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. 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. 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.
Swami Narayananda
Swami Narayanananda, who hails from England, is a Yoga and Meditation teacher for 10 years in the US where he served at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm in California, the New York Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center, and the Sivananda Ashram in Woodbourne, Catskills, NY. He is presently the director of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center in Chicago.
Narayan Chaitanya
Narayan Chaitanya 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.
Ananta Chaitanya
Ananta Chaitanya graduated TTC in May 2009 and has stayed on as Staff ever since under the direction of Swami Sitarmananda. He spent 6 months assisting Vidya Chaitanya in Los Angles Center in 2010, then came back to take ATTC in June 2010 at the Yoga Farm. He spent 4 months teaching open classes at the SF Center in early 2011. And has been back at the Yoga Farm serving as Swami Sitaramananda's assistant since May 2011. He has taught many Beginner Yoga courses, Prana & Pranayam weekends, and has assisted teaching during TTCs.
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
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.
Machiko
Machiko, is a Japanese Sivananda Yoga teacher residing in Tokyo, Japan. She has been the Japanese translator and assistant during TTC in Vietnam in 2010, 2011, and 2012. She has been teacher/staff at the Yoga Farm, the yoga center in New York and the Ashram in Nassau, Bahamas
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.
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.
Ganga
Ganga My Hoang graduated from International Sivananda Yoga teacher training course 2009 and Advanced yoga teacher training course 2010 in Yoga Farm, Grass Valley USA. She is also a graduate of the "Yoga as Medicine", "Yoga Psychology", and "Ayurveda and Yoga Wellness" course. After a few months service at the Sivananda Yoga centers in San Francisco and Grass Valley she returned to Vietnam and assumes responsibility of directing the Sivananda Yoga Centre in Ho chi minh City.
Deviyani
Deviyani (Christine Ortalitz) is a Yoga teacher at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm, Grass Valley, CA, USA with a background in counselling and social work . She has been trained in techniques that help those with injuries or body limitations to be able to practice yoga asana through the use of props and modifications. She has completed training in chair yoga, as well as yoga psychology.
