On Yahoo! Answers, there was a question posted asking "What do sikhs eat>??" and one of the answers was that there is an American Sikh woman whose sect is vegan, and they don't eat milk, eggs, etc. I am pretty sure the person posting this wasn't confused about definitions (eg. thought that the word "vegan" meant "no eggs in addition to no meat", since she explicitly wrote "no milk"). I was quite surprised by this because on the [www.3ho.org] page, it has a recipe for "ghee", which calls for "organic unsalted butter". On [www.3ho.org] it says, "A yogic diet is a balanced combination of fruits, nuts, vegetables, grains, legumes, and dairy products. A yogic diet is rich in proteins, vitamins and minerals and is based on what can be digested in 24 hours, which does not include meat, fish, poultry or eggs." Is there some breakaway sect of 3HO that rejects dairy? If so, do they also reject doing yoga on sheepskin mats, the horse hair in the chaur sahib (royal fan), and the leather kirpan (dagger) sheaths, and the butter-containing food that is offered at the prayer hall [en.wikipedia.org]? Is there ANY Sikh sect that is vegan?

A little off-topic, but can anyone remind me of the name of the guy or guys that were former students of Ching Hai who broke away and formed their own sect? I remember reading a long time ago about a Chinese man I think who used to be one of Suma Ching Hai's followers, but stopped to make his own thing. What was/is his/their name(s)?

Also, is there any NRM/cult that is vegan (not just vegitan)? Most cults that are vegetarian seems to follow lacto-vegetarianism. The German Christian cult of Gabriele Wittek called "Universelles Leben" had a follower who wore cashmere and they had some pesto in one of their catalogs that contained parmesan, and someone told me on a messageboard that they are against milk but not butter as butter doesn't contain animal proteins (just fat), so in their mind it is OK (illogical if you ask me - I think that is a ridiculous justification), but then they have a poster on their website that is anti-dairy, so I'm very confused as to where they stand on the dairy issue.

I'm not completely sure if the Black Hebrew Israelites are vegan or vegitan, since: "Their enlistment process was complicated by the community's strict vegan dietary traditions, which extend to wearing all-cotton clothes and a ban on leather shoes. The community agreed to comply with IDF requirements and the IDF agreed to allow Israelite soldiers to wear cloth shoes instead of army-issue boots; the congregation will forgo the stricture regarding cotton clothing." - [www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org] But I never come across pro-animal statements in their literature, (not that I've done extensive reading on them); I always got the impression from them that they were just into health, not into animal ethics. Do they also not purchase rodeo tickets, aquarium passes, zoo tickets, circus tickets, wool gloves, silk pajamas, fur coats, pearl earrings, bone buttons, horse race tickets, go on fishing trips, go on hunting safaris, buy cosmetics/toiletries/cleaners/detergents tested on animals or that contain animal-derived ingredients, etc. Or is it just food that has to be vegan-acceptable for them? If so, then they are vegitans, not vegans.

Ching Hai group are always vegetarian in the past, just very recently, their group started to promote vegan eating.

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hi....i can help clear up some mystery for you on the 3ho related stuff. first off, ghee is actually clarified butter, and is widely used across india by all religions. it's not always organic, in fact most commercial brands as far as i know don't claim to be organic at all. there are some sikhs who are vegitarian, but as far as i know, there is no real genuine sect that calls for you to be vegan. there was an edict passed in 1980 that said all sikhs, inculding baptised, which we call amrtidhari, are able to eat meat if they so wish. we are just not allowed to eat meat which has been killed in a slo, painful or religious ceremony based manner. all the fellow sikhs i know of do not reject leather products. also, real sikhs do not do kundalini yoga, as it's beliefs are against our religious practices. you can read more on the differences here - [forum.culteducation.com] as well as info here - [www.cultnews.com] and here [www.culteducation.com]. and if you'd like to know more about the REAL sikhs, sites like sikh.net (NOT SIKHNET.COM (because that site is headed by 3ho members who have brainwashed other ppl into following them, and is known for plagierising for their benefit.) you can also look here - www.sgpc.net, also, true sikhs don't follow anything 'yogic'. we shun yogi babas and other such stuff, along with the spirtual sounding hocus pocus of energy coming from the spne and healing your chakras or whatever nonsense drivvel they try to sell you. so do be aware of that too. i dont know about the other cults you listed, but i hope i've given you some insight into these 3ho people and their contrast to real sikhs.