India Government moves to protect its yoga traditions

New Delhi - The Indian health ministry is documenting 1500 yoga asanas (postures) in an effort to counter instructors abroad from claiming patents on the ancient art. The documentation will be part of the ministry's Digital Traditional Knowledge Library along with formulas in traditional medicine.

Yoga is an ancient system of exercise, practised originally in Hinduism and now by people from every religion, aimed at attaining physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing.The library will have information in five languages - English, Spanish, French, Japanese and German, a government official said."The library will protect India's traditional knowledge base," said Ambumani Ramadoss, Indian health minister."Countries which sign an agreement with India will have access to the database. This will prevent Indians living abroad from claiming patents for existing formulations," added an official.He said the health ministry had received reports of self-proclaimed yoga teachers in the West trying to patent traditional yoga asanas and ayurvedic medicinal formulations."They try to name the asana after themselves by getting a patent. We will stop this," said the official.