Taipei - Madan Kataria, the Indian founder of the international laughter yoga movement, began a visit to Taiwan Thursday, hoping to spread his movement from Taiwan into China. "I am very happy to be in Taiwan. I hope the laughter yoga movement can spread from Taiwan to China. There is great potential in China," he told Deutsche Press-Agentur dpa.
A former physician in Mumbai, Kataria, 53, was invited by the Taiwan Yoga Laughter Club to visit Taiwan and meet with the group's members.
During the week-long visit, he will train leaders of Taiwan laughter clubs, make a speech on laughter yoga and meet Taiwan psychiatrists to discuss the benefits of laughter.
There are 13 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."
Katarai hit upon the idea of treating patients with laughter in 1995 and founded the first laughter yoga club.
His laughter exercise became popularly known as the laughter yoga (LY) movement and currently has some 15,000 clubs throughout India, and another 6,000 in about 60 countries.
Now based in the southern Indian city of Bangalore, Kataria divides his time between running Laughter Yoga International, and traveling abroad to promote the practice.
