Nine international yoga teachers participated in the festival. They came from Singapore, Tokyo, Australia, France, Canada, the United States and Indonesia. They also hailed from various schools of yoga: From the more traditional Hatha, the alignment-oriented Iyengar and the fast-growing American-founded school of Anusara, to the strict, alignment-oriented Iyengar, the flowing dance-like prana yoga and the powerful moving meditative practice of kundalini.

It was encouraging to see the enthusiasm of the students, who took part in the various yoga and healing workshops, which ranged from tai-chi, holistic aromatherapy and graphology (therapeutic handwriting) to music healing.

The healers included Reza Gunawan, a practitioner of holistic healing who taught Self Healing and – along with his wife, singer Dewi Lestari – the Gentle Birth Workshop; Nugdha Achadie, who taught the Japanese healing art of Jin Shin Jyutsu; and even taekwondo champion Ina Febriana Sari, who taught stretching, breathing and simple movements to build strength and apply force as well as for self-defense.

Half of the festival’s proceeds were donated to special foundations that will distribute it to various charity programs around Indonesia focused on and designed to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of its people.

The idea to host the event developed when the festival’s chairwoman and yoga enthusiast Anita Boentarman returned from the Bali Spirit Yoga Festival in Ubud earlier this year. She and some other teachers decided to organize the first ever yoga festival in Jakarta. They decided that in addition to yoga, they would make the festival a platform for healing sessions, featuring mainly local healers.

“Healing is such a part of the identity of this country,” Mexican-born Ines, the festival’s program director, told The Jakara Post.

“My experience with healers in this country has been amazing, there are so many types of natural healing, each region has their own wisdom,” added Ines, who has been living in Jakarta for the last seven years.

Music was also a big part of the festival where there was a bhajan or devotional music session.

Participants could also get involved in a “soul singing” session led by American singer-song writer Daphne Tse. Soul singing is said to be a powerful means to connect to our inner self and liberate our voices. Another workshop on healing through harp music was taught by Indonesian harp player Maya Hasan, while vocalist Ubiet held a workshop on how voices and sounds are produced.

As part of its charity, the donation-based community program held a prenatal yoga and “Kids Yoga” session.

In between the workshops there were film screenings, discussions on health and well-being, and an amazing performance by the Ali Sukri dance company, which combined pencak silat performing arts with dance and yoga moves. There was a bazaar of vendors selling yoga and healing-related products as well as vegetarian food.

Ines, whose background is in theater and dance, said the festival wanted to incorporate music and performance to give it a transformative feeling. Most importantly, the organizers wanted to give exposure to Indonesia’s gems both in healing and performance.

The nine teachers – Bo Srey, David Moreno, Franck Bessoles, Judy Krupp, Patrick Creelman, Rebecca Pflaum, Stephen Thomas, Olop Arpipi and Twee Merrigan –  addressed questions asked by the aspiring yogin and yoginis in the audience.

In their own ways, they talked about the importance of the real practice of yoga and yoga as a part of living, not just the pretzel poses that people know. The practice of yoga extends beyond the mat — bringing yoga to life.

At the end of the day, the message was simple, and was used as the slogan at the Namaste Festival: “If you can breathe, you can do yoga”. Namaste.

The writer is a yoga practitioner and teacher. Yoga Connection is a regular column on all things yoga, appearing every second week in The Jakarta Post. For questions and comments, please email her at dasmaran@indo.net.id.

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