By Matters India Reporter
Denpasar, Bali: Over 500 people attended the Second Denpasar Yoga Festival at Istana Taman Jepun, Renon, Denpasar, July 29-30.
Denpasar is the capital of Bali, which is a Hindu-predominant Island, Indonesia.
“The two-day event was to promote Yoga among local people. The other purpose was to show case Yogo instructors who are spread over different parts of Bali province,” said Linda Anugerah, chairman of the organizing event, told Matters India.
Yoga has been a way of life for people of Bali for long. For last five years it is becoming popular. There were series of yoga classes and workshops, said Anugerha, a mother of two teenage children. She also a founder of Angel Heart Bali Foundation, an NGO based in Bali helping children, elderly and sick.
It was jointly organized by 16 yoga centers. In Denpasar there are more than 20 Yoga centers.
The first Denpasar Yoga Festival was held in 2016. “We hope to organize the event every year,” Anugerah added.
Matters India spoke to some participants who hailed the event.
“The event helped me to learn new techniques of Yoga,” said Emilie Bled (33), a French national, working at a local travel agency based in Denpasar. She has been practicing Yoga for last five years.
Bled has been travelled four times India, where she enhanced her knowledge on Yoga through reading and practice. “Before going to Yoga, I was introduced to Yoga back in France. Ever since, Yoga has been an interesting part of my life,” she said. She has lived for a sometime in Delhi and Bangalore four years ago.
“I do Yoga twice or thrice in a week in order to have a healthy life and experience vibrancy of energy for body and mind,” Bled said.
“Yoga healed my Asma. Because of breathing exercise, my sickness has been healed. Yoga is good for health. So I continue to practice it daily, and teach others too,” said Kadek Arimbawa, a Yoga instructor, who learnt Yoga from an Indian authored book.
He has his own Yoga school with 170 students in Sukawati area, Gianyar district, Bali.