Why Nepal Is Becoming a Global Yoga Destination

For decades the default answer to "where should I do my teacher training" was Rishikesh. That is changing, and Kathmandu is a large part of the reason. The first draw is lineage. Nepal has an unbroken tradition of Himalayan yoga and tantra, and much of it is still taught the way it has always been taught — teacher to student, in small numbers, without a marketing department in between. The second is the setting. Budhanilkantha sits at the foot of Shivapuri National Park, high enough above Kathmandu that the air is clean and the mornings are quiet, close enough that you can be at Boudhanath in half an hour. The third, honestly, is cost. A month of training, food and accommodation in Nepal still costs a fraction of the equivalent in Europe or North America — which means students can afford to stay longer and go deeper.