Kinship Beyond Death: Ambiguous Relations and Autonomous Children in Cambodian Buddhism

Abstract

This article deals with the phenomenon of past-life memory among contemporary Cambodian children, using one exemplary case, of a young girl born with memories of her past existence as her own uncle, who predeceased her by 20 years. In contrast to the liberating power attributed to past-life memory among buddhas and arhats, past-life memory among children is considered frightening and abnormal in Cambodia. Investigating the ways in which families deal with such past-life memories in their children, I outline how the concerns of parents are founded in concerns about moral development, autonomy, and dependence. The ethnographic approach taken here is intended to complement and complicate the normative approaches to past-life memory as solely a liberating accomplishment, a requisite part of the trividyā (Triple Knowledge).