Mantak Chiaย (born in 1944 in Bangkok, Thailand) is a Taoist Master. He is best known for his teaching Taoist practices under the names of Healing Tao, Tao Yoga, Universal Healing Tao System and Qigong. Throughout decades of teaching, he has run numerous workshops, written a series of books, and published a number of training videos. For this reason, some people call him an author, a teacher or a healer. He views himself primarily as a teacher, "who helps his students empower themselves through cultivation of their qi energy." He established his first Universal Healing Tao school in Thailand in 1974, after systematizing his knowledge of Taoism. He founded the Universal Healing Tao Center (originally named the Taoist Esoteric Yoga Center) in New York in 1979. The center attracted a broad variety of European and American students, and some of them greatly helped him in teaching Taoist practices to western students. He returned to Thailand in 1994 and began to build the Universal Tao Training Center-Tao Garden-in Chiang Mai. His primary teaching programs are held in the Tao Garden, but he tours to Europe and North America annually to teach and promote the Healing Tao practices.