Taipei - Madan Kataria, the Indian founder of the laughter yoga movement that has spread all over the world, will visit Taiwan next month to promote it, his Taiwan sponsor said Monday. "We have invited Dr Kataria to visit Taiwan to promote the laughter yoga movement and to meet with members of local laughter clubs," Chen Ta-cheng, director of the Taiwan Laughter Yoga Club, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
He will arrive on December 4 and give two speeches during his week-long visit, Chen said. The club also plans to arrange a discussion on the benefits of laughter with Kataria and medical personnel, he said.
There are 12 laughter yoga clubs in Taiwan, whose members meet every day to practice laughter yoga - a routine of simulated laughter starting with "Ha Ha Ha, Ho Ho Ho."
A former physician in Mumbai, Katarai hit upon the idea of treating patients with laughter in 1995 and founded the first laughter yoga club.
His laughter exercise became so popular that it became known as the laughter yoga (LY) movement and there are some 6,000 LY clubs in about 60 countries.
While some people find Kataria's laughter exercise embarrassing or stupid, others believe it has physical and psychological benefits and is no laughing matter at all.
In 1998, Kataria designated the first Sunday of May each year as International Laughter Day.
Kataria now divides his time between running his Laughter Yoga International from Bangalore, and traveling abroad to promote the practice.
