From India, with love: Thousands take to Yoga in China's home of Tai Chi

Yoga has taken the birthplace of Tai Chi by storm.

Ahead of the June 21 International Yoga Day, thousands of Chinese have descended on the home of Tai Chi, the traditional Chinese martial art and exercise, for what is being described as the biggest ever yoga event held outside of India.

A five-day yoga camp that opened on Saturday in Dujiangyan, an ancient city in southwestern Sichuan province that is also the birthplace of Taoism, will attract close to 5,000 Chinese yoga practitioners in a reflection organisers said of the rapidly growing craze for yoga in China.

"This is a unique event that brings together Yoga and Tai Chi, and also we hope brings a closer cultural connect between India and China," Zhao Wenqiao, an official in the Dujiangyan Communist Party committee which hosted the event, told India Today.

India has arranged for a dozen top yoga gurus to take lessons over five days, said Sailas Thangal, the Consul General of India in Guangzhou which helped organise the event. "I would think this is one of biggest yoga festivals being held outside of India as we mark the second international yoga day this year," Thangal said.

YOGA BOOM IN CHINA

Among the hundreds of young Chinese practitioners was Elsa Jing, 23, from Guizhou province. "Yoga has changed my life, I feel healthier, I fall ill much less frequently, and I also feel more at peace with myself," she said, adding that many of her age had similarly turned to yoga as a source of relief from the pressures of fast-paced life in China.

"Doing yoga can change you as a person, and that happened to me," added Zheng Yuxin, 25, from a town called Yubin in Sichuan.

The Chinese students followed with rapt attention at a morning lesson by Iyengar Yoga teacher Zubin, a student of the famed yogacharya BKS Iyengar whose books have wide following in China.

SIMILARITIES BETWEEN YOGA AND TAI CHI

"There are a lot of similarities between yoga and Tai Chi, and that has also helped in spreading yoga's popularity here," he said. "I visited last year and I can see that year after year the number of enthusiasts is growing very fast."

In China, the passion for yoga has also become big business, leading to concerns among some teachers that standards may suffer as hundreds of yoga schools have mushroomed to cater to demand.

"Yoga is definitely a growing art in China," said Zubin. "But I reminded them that just as Confucius said, a superior person knows what is right, an inferior person knows what will sell. So it is important for the Chinese student to recognise this, and we hope to also use our lessons here to teach them this."

By bringing teachers to China, India is hoping to fill that void and to also build on what has become a powerful cultural link between India and China.

"We are happy to see that yoga is spreading like wildfire in China," said Thangal. "It is really heartfelt for any Indian to see that yoga is finding a second home in China".

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