Animist elements in Cambodian religious life are not experienced as a separate system standing apart from Buddhism, but as a set of practices that interpenetrate temple ritual, household devotion, and community festivals. Local guardian spirits, or neak ta, are honored at shrines near pagodas, homes, fields, and crossroads, where incense, food, and other offerings are made for protection, prosperity, and the smooth unfolding of important undertakings. These gestures of respect often accompany explicitly Buddhist ceremonies—such as weddings, funerals, or major temple events—so that petitions to territorial spirits and the chanting of Pāli suttas occur in a single ritual flow. Spirit houses and neak ta shrines thus form part of the same sacred landscape as Buddha images and stupas, reflecting a worldview in which multiple kinds of beings share responsibility for human welfare.

Within this shared space, monks frequently act as ritual specialists whose authority extends into the animist domain. Protective chanting, the blessing of water, and the tying of sacred threads are undertaken not only for merit-making but also to counter malevolent forces, cure illness, or “cool” disturbed places. Amulets and sak yant tattoos, inscribed with Pāli syllables and symbolic diagrams, are treated as inhabited objects whose power can shield the bearer from misfortune, violence, or sorcery, even as they are framed in Buddhist terms. Spirit mediums, known for trance and possession rituals, are consulted for healing, divination, and communication with ancestral or tutelary spirits, and their work may be ritually linked to monastic blessings without any sense of contradiction.

Ancestor veneration provides another clear meeting point between Buddhist and animist sensibilities. During festivals such as Pchum Ben, offerings of food and merit are directed toward deceased relatives and wandering ghosts, with monks presiding over ceremonies that both generate Buddhist merit and sustain ongoing relationships with the dead. Similar patterns appear in agricultural rites and seasonal celebrations, where Buddhist chanting is combined with offerings to land and rice spirits in hopes of rain, fertility, and communal protection. Across these varied contexts, Cambodian Buddhists move fluidly between karmic explanations and the logic of placating or negotiating with powerful unseen beings, revealing a religious culture in which Theravāda doctrine and animist practice are woven into a single, living tapestry.