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Paper short abstract

This paper examines networks among Vietnamese Buddhist temples in Europe, Australia, and Japan. It conceptualizes these temples as nodes embedded in societies through everyday practices. Focusing on Japan’s position, the study highlights connectivity beyond national frameworks.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines transnational networks among overseas Vietnamese Buddhist temples, focusing on how religious practices, knowledge, and organizational resources circulate beyond the territorial framework of the Vietnamese nation-state. Drawing on multi-sited fieldwork conducted in Europe, Australia, and Japan, it highlights how these temples are simultaneously embedded in local societies while remaining connected through transnational religious networks that extend across regions. Rather than treating overseas temples as peripheral extensions of Vietnamese Buddhism or as isolated migrant institutions, the paper conceptualizes them as interconnected nodes within a global religious network shaped by migration, mobility, and contextual adaptation.

The analysis pays particular attention to Japan’s positioning within these networks. Instead of framing Japan as a central authority or a marginal recipient of religious influence, the paper approaches Japan as a significant relational space where regional linkages intersect and transnational connections are negotiated. Through patterns of communication, coordination, and practical collaboration, overseas Vietnamese Buddhist temples maintain shared orientations while adapting to diverse legal, social, and cultural environments. These processes reveal how regional configurations shape the ways transnational religious ties are sustained and reconfigured over time. These connections are sustained not primarily through formal institutional hierarchies, but through everyday practices, informal exchanges, and repeated interactions among temples across national boundaries.

By foregrounding relational dynamics rather than individual actors or centralized institutions, the paper demonstrates how transnational religious networks are reproduced through routine practices such as ritual coordination, mutual support, and the circulation of experiential knowledge. Such an approach underscores the importance of relational spaces in understanding how religious networks operate across multiple regional contexts. This perspective allows for an understanding of overseas Vietnamese Buddhism as a dynamic and regionally diversified religious formation rather than a unified or centrally governed tradition. Situating Japan within broader global Vietnamese Buddhist networks, the paper contributes to ongoing discussions on transnational religion, migration, and the globalization of Buddhism, while offering a regional perspective that highlights the significance of East Asia within wider transnational religious configurations.