A Harvard East Asian expert has compared Buddhist monasticism and the hippie movement in a letter to the controversial Avatar magazine.

The Chinese scholar, who asked to remain anonymous, is a member of the East Asian Research Center. He said yesterday that he foresaw the hippie movement in a book on Eastern religions written ten years ago. He had predicted, however, that it would follow a third world war.

The author said that the Buddhist monks permanently rejected wordly society. They then "provided a place for others to cop out temporarily."

An individual "got rest not merely for his body, but from his obligations, his competitiveness, and his values," the anonymous author said.

His letter, signed "from a friend," called on the hippies to provide an analogue in America as their "reason d'etre."