India's Yoga Ambassadors In Vietnam: Group Of Karnataka Youth Train Over 1 Lakh Vietnamese In 10 Years

The World Voice    01-Jul-2025
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Indias Yoga Ambassadors

 
After the inception of International Day of Yoga on June 21, 2015 on a UN resolution moved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India's gift to the world has gained international prominence with the demand for yoga teachers increasing all over the world. A group of such youth from Kundgola taluk, adjacent to Karnataka's Hubballi, is teaching Indian yoga in Vietnam, training more than one lakh people in the country as yoga guides in the last ten years.

The youth from Kundagol have turned into Yoga ambassadors in Vietnam and are busy conducting training, teaching, classes and camps in Ho Chi Minh City and neighboring cities of the country. The people who have been trained by them have now opened training centers of their own to carry on the yoga legacy.

Youth from surrounding villages in Kundagol including Chikkanarthi, Yarinarayanapura villages have been working as yoga teachers in Vietnam for the last many years. Rajiv Kumar Somaraddi of Chikkanarthi, Suresh Keri of Yarinarayanapura, Santosh Umachagi, Muthappa Umachagi, Devaraj Devadiga, Appu Parangi, Venkatesh, Iranna Mathada are among such yoga trainers in training earning their livelihood with yoga.

The young men said that they did not originally intend to become yoga guides. They studied yoga enthusiastically at the Sivananda Math in Kundgol and while studying in high school. Today, yoga has become their profession and a way of earning a living.

Rajeev Kumar Somaraddi, yoga trainer told ETV Bharat, "We practiced yoga at the high school level. Now many people from our area are providing yoga training here, so we have been providing training for the last 10 years, inspired by them. The cooperation and enthusiasm of the people here makes it a pleasure to work. 90 percent of the people here give importance to yoga. We also have a goal to do this in our country."

Suresh Keri, another yoga expert, said that the people in Vietnam have shown great interest in yoga.

“They start work by doing yoga every day. People with back pain and stress come in large numbers. They have given great emphasis on healthy living. So there are wonderful opportunities for yoga here. Indian yoga is a great blessing for us. We are competing with California yoga centers in Vietnam. Our students here participate in international competitions."

Rajeev Kumar's brother Sanjeev Kumar said he was proud that his brother was teaching yoga in Vietnam.

“Seeing my brother, four other people from our village are providing yoga training. Since they have been providing yoga training there for the last 10 years, our family's financial condition has also improved."
 

Rajeev Kumar's friend and Chikkanarthi villager Appanna Nadhap said, "Many youth from Kundagola taluk are yoga trainers in Vietnam. Especially in our small village Chikkanarthi village alone, there are five people. Rajeev Kumar Somareddy, Mahantesh Dyavanur, Annappa Bandiwada, and Ramanagowda Patil are five people. Similarly, about 110 youth in the taluk are yoga teachers in Vietnam. We as villagers are proud that people from a small village are going abroad and teaching yoga."

"They have learned yoga at the Harbat School and Sivananda Math in Kundagola and have found a livelihood from it. There are many more children in the village who are learning yoga. They too hope to become good yogis and make our village a yoga village," he added.