Word: suma
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...bring Suma Ching Hai into focus, imagine Martha Stewart as the Dalai Lama. The Supreme Master, 46, is an elegant hostess--and clever merchandiser. At a vegetarian dinner with a TIME correspondent last week in Alhambra, California, she wore a bright yellow dress that she designed herself--embroidered with the Supreme Master monogram (SM) and available to followers by catalog. When she gestured with her hands, she flashed gold and diamond rings with the SM design, part of her Celestial Jewelry collection--available by catalog as well. (Also for sale: Celestial purses, hats, gold dinnerware, chopsticks, inspirational videos, floor lamps...
...moment, Suma Ching Hai is more than divine: she is controversial. Late last year, officials of Bill Clinton's legal-defense fund rather shamefacedly disclosed that they had returned a donation of more than $600,000 from the followers of the Taiwan-based mystic, adding to the President's "Asian money" scandal. Nevertheless, the Supreme Master remains a fervent Clintonite. "The poor man," she says, erupting in his defense. "You must respect his office. How can he solve America's problems if he is distracted? He's in debt. He's a suspect. This is terrible." She knows what...
That was a wise move. By June the fund's private investigators determined that much of the money had been raised under the auspices of the Suma Ching Hai International Association, a Taiwan-based Buddhist sect that claims 100,000 followers in the U.S. The donations appear to have been generated at Ching Hai meetings in several U.S. cities, where followers were urged to contribute to the Clintons' defense fund. Some members gave directly; the Washington Post reported that others were told contributions would be made in their name. Trie's ties to the group are a mystery, but then...
Yoshio Miyoshi, 34, currently housed at the East Suma elementary school, has had enough of stoicism. ``We're partly to blame because many of us have not prepared for earthquakes,'' he says, shaking his head. ``But everyone here is surprised that we've had so little help. Many had to watch our homes burn down with not a fireman in sight. Then we have to go without food or water because the authorities are so disorganized...
...killings have been on such a scale that the disposal of the corpses has created a serious sanitation problem in East Java and northern Suma tra, where the humid air bears the reek of decaying flesh. Travelers from those areas tell of small rivers and streams that have been literally clogged with bodies; river transportation has at places been impeded...