ஹாங்காங்கில் முதலாவது மிகப்பெரிய ஆசிய யோகா மாநாடு நடைபெற இருக்கிறது.

ஹாங்காங்கில் முதலாவது மிகப்பெரிய யோகா மாநாடு Evolution Asia Yoga Conference நடைபெறுகிறது.
இதில் 32 யோகா ஆசிரியர்கள் 1600க்கும் மேற்பட்ட சீடர்களுக்கு பயிற்றுவிக்கிறார்கள்

வாழ்க வளர்க

Yogis descend on HK for first major Asia conference
Mon Jun 4, 2007 4:16 PM IST
Printer Friendly

By John Ruwitch

HONG KONG (Reuters Life!) - U.S.-based yogi David Swenson started his afternoon class on the final day of a four-day yoga conference in Hong Kong with a question.

"How many of you are tired?" he asked.

Hands shot up, nearly one for each of the 70-plus people sitting on mats in rows for the three-hour yoga session.

"You have to be careful sometimes when you go to these conferences," said the renowned yoga teacher. "It's a little bit like a buffet ... then you can have a yoga hangover."

His warning is one more and more people in this region may have to heed as the fitness trend that has exploded in popularity in the West rapidly gains ground on its home turf - Asia.

At the Evolution Asia Yoga Conference, the first of its kind in the region, 32 yoga experts from around the world taught scores of classes. More than 1,600 attendees sat in on an average of six classes each, according to the organisers.

In a conference and exhibition centre in the heart of Hong Kong, yoga products, from the basic rubber mats and spandex capris, to sandalwood soap and mother-baby DVDs were available.

Pairs of limber people did "acroyoga" demonstrations, combining acrobatics and yoga.

Toned women and men, most in flip-flops and yoga gear, toted their rolled up mats to and fro. Conference rooms normally lined with exhibition stalls or rows of chairs were emptied and the air conditioning turned off for the meet.

THE NEXT LEVEL

Yoga conferences are common in the West. In the United States the Indian health and spiritual trend now has more than 16 million followers.

But in some parts of Asia, it is just starting to take off.

Colin Grant, organiser of the conference and CEO of the Pure Group, which runs what he said is the biggest yoga studio in the world at 35,000 sq ft, estimates that 1 to 2 percent of Hong Kong's 7 million people are now into yoga, but the number is growing.

Five years ago there were about five studios; now there are about 60, he said. It has also been growing in popularity in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

"What we wanted to do was to take it to the next level, which was to show to all the students in Hong Kong and the region that there's way more to yoga," said Grant.

"This is the first time it's happened in Asia. Two-thirds of the people that ended up coming have never been to a yoga conference before."

Will Senn Lau, a sinewy 40-year-old television commercial producer who plans to become a yoga instructor, got into yoga to lose weight five years ago. "Now, the whole thing is turning inward," he said.

Lau said the conference was a good way to find new students and meet top teachers, like Swenson.

"In the yoga world, they are like rock stars," he said.

South Korean studio owner Christina Choe, 32, brought eight of her teachers to Hong Kong for the conference.

"When you are teaching all the time and you are in your own little world, it's good to see other teachers and become reinvigorated," she said.

"You bring that energy back to your students."