It was only after decades of development that Chinese Buddhism, as a practiced religion, gained its present social influence and visibility in France. Based on both archival research and fieldwork, this article examines how Buddhism has been constructed in the Chinese diaspora in France in three patterns. Each of these patterns prioritizes a main globalization medium, which are respectively ethno-linguistic immigrant group, transnational organizational system, and the information technology. The author argues that the religious globalization is a multi-layered trans-boundary process, through which communities, organizations, and individuals recompose the relations between the religious practice and the globalized socio-geographic space. In this process, various clergy-laity relationships and diverse manners of the legitimization of authority are all integrated into a complex topology, which are at the same time shaped by global, national and local factors.
