Indian yoga icon finds following in China

*There was mild curiosity in the beginning

*Now he is a star attraction

China: 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”.

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 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.

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,” 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, 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. The Hindu