Bikram Choudhury

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Bikram Choudhury (born 1946) is the founder of Bikram Yoga, also known as Hot Yoga, a copyrighted series of 26 hatha yoga postures that are performed in a hot (105 degrees Fahrenheit or greater) environment. Bikram is a disciple of Bishnu Ghosh, brother of Paramahansa Yogananda, (author of Autobiography of a Yogi). The Bishnu Ghosh guru lineage has focused on translating Eastern philosophies and practices into a language that is more closely attuned to the Western mindset than can be found within their original traditional Indian contexts.

Born in Calcutta, India, Choudhury won the National India Yoga Championship four consecutive years in his teens. As an adult he opened yoga schools in India and Japan, and in the early 1970s opened his first U.S. school near Hollywood, California. In the Nineties he began offering 9-week teacher certification courses, and certified instructors now number in the thousands with franchised ("Yoga College of India") studios all over the world. Generically known as "Hot Yoga," Choudhury's style done in a heated room remains prominent as the one of the most popular methods of yoga.

[edit] External links

• A brief biography of Bikram Choudhury
• The Money Pose, Mother Jones Magazine, Mar/Apr 2005.
• 'Yoga, Inc.', a documentary about the Bikram copyright case, 'competitive' yoga and the yoga industry
• Official Bikram Yoga website

Persondata
NAME	Choudhury, Bikram
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Yogi
DATE OF BIRTH	1946
PLACE OF BIRTH	Calcutta, India
DATE OF DEATH	living
PLACE OF DEATH	none