This article aims at analyzing the relationship between religion and local communities in the globalizing Amami Islands from the aspect of trans-nationalism. Comparatively many international migrants who live on the islands are members of the Catholic Church. Operating a field research on Catholic international migrants against the backdrop of their experience of insularity, we analyzed how transnational religious ties and transnational religious communities are formed around these Catholic churches by way of cross-bordering processes of migration to the islands.

Concretely, we conducted participant observation and interviewed foreign baptized church members, including first- and the second-generation Amami Brazilians. The case studies presented in this paper focus on a Catholic nun, who had returned from Brazil; a Korean husband married to a Japanese wife; a student from China; and Vietnamese Catholic priests and parishioners. In the results, we could not identify any transnational religious ties or diaspora around the Catholic churches on the Amami Islands. This undeveloped transnationalism is caused partly by the small numbers of members from each county. Other factors concern non-Japanese nationality and non-permanent residence qualifications related to marital status; irregularity of occupation; and accessibility to a Catholic church. The most essential finding, however, is that there was no need to build up transnational religious ties and community ties through church affiliation, because most Catholic international migrants living on the remote islands of Amami had already been included as essential supporters within the traditional village community, or shima society.

Based on research about the “Gypsies” in Greece, this article discusses the difficulties that communities in fluid social environments are facing in sharing their origins. It also explores how a sense of belongingness arises within these groups. Narratives of the origins of “Gypsies” have always been constructed by non-Gypsies, who imposed their names and categories on diverse communities. Accepting these narrative frameworks has disrupted the sense of belongingness among “Gypsies” in their everyday lives, for “Gypsies” consist of various subgroups with different migration histories. Recent discourse emphasizes the Indian origins of the “Gypsies,” based on linguistic similarities between Romani that the Roma, the dominant group of the “Gypsies” speak, and Indian languages such as Hindi or Sanskrit. By scrutinizing the diverse origin narratives of “Gypsies” of different subgroups and backgrounds, this article examines how this dominant discourse works to uphold the borders of the “Gypsy” community in new ways. In particular, this paper points out the importance of the image of a shared body and sensory perception that is said to transcend time and space. It also illuminates the potential power of origin narratives and names that imply an overall disregard for the significance of origin per se, as expressed in statements like “whatever, we don't mind.”

The revitalization of the Santiago pilgrimage route in the twenty-first century has been remarkable. The Camino de Santiago attracts pilgrims from all over the world. But many of them are pilgrims without belief. For them, the relics of the cathedral cannot be the object of a pilgrimage. What they value is the exchange experience of the pilgrimage process and the awareness and self-transformation. In this paper, we see this situation as the backgrounding of faith in the sense of a departure from the framework of traditional religion. A similar trend can be seen in Japanese pilgrimages that have been modeled after the Santiago pilgrimage. In other words, faith is seen as a thing of the past, and spiritual discourse is created about the present. Sometimes these spiritual discourses are also spun by actors on the side of traditional religions who should be the bearers of traditional belief systems.

“Humanistic Buddhism” is a concept of the revival of Chinese Buddhism proposed by Tai Xu (太虚). Since the twentieth century, it has not only become the common idea of Buddhism in China but also came to define the understanding of Chinese Buddhism in overseas Chinese society.

The purpose of this article is to specifically investigate “Humanistic Buddhism” through the ideas of Tai Xu and his disciple Yin Shun (印順), to understand their idea of “Humanistic Buddhism” and its significance for modern reinterpretations of Buddhist ideas, and at the same time to explore the “Humanistic Buddhist” beliefs and practices of the Taiwanese Fo Guang Shan (仏光山) and Tzu Chi (慈済) organizations.

“Humanistic Buddhism” is a modern reinterpretation of Buddhist ideas. The various events and activities carried out under its philosophy have similar connotations compared with “Engaged Buddhism.” However, if we use the perspectives of “modern Buddhism” and “Engaged Buddhism” to grasp it, it has its limitations. It needs to be comprehensively discussed based on the historical, social, and political context of the Chinese-speaking world.

Patani and Kedah in the middle of the Malay Peninsula are said to have been the earliest states of Islamic kingship in the Malay Peninsula around the fifteenth century. The region's prosperity as a trade center reached its peak in the seventeenth century, before its economic significance began to decline. Instead, Patani emerged as a center of Islamic learning in Southeast Asia from the end of the nineteenth century. Sheik Daud al-Fatani, an Islamic scholar from Patani, studied in Mecca in the middle of the nineteenth century and wrote many translated books on Islam in the Patani Malay language. They were brought back to Southeast Asia by his disciples to be used as textbooks in pondoks, or traditional Islamic schools.

Pondok schools have spread to Pattani, Kelantan and Kedah in the present-day Thai-Malaysian border region, and their impact should not be considered in the framework of the present nation-state borders. Pondok schools serve as places of preliminary education for study in Mecca. They are therefore also sometimes called the “verandahs of Mecca.” The academic networks between pondok schools and Mecca became active in the first half of the twentieth century; at a time when ordinary Muslims engaged more actively in Islamic practices.

This article aims to elucidate continuity and changes of Alevis and Alevilik (Alevi-ness, or Alevism) of the Turkish peoples who either transfer from rural districts to urban areas within Turkey or move from Turkey to Germany as transnational immigrants. By doing so, this article also aims to illustrate broader issues of religion and border crossing among these Turkish transcultural movers.

Data examined were collected from field research conducted in Turkey and Europe during the period of 1996-2018.

The Alevilik is an unclear concept which has been regarded both as a religion and a culture. This paper looks at how traditional Alevilik or Alevi-ness has established its place in urban and secular societies and communities that have multi-cultural traits, and where Islam or Christianity stand out as a mainstream social environment. The article also elucidates how Alevilik attuned to and adjusted to these societies and communities, where different peoples and various value-systems co-exist.

Alevis have experienced changes of “traditional” Alevilik in urban environments in the course of transborder and transboundary moving, and through interactions with different cultures. As a result, an urban or “city Alevilik” emerged. It is within this context of transculturality, transnationality, migration, and urbanization that religious networks of mutual aid have spread through religious associations among Alevi communities in urban Turkey and Europe.