Swami Sitaramanda
Swami Sitaramananda originally came from Vietnam and is a Yoga and Meditation teacher for more than 25 years. She is presently the main teacher of the International Sivananda Yoga Teachers Training Courses offered at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm, Grass Valley, California. She has served as the director for 15 years. Prior to coming to Grass Valley, Swami Sitaramananda was director of the Yoga Center in San Francisco and was assistant to Swami Vishnu-devananda for 6 years in Canada. She also teaches at other Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Ashrams & Centers in India, Nassau, Bahamas, Asia, and is the supervisor of the San Francisco and Los Angeles Yoga Centers. Swami Sitaramananda holds a PhD degree from Open International University for Alternative Medicine and a MA and BA degree from University of Montreal. Her lectures are based on the four classical paths of yoga as well as the 5 points of Health. Swami Sitaramananda's native country is Vietnam. She returned to visit Vietnam after 35 years of teaching yoga in Canada and the US, and was impressed by the beauty of the country and the peacefulness and warmth of the people. She is also aware of how yoga will benefit the developing Vietnam, whose cities are crowded and whose people are eager to learn the way to deal with stress and experience health and peace of mind. Swami Sitaramananda has taught many yoga retreats in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Hoi An (Central VN), Da Lat and Vung Tau. The attendants were a mixed group of Internationals from all countries, Vietnamese of all ages, and Taiwanese. After living for most of her life in Indian Yoga Ashrams, in America and in India itself, Swami Sitaramananda discovered that her birth country was historically influenced by the Indian tradition. About 2/3 of the southern part of the country was the Cham kingdom for 10 centuries from the 5th to 15th Century. The Cham Tradition was originally influenced by Indian culture and was worshipping Lord Siva, the symbolic deity of Yoga. Thus, there are the presence of many temple ruins and statues. Since 2006, Swami Sitaramananda has organized tours to visit the Cham temples in Central and South Coastal area of Vietnam.
Swami Pranavananda
Swami Pranavananda, hails from the USA, and has been a Yoga and Meditation teacher for 16 years in the US, and is the main Hatha Yoga teacher at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm in California. He was the director of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers in Los Angeles, CA and San Francisco, CA for a few years. He is teacher of anatomy in the Yoga Teacher's Training Courses.
Mahadevi (Nicola Skop)
Mahadevi (Nicola Skop) hails from Germany. She is a long-time Sivananda Yoga teacher with 10 years of experience teaching in USA, India, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam and Germany. She had her training in Grass Valley, CA and has been traveling with Swami Sitaramananda as her assistant for many years. She has been the director of the Yoga Shala, a yoga center dedicated to teaching the Sivananda tradition in Hanover, Germany, for many years. She is graduated as Yoga teacher from the Sivananda Yoga Teachers Training Course (TTC) at Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm, Grass Valley, Advanced TTC from Sivananda Ashram in South India and "Sadhana Intensive Course" from Chateau du Yoga Sivananda at Orleans, France. Mahadevi is a very dedicated and genuine practitioner of the tradition and a well-liked asana teacher. Visit her website at www.yoga-shala.org
Narayan (Ronny Joe Grooms)
Narayan (Ronny Joe Grooms) is a certified Yoga Teacher, who has completed his Yoga Teachers Training course Certification at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm in 2008 and has been assistant director at the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center in San Francisco for 2 years. He is an experienced Classical Hatha Yoga teacher and is also a Ayurveda Yoga Therapist with training in India. His background prior to being a full time Yoga teacher is to work as a Visionary Artist. Narayan holds a Master of Fine Art in Art & Consciousness, awarded by John F. Kennedy University in Berkeley, USA. He has multicultural experience and is an enthusiastic and articulate teacher.
Sankara (Clement Lam)
Sankara (Clement Lam) is a Yoga therapist and teacher hailing from Hong Kong, presently residing in an island community near Vancouver, Canada. He has graduated from the Yoga Teacher Training course in Woodbourne, NY in 2006 and the Advanced Yoga TTC in Grass Valley in 2010. He is also a skilled therapist with credentials in Ayurveda Yoga Therapy and in Thai Yoga Massage therapy at the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres. He is an energetic and enthusiastic teacher who is dedicated to the Science and Arts of Yogic Healing.
Theresa Tram
Ms.Tram Nguyen (Theresa) took the Yoga Teachers Training course in Grass Valley, CA in 2006 and the Advanced Teachers Training course in South India in 2008. After her graduation, she enrolled as a volunteer staff serving as a Yoga teacher for almost one year in the USA, at the Sivananda Yoga Ashram in Grass Valley and also the Sivananda Yoga Center in Los Angeles. She currently teaches Sivananda Yoga in Ho Chi Minh City at different locations. She will be the Vietnamese consultant for the course.
Shyam Das (Tuen Ping Yang)
Shyam Das (Tuen Ping Yang) took the Yoga Teacher's Training Course and the Vedanta Course in Grass Valley, California at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm under Swami Sitaramananda. He has been instrumental in bringing 60 Taiwanese to the Yoga Farm for a Yoga Retreat as well as another group to Da Lat, Vietnam. Shyam Das has authored many books on Yoga and is a very dedicated yogi intent on serving the Chinese and Taiwanese community with the gift of Sivananda classical teachings of Hatha Yoga and Yoga Philosophy. He was a consultant for the Chinese Yoga Association in Taiwan. Shyam Das is originally from China, and currently resides in Los Angeles, CA, where he has worked as a film director. Shyam Das will be assisted by other Taiwanese translators.
Padma (Pham Thi Minh Phuong)
Padma has been a yoga practitioner since 2006, and took the Sivananda Yoga teacher’s training course in South India in 2008. After graduation, she taught yoga at Women Cultural House at HCM city in Viet Nam. She has opened a Sivananda Yoga studio above her home and has taught many students daily since then. She will be the Vietnamese consultant for the course.
