorbed older god‑king notions.

A closely related expression of this synthesis appears in the Apsara dance, inspired by the celestial dancers carved on Angkorian temples originally associated with Hindu deities. These apsaras, though rooted in Hindu mythology, now move within a cultural field shaped by Buddhist devotional practice and merit‑making. Their choreography and iconography evoke the divine feminine of Hindu tradition, yet their performance context is aligned with Buddhist ritual life and royal Buddhist ceremonies. The result is a vision of Cambodia as a realm guarded by both the Buddha and the inherited pantheon of Hindu‑derived deities.

The narrative arts further deepen this interweaving. Lakhon Khol, the masked dance‑drama, and Sbek Thom, the large shadow‑puppet theatre, both center on episodes from the Reamker, preserving the Hindu mythic structure of gods, demons, and heroic monkey allies. At the same time, these dramas are interpreted through Buddhist teachings on good and evil, suffering, liberation, and the workings of karma. Performances often take place in Buddhist ritual settings, where the stories function as moral exempla rather than as purely sectarian myth. In this way, Hindu cosmology becomes a vessel for Buddhist soteriological concerns.

Underlying many of these forms is the sound of the pinpeat orchestra, an ancient ensemble of gongs, xylophones, oboes, drums, and cymbals associated historically with royal and temple ritual. Its musical language carries a Brahmanic legacy, yet it now serves primarily in Buddhist ceremonies and as accompaniment for classical dance and sacred drama. The same ensemble that once resonated through Hindu temple precincts now fills Buddhist ritual spaces, providing a continuous sonic thread between the two traditions. Through these intertwined arts of movement, story, and sound, Cambodian culture reveals a religious landscape in which Hindu and Buddhist elements do not merely coexist, but mutually illuminate one another.