I would like to know more about the old religion of Animism and its place in contemporary Khmer society.
Can anyone recommend a source for more info?

This book covers Buddhism and animism in Cambodia. I found it useful.

Can anyone recommend other books on the topic? The OP and I would appreciate a list. Thanks in advance!

Cool. Thanks!

Big Daikon wrote: ↑Sat Mar 26, 2022 2:12 pm This book covers Buddhism and animism in Cambodia. I found it useful.

Cheers!

Amazon US has copies. Kindle edition available.

does that Coggan book cover Kon Krach? Infant Cannibalism and Matricide, but said to give the recipient magical powers...?

Most animism is happening in Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri, the remote northeast — tribes like the Bunong, Tampuan, Kreung, and Jarai are seen as Khmer Loeu, the first/old Khmers. Some degree of it persists on as a magical underlayer of Khmer life with witchcraft and various sorcerers but there are no Buddhist organizations telling them to stop like how the Catholic Church would tell people in Mexico to not engage in Santa Muerte or similar religions. It's just seen as Khmer culture. For Chams, there's a group called the Kan Imam San that make up about 10% of the country's Cham population and they engage in some ancient practices of spirit channeling, something the 90% of more mainstreamed Chams do not participate in (although a lot of that comes from the past few decades of accepting shiny new mosques and donations from international benefactors who want them to pray and behave like Sunni Muslims in Saudi Arabia). For both Chams and Khmers, I'd hesitate to call that animism — the only "clearcut" animists in Cambodia live in remote tribal locations, mostly the northeast up by Laos and near the Vietnamese border. That said, Khmer culture does focus a lot on spirits of the land, like in the case of many factories and the mass faintings that occur because of not appeasing the spirits: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 3319300082 (others might call this a clever form of protest or simply inhaling too many fumes while standing for too long).

Not totally direct about religion, but covers the upland tribes of Cambodia and the rest of SE Asia better than any other source I've read: The Art of Not Being Governed, an Anarchist History of Upland SE Asia

Vanishing Act: A Glimpse Into Cambodia's Vanishing World of Magic

Ghosts in the Forest — tells the story of a group of people hiding out in Virachey for 25 years thinking the war was still on, a look at the lives of a few unique people coming from the minority groups of Ratanakiri

"Montagnard" is kind of an old-timey term for people in upland SE Asia, meaning they live above a certain elevation. This book —  — might be the most direct and relevant to your questions, but I haven't read it so I can't vouch for it.