Book
Each Other's Destiny: Rebirth and Relationship in Cambodian Buddhism
Each Other's Destiny: Rebirth and Relationship in Cambodian Buddhism is a book by Erik W. Davis on past-life memory and rebirth in Cambodia today.[1] The University of Hawaiʻi Press published it in September 2026.[1][2]
About the book
The book tells the stories of Cambodians who remember past lives, and of how those memories shape their present. It draws on the accounts of children, adults and elders, and follows how Cambodians understand karma to work across lifetimes and the central place of relationships in Buddhist moral progress.[1] In these accounts, relationships, obligations and karmic debts carry over from one life to the next.[2]
The book centers on six people whom Davis interviewed or came to know through close research between 2003 and 2006.[1]
- Two Cambodian women who describe being kidnapped and taken to hell. Their near-death experiences are shaped by cultural imagination and expectation.
- Children who remember past lives, among them a young girl who recalls being her own uncle, who died fighting for the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. A ritual was attempted to make her forget that past life.
- Men who have used past-life claims for personal advantage: former Prime Minister Hun Sen, who claims identity with a past Khmer king, and a popular lay teacher who professes to be Maitreya, the Buddha of the future. These cases stress individual accomplishment and autonomy rather than obligations to others.
- A devout elder Buddhist woman who, as a child, brought her past-life and present-life families together. The final chapter follows her story.[1]
In Davis's account, people in a karmically significant relationship share a nissăy, a word often translated as "destiny" or "fate." This view appears normative in Cambodia and shapes how Cambodians think about relationships, family, growing up and moral progress. He argues that it is these karmic relationships, not individuals, that are reborn. The elder woman's account shows past lives, karma and destiny as bonds between people, while holding to the final Buddhist goal of ending rebirth and its ties altogether.[1] Its publisher calls the book a new way of answering long-standing Buddhist questions: what is reborn, and what that means a person is.[3]
The author
Davis is a professor of religious studies at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota.[4][1] His work centers on Buddhism, ritual and the theory of religion, and he has written on Buddhist funeral rituals, temple boundaries and folktales.[4] He lived in Cambodia from 2003 to 2006, during his first period of fieldwork.[4] His earlier books include Deathpower: Buddhism's Ritual Imagination in Cambodia (2016).[5]
Publication
Before publication, the book was listed as in press with the University of Hawaiʻi Press in Honolulu, expected in 2026. It appeared in September 2026.[4][5][1] It is a 260-page hardback with 15 black-and-white illustrations, ISBN 9798880702275.[1] On February 13, 2026, Davis presented the research in a lecture at Northwestern University, "Rebirth, Relationship, and Destiny in contemporary Buddhist Cambodia."[6]
Access
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 University of Hawai'i Press, Each Other's Destiny
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Erik W. Davis: Imagining The Real World
- ↑ UH Press, Each Other’s Destiny: Rebirth and Relationship in Cambodian Buddhism (2026-03-10)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 macalester.edu, Erik Davis - Religious Studies
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Academia.edu, Erik W Davis - Macalester College - Academia.edu (2025-10-20)
- ↑ Northwestern University, Buddhist Studies Lecture Series past events