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Your Downward Facing Dog is Scandinavian
The emblematic yoga posture, even known by non-practitioner.
Well… guess what? It’s not a traditional Indian posture! WHAT? YES! and here is the story.
Back in time, some postures like Gajāsana (elephant) in Hatha yoga were close to our well known Down Dog.
But the downward facing dog story seems to start in a book called Primitive Gymnastics by Niels Bukh, a Danish gymnast and educator. Niels wrote this method in 1924 and he even had a team touring the world with success to demonstrate it. Western countries were democratising new healthy physical practices with the rise of medicine and science and a fascination for strongmen and acrobats emerged too.
At the same time, Indian culture was also spreading, books, travellers and wars were moving around the globe and Niels’ book arrived in India in the 20s. In only one century the tradition of yoga evolved deeply into the different styles we practice nowadays. Niels influenced Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, one of most influential yogi of the century and teacher of B.K.S. Iyengar and K. Pattabhi Jois.
To complete the story, here is a little more about Niels Bukh that need to be mentioned. Niels’book was also very popular in Germany among Nazis in the 30s (his gymnastic fit the Aryan superiority theory). Niels himself was supporting Nazism, but after Denmark’s occupation, he became very unpopular. He also underwent a big backlash as his homosexuality was revealed. How did the guy manage to be a friend with the 3rd Reich and support them when his homosexuality was well known is still a mystery to me (he was living with his partner openly, family and friends were aware of his life).
So of course, my drawing here is not about supporting Niels’ ideas but to reveal more facts about the asanas. Downward facing dog seems to be deeply rooted in a much older traditional Scandinavian practice and this is what I wanted to visually acknowledge here, the origin and heritage of this contemporary yoga posture. Scandinavian people back in time might have observed some wild dogs stretching in the wild. And if you want to rewind even more, the wolves are probably the real teachers.