About Bikram Choudhury

Bikram Choudhury (born 1946) is an Indian yoga guru and 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.

Olympic Medalist Misconception: There is a rumor among some of Bikram's most noted students that he "won a gold medal in weightlifting at the 1964 Olympics". This information is entirely false (he has never won any Olympic medals). [http://www.olympic.org]