Cambodian Buddhist funerary rites present a layered ritual world in which Theravāda doctrine is interwoven with older animist and Brahmanical strands. The dead are understood not only through the lens of karmic rebirth but also as spirits or ghosts who may linger and affect the living, and so they are treated as beings who must be calmed, fed, and guided. Bodies may be kept at home for several days before cremation to allow the spirit to transition properly, reflecting long-standing beliefs about a liminal post-mortem state. Offerings of rice, water, incense, flowers, and other items are made at the house, at the funeral, and at the cremation or burial site, functioning both as Buddhist merit-making and as literal provisioning for the spirit. In this way, ancestor veneration and spirit-propitiation are not displaced by Buddhism but rather reframed within it.

The structure of the rites also reveals pre-Buddhist concerns with cosmic order and ritual expertise. Astrologers may be consulted to determine auspicious days and hours for the funeral, cremation, or bone interment, and practices such as holding the body for an odd number of days align with older numerological and astrological ideas. Alongside the monks, lay ritual specialists such as achar, and sometimes spirit practitioners or mediums, guide the sequence of ceremonies, using formulas and gestures that sit outside the canonical monastic repertoire. Household and village protective rites—sprinkling consecrated water, tying protective strings around the wrists, burning incense at thresholds—aim to ward off malevolent forces and restore balance after the disruption of death. These actions express a cosmology in which unseen powers must be carefully negotiated.

The treatment of remains and the longer cycle of commemorative rites further illustrate this synthesis. Cremation itself harmonizes with Indic and Buddhist practice, yet bones or ashes may be buried under houses, placed in family plots, or enshrined in stupas on temple grounds, where they receive ongoing offerings. Such care for the physical remnants of the dead resonates with older patterns of ancestor cults, in which the dead remain potent presences within the social and spiritual landscape. Ceremonies held on specific days after death and on later anniversaries combine Buddhist chanting and merit transfer with the sense that the spirit passes through transitional phases and may require continued support. The Pchum Ben festival extends this logic to the wider community of ancestors and wandering spirits, as offerings of food are made so that even neglected spirits may be fed, while monks receive gifts whose merit is dedicated to the dead. Through these intertwined practices, Cambodian Buddhism becomes a vessel that carries forward pre-Buddhist customs, giving them new doctrinal clothing while preserving their emotional and ritual force.