CULTURE MINISTER SUPPORTS YOGA FESTIVAL IN BALI

Denpasar, Bali, Feb 22 (ANTARA) - Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik and Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika have given their support to the International Yoga Festival which will be organized in Bali on March 3-10, 2009.

"The Bali governor will open the international event while the tourism minister has agreed to attend a session of the festival which will take place in Kintamani," Chairman of the Bali-India Foundation, who is also the chief organizer of the event, Dr Somvir, said here on Sunday.
He said that about 200 yoga instructors from five participating countries, namely India, Germany, Sweden, Japan and Malaysia, would attend the international festival.
The yoga festival will be centered around the Sandhi Bajra Monument in Denpasar's Niti Mandala Reno area but other activities will also take place in the Ubud art village, Kintamani, Bangli and Klungkung.
The aim of the festival which will be held for the first time in Indonesia is to popularize yoga as a health and peace exercise.
"Themed 'Yoga for Peace and Health,' the objective of the festival is to familiarize yoga exercise for health and peace," Somvir said.
Somvir said that during the one-week activity, yoga instructors would actively give yoga courses which were good for health.
The yoga exercises are open to participants from other religious group who would like to maintain their health condition and to heal various diseases through the exercises.
"During the festival, the yoga instructors from foreign countries will instruct and train the participants with patience," Somvir said.
He added that that participants and instructors from other countries would also hold a series of meetings to discuss various matters related to yoga's worldwide development, and exchange information about the exercise.
Domestic and international painting and artistic statue exhibitions will also be held on the sidelines of the yoga festival.***