Paper short abstract:

This paper aims at describing and discussing the complex relationship between flow and space in the globalization of Tibetan Buddhism which is both "in motion" and "relocated" outside Asia, compelling to a theoretical shift towards network analysis.

Paper long abstract:

While spreading worldwide, Buddhism has become a "flowing" and "deterritorialized" religion, subjected to diverse modes of expansion (migration, mission, export). Buddhism therefore could perfectly epitomize a model of the contemporary globalizing religions. The dynamics of the Buddhist spread (especially Westward) is however also characterized by territorialization processes, especially in the case of building temples and establishing cultic sites, but (sacred) territory is also a crucial symbolic reference in the imagination of Buddhist followers. On the basis on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork (in Nepal and France), this papers aims at reframing methodological and theoretical issues of flows and space in the study of religion in Globalization: the case of Tibetan Buddhism, spreading from Asia to the West, and from the West to the West, epitomizes processes of Glocalization, since Tibetan traditions are inflected by local (social and cultural) influences. It also impels for a revision of the modes of "making places", and a reconciliation between the concepts of flow and space: the concept of network dynamics enables to do so.