An Indian yoga icon finds following in China

An Indian yoga icon finds following in China

BEIJING: When B.K.S. Iyengar arrived in China last week on his first visit here, he did not know what to expect.

He had vaguely heard of Chinese interest in yoga, and expected, at most, mild curiosity about his work when he reached the far-away southern industrial city of Guangzhou, where the 93-year-old yoga guru was billed as the star attraction in China's first ever “Yoga Summit”.

Mr. Iyengar instead arrived here to a passionate reception, and was left stunned by the wide interest in his teachings in a nation where he can now count more than 30,000 people as followers of his yoga philosophy.

“The response here,” he said, “has been unbelievable. I only came to realise after I came to China that even all my books have been translated and widely read.”

Yoga schools inspired by Mr. Iyengar's famous writings on the discipline have sprouted across 57 Chinese cities in 17 provinces, from Beijing and Shanghai to Harbin in the north and Chengdu in western Sichuan.

Mr. Iyengar lectured an audience of more than 1,000 yoga practitioners in Guangzhou, where the Indian and Chinese governments organised a first-ever joint yoga summit last week. “There were 1,300 students who listened with one ear,” Mr. Iyengar said. “It was a great success. They performed honestly, sincerely and with dedication.”

“I will not be surprised,” he added, “if China even overtakes India in yoga.”

This Tuesday, Mr. Iyengar's students performed demonstrations of yoga asanas before a crowd of more than 700 in Beijing, while he engaged them in a two-hour interaction that covered philosophy and even the mechanics of breathing. Questions from the Chinese audience ranged from the technical – “Can yoga help fight against schizophrenia?” asked one doctor — to the practical — “Why do I get dizziness when I meditate?” One yoga student complained: “I've been practising for seven years, but feel I can't improve.” Mr. Iyengar had little comfort for her. “I've been practising yoga for 76 years,” he said. “And I'm still learning.”

Among the crowd was Liu Yuan (22), who “got hooked” on yoga after coming across a Chinese translation of Mr. Iyengar's widely read book “Light on Yoga”. The popularity of yoga in China, she said, was, in part because it was “fashionable” among young Chinese. “But once I started learning seriously,” she said, “I began to enjoy it, and felt there were benefits both spiritually and physically.”

In Beijing, Mr. Iyengar found that a student of his had even set up a thriving yoga business. YogiYoga, a school founded by Manmohan Singh Bhandari, who had studied under one of Mr. Iyengar's students in Rishikesh, teaches his yoga philosophy in 57 centres across China. “There is tremendous following here for Guruji,” he said.

On Tuesday, Mr. Iyengar was presented with a commemorative stamp issued in his honour by the Beijing branch of China Post – an honour, he noted, that he hadn't even been given back in India. “What an honour for me that my country has not recognised me [in this way] but this country has! I express my gratitude for treating me as an icon of China, and I will cherish this throughout my life,” he told his Beijing audience.