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Ching Hai
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=== International organizations === [[File:Supreme Master Ching Hai Int'l Asso Publishing 20131120.jpg|thumb|The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association Publishing Co. was founded on 1st Fl., No.236, Songshan Rd., [[Xinyi District, Taipei]], [[Taiwan]].]] Ching Hai has founded organizations including the Supreme Master Ching Hai International, World Peace Media, Oceans of Love Entertainment and [[Supreme Master Television]]. In late 2008, Ching Hai launched a media campaign in Australia and New Zealand asking people to "Be Green, Go Veg, Save the Planet".<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/bleak-days-at-cape-grim-as-beef-bashed/story-e6frg6ox-1225791165315| title = Bleak days at Cape Grim as beef bashed | work= [[The Australian]]| date = 26 October 2009| access-date = 15 December 2009}}</ref> The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association has made submissions to the [[Garnaut Climate Change Review]], advocating large cuts to livestock production. Hai is in favor of a [[meat tax]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 December 2011 |title=Go vegan, save the world |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/go-vegan-save-the-world-20150429 |access-date=2023-06-11 |website=[[News24 (website)|News24]] |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Animal-people Meat Tax Is Critical for a Vegan World - English |url=https://suprememastertv.com/en1/v/203171981606.html |access-date=2023-06-11 |website=suprememastertv.com |language=en-US}}</ref> According to political scientist Patricia Thornton at the [[University of Oxford]], the Ching Hai World Society's heavy reliance on the internet for text distribution, recruitment and information-sharing, marks the group as a transnational [[cybersect]].<ref name=thornton08/> Thornton claimed that the source of income behind Hai's numerous business ventures is unknown<ref name=thornton08/> and that much of the media produced by her television programmes is heavily self-referential and promotional and aims to "build a public record of recognition for group activities."<ref name = thornton08/> Anthropologist Saskia Abrahms-Kavunenko at [[Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies]] stated that similar to the [[Ravi Shankar (spiritual leader)|Ravi Shankar]] movement, Ching Hai's group generally does not self identify as a religion and are very [[ecumenical]]. Abrahms-Kavunenko has also noted that while in the field in [[Mongolia]], Hai's group especially via ''[[Supreme Master Television]]'' 24 hour broadcast is influencing many Buddhists ideas on meditation and enlightenment, even though they are not sure of the authenticity of her claims.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Abrahms-Kavunenko |first1=Saskia |title=Enlightenment and the Gasping City: Mongolian Buddhism at a Time of Environmental Disarray |date=2019 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-3766-4 |pages=187, 193 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-KEDwAAQBAJ&q=+%22ching+hai%22&pg=PA193 |access-date=3 February 2020 |language=en}}</ref> In ''Prominent Nuns: Influential Taiwanese Voices'' ([[CrossCurrents]] 2011), Religious studies [[Research associate]] Jennifer Eichman of the ''Centere of Buddhist Studies'' at [[SOAS University of London]] summarizes: While to some, Ching Hai's movement is considered Buddhist [[Heresy]] and to others a [[New Age]] religious organization. Accusations of being a [[Cult]] group have been made repeatedly over the years, especially in newspaper articles and by cult watchers. Ching Hai's response to this accusation is that participants were free to leave at any time.<ref name=eichman/> In Eichman's own view, as infuriating as Hai's persona, her materialism and unsystematic religious synthesizing is to the Taiwanese Buddhist community and to others who have called her a cult leader, when her Buddhist roots are set aside and her work is compared to that of an ever-changing array of self-made gurus, spiritual guides and newly formed religions that make up the New Age marketplace, it becomes evident that Ching Hai's work is neither the most radical nor innovative. She states that the controversies swirling around Ching Hai should not stop us from noting just how gutsy it was for her to strike out on her own, and with her unusual prominence as a female spiritual leader, Ching Hai in effect demonstrates her ability to compete in a spiritual arena dominated largely by men. And we should be open to the idea that not all female leaders will remain within the religious mainstream.<ref name=eichman/>
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