Shih Chao-Hwei was born in Myanmar in 1958. She founded the Life Conservation Association to improve animals welfare and the Buddhist Hong-Shi College in Taiwan. She teaches in the Religion and Cultural Department at Taiwan’s Hsuan-Chuang University and is a spiritual mentor of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists along with the Fourteenth Dalai Lama Thich Nhat Hanh. She has published thirty-four books and has received the Chinese Literary Award for cultural discourse from the Chinese Literature and Arts Association, Taiwan, and Japan’s Niwano Peach Prize.