Hill people live yoga day in day out

July 28th, 2006

I can recall my trip to the north eastern Himalayan state of beautiful and colourful tribes – Arunachal Pradesh, a decade or so back.

My friend and guide Bida Taku, an Arunachali, was an avid walker. He was always 10 steps ahead of me in our entire trek and had to bear with my slow pace while climbing the virgin forest hills. I actually envied his pace and his remarkable ability to sustain his climbs even if we were same age and had similar stature.

During my entire trip I wondered how he could do what I couldn’t, so asked him what his secret was. “I carry more oxygen in my blood than you even if we are equally strong”, Bida was candid in his explanation. I remember having wondered if there was something amiss with my blood.

I decided to get my blood tested once I was back home.

At the end of our trek, just as we were about to leave, Bida fell terribly sick. I had to take him to the hospital and had to postpone my departure for he had nobody to look after him. Since he was advised to go for some routine blood test I had an opportunity to look at the laboratory report.

To my surprise, his red blood corpuscles count was 17.5. The sceptic in me murmured – “I think you have some primitive laboratories which may have defective instruments or chemicals,” as I disbelieved the report completely.

Bida informed me that was not rubbish, for that was his actual RBCs count. He further told me that even his father had a similar count and his mother too had somewhere around 15 or so. People living in the mountain have much higher RBCs level. Whereas ordinarily healthy people living in the plains have their RBCs mostly in the range of 11-13.

A few years back I happened to discuss the subject with my teacher. It was not difficult to understand, as he explained. Adverse climb and difficult terrains of the hills were part of everyday life of hill people. They have had their quota of pranayama, the rejuvenating breathing exercises day in day out, since their childhood.

My teacher told me that his RBCs count was more than 17.

I had understood what Bida had said. He definitely carried more oxygen in his blood as he had much greater number of RBCs – red blood corpuscles are the carrier of oxygen; more RBCs mean more oxygen.

Bida had aptly given me the reason for my inability to keep pace with him during our treks. It was the reason I had refused to accept and it took yoga to show me what he meant.

Entry Filed under: Yoga