Bikram Choudhury
| Bikram Choudhury | |
|---|---|
 Bikram Choudhury at a book signing in New York in 2007. | |
| Born |
February 10, 1946 Calcutta, British India (now West Bengal, India) |
| Nationality | Indian, American |
| Occupation | yoga guru |
| Known for | Founder of Bikram Yoga |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Spouse(s) | Rajashree Choudhury |
Bikram Choudhury (born February 10, 1946) is an Indian yoga teacher and the founder of Bikram Yoga, a form of hot yoga performed in a series of 26 hatha yoga postures done in a hot (105 degrees Fahrenheit/40 degrees Celsius or greater) environment.
Life and work
Born in Calcutta, India, Bikram Choudhury began learning Hatha Yoga poses at the age of three. At five, he began studying with Bishnu Ghosh (Paramahansa Yogananda’s brother) and won the National India Yoga Championship for three consecutive years in his teens.[1]
Bikram created a 26 posture series, which he claims restored his health. The 105 degree heat in which Bikram yoga is practiced is, according to Choudhury, meant to mimic the climate of India.[1]
At age 20, Bikram claims he was in a crippling weightlifting accident. Although he claims was told he would never be able to walk again, with the help of Ghosh, he claims to have fully recovered within 6 months.[2] Choudhury emigrated to the United States in the 1970s and founded yoga studios in California and Hawaii.[3] In the 1990s, he began offering nine-week teacher certification courses. Certified instructors now number in the thousands with Bikram Yoga studios all over the world.[4]
Choudhury holds a copyright for the 26 poses which constitute Bikram yoga under the same theory which allows choreographic sequences to be copyrighted. In September, 2011, Choudhury filed an infringement suit against his former student, Greg Gumucio, founder of a competing chain of hot yoga studios. In June 2012, the United States Copyright Office (USCO) decided that since yoga poses claim to improve health, they are not eligible for copyright.[4] The USCO's decision, however, did not relieve Gumucio of the need to defend the lawsuit against him. In December, 2012, Gumucio settled the suit with Choudhury, agreeing to stop using the series of 26 poses by February 15, 2013.[5]
Bikram Choudhury is married to Rajashree Choudhury, founder of the United States Yoga Federation.[6]
Books
- Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class
- Bikram Yoga: The Guru Behind Hot Yoga Shows the Way to Radiant Health and Personal Fulfillment
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Erika Schickel (September 25, 2003). "Body Work". LA Weekly.
- ↑ Jordan Susman, Your Karma Ran Over My Dogma: Bikram Yoga and the (Im)Possibilities of Copyrighting Yoga, 25 Loy. L.A. Ent. L. Rev. 245 (2004)
- ↑ Joshua Kurlantzick (March-April 2005). The Money Pose. Mother Jones.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Rebecca Moss (July 19, 2012). "Bikram Choudhury Battles for Control of the Hot Yoga Tradition he Invented". LA Weekly.
- ↑ "NY yoga studio settles suit". Associated Press. December 13, 2012.
- ↑ Maria Howard (October 21, 2012). "USA Yoga Federation founder wants yoga to become an Olympic sport". Richmond Times-Dispatch.
External links
- Official Bikram Yoga website
- 'Yoga, Inc.', a documentary about the Bikram copyright case, 'competitive' yoga and the yoga industry
- Hot, sweaty and scandalous, Salon, April 2003.
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