Modi (centre) participates in a mass yoga session along with other practitioners to mark International Yoga Day at the Forest Research Institute (FRI) in Dehradun. — AFP photo
NEW DELHI: Downward-facing dogs, cobras and warriors sprouted all over Asia on Thursday, including high in the Himalayas, up in the air and under the sea, for International Yoga Day.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose proposal for the global event won UN approval in 2014, led the way, performing his asanas with over 50,000 others in the northern city of Dehradun.
People there gathered at a sprawling forest research institute – snakes and monkeys were removed in advance – as far as they eye could see before dawn for the communal session involving the yoga-mad premier, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
“Instead of dividing, Yoga unites. Instead of further animosity, Yoga assimilates. Instead of increasing suffering, Yoga heals,” Modi said on Twitter.
Other gatherings took place across New Delhi with 10,000 enthusiasts registered as well as more than 5,000 events across from the country including in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Patna.
In Tokyo, around 80 people – mainly in their 60s and 70s – took part in a special yoga session in the Zojoji Temple, the two-storey red shrine in the shadow of Tokyo Tower.
Some 300 yogis stretched out on colourful mats for a dawn practice in a park in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, with the glittering Shwedagon Pagoda as a backdrop.
Interest in yoga has surged in Myanmar over the past decade, as the country’s growing middle class catches up on global trends once kept out under isolated military rule.
“Now yoga is popular around the country,” yoga teacher Khin Mg Swe, 69, who organised the event, told AFP.
Other events were scheduled around the world later, including in Kilkenny in Ireland, in Milan, Italy and in Times Square in New York.
Other cities, however, held their yoga day earlier than June 21 – the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere – including in Paris, Seoul and in Durban, South Africa last weekend.
Yoga has boomed in recent decades, with millions – perhaps up to 300 million – practising it regularly, although in the West it is often more of a gymnastic than a spiritual activity. — AFP