In the West, when we think of Yoga, we tend to visualise a short meditation before class, standing on our heads against a wall and assuming various other seemingly impossible positions in order to become healthier. Like many other Eastern disciplines, Yoga as it is understood by the majority, seems to have become somewhat diluted by its contact with the 'First World'.

However, the all-embracing nature of this holistic practice, founded several thousand years ago in ancient India, involves much more than physical centering and the resultant health benefits, although these can be considerable. Traditionally, Yoga is a mental, emotional and spiritual as well as physical discipline which can heal and restore all four imbalances and lead to fulfilment through the confluence of body, mind and spirit.
Here in Chiang Mai, our community is fortunate in having a number of focused Yoga practitioners and teachers, not only in Hatha Yoga, (the physical and exercise form of the practice most often found in the West), but also in its more philosophical forms.

A recent, unique and most welcome addition to these ranks is Adriana Ovalle, who has come to our city through Chiang Mai University's Cultural Exchange Programme to help children with limitations who are patients at Suan Dok Hospital's psychiatric wing. A tiny, sparkling and intensely focused woman from South America, Adriana is thrilled to have the chance of passing on the healing wisdom of the Yoga she has studied and practiced for so many years.

After studying Yoga for ten years in her home country, Adriana left South America to study in India with disciples of the famous Yogic master, the late Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, who believed that the traditional healing aspects of Yoga were India's greatest gift to the world and whose life's mission was to heal physical, mental, emotional and spiritual problems through yoga therapy. She went on to study aspects of the Mandala with Tibetan monks and received instruction in Dharamsala from the Dalai Lama, also living and volunteering to share her expertise, love and compassion in the 'universal city' of Auroville near Chennai.

A dream made reality, Auroville is the very first experiment in human unity, with people of all races living together in peace and progressive harmony, above politics, creeds and nationality issues. Endorsed by UNESCO, its purpose is not just the transformation of consciousness, but also the conducting of much-needed research into sustainable living and the environmental, spiritual, cultural and social needs of mankind as a whole.

Shortly after Adriana arrived in Chiang Mai, she held an open class at Suan Dok hospital as an introduction for several volunteers who were preparing to help her in her work with the children. Expecting a 'Yoga class' as normal, we were surprised when we were shown online images of many beautifully-coloured and designed mandalas and given a brief history of their significance.

A fascinating and thought-provoking session followed in which we were taught how to design a mandala, given the coloured papers, crayons and other materials necessary and invited to make one! Once we had finished, Adrianna examined our efforts individually, giving amazingly accurate character readings taken from our designs and colours. From this exercise, it became obvious that the use of mandalas when treating the disturbed with yoga therapy is a great help in charting emotional changes within individuals.

Adrianna and her helpers will be working mainly with autistic children at Suan Dok, some resident and some day-care, and this will be the first time that Yogic healing has been used in this manner in Thailand. Western therapies are notoriously unsuccessful in dealing with autism, perhaps because most such therapies are focused on symptoms rather than underlying causes and often involve pharmaceutical drug treatments.

A mind-body-spirit therapy initially focused on the asanas (positions) of Hatha Yoga such as Adriana will use, together with fun activities such as swimming in Suan Dok's small pool must surely give a much better chance of realigning disturbed psyches. This will be a slow, carefully-monitored and developing process, administered with patience and the immense healing power of unconditional love.

Updates on progress, we hope, will follow.

Arthur, a graphic designer from San Francisco, arrived in Chiang Mai after an 18 month stay in Germany. A poster advertising the Chiang Mai University Language Institute’s Cultural Exchange Programme caught his eye, and confirmed his decision to stay in Chiang Mai, a town he’d quickly grown to love.

Arthur has always adored dogs and cats, and was already providing treats and cuddles for street dogs around town whenever he could, so the opportunity to work with Lanna Dog Rescue suited him perfectly. Working with elephants was briefly mentioned, but the thought of shovelling up tons of elephant dung…NOT!

Lanna Dog Rescue organises large-scale free sterilisations across Chiang Mai for stray dogs and cats. Anyone can bring them in for treatment, which is given by qualified personnel with regard to high standards of hygiene and anaesthesia. Volunteers regularly collect temple dogs and bring them in for this minor but essential operation. The aim of the mass sterilisations is to lower the number of stray dogs and cats in Chiang Mai without resorting to mass killings. Participants in the Chiang Mai University Cultural Exchange Programme are more than welcome to join in and help.

Lanna Dog Rescue mans booths at major events such as the recent Flower Festival in order to raise funds and increase local awareness of this persistent doggy problem. Importantly, the organisation is also working with local government officials to find solutions. Hopefully, this cooperation will result in Lanna Dog Rescue becoming a government-sponsored organisation, thus solving funding and other logistical problems.

As a result of his joining the Chiang Mai University Language Institute’s Cultural Exchange Programme, Arthur is also making himself useful at another Chiang Mai dog shelter, Animal Rescue Kingdom, (ARK) which works closely with Lanna Dog Rescue and cares for a large number of stray or injured street and temple dogs. He feeds, cleans and baths his charges once a week at ARK, and his duties at Lanna Dog Rescue include helping vets to clean wounds, helping out at events and, most importantly, playing with and socialising the dogs, all of whom love him!

Apart from doing all he can to help, his concern is the mentality that leads to dogs needing these services. The motto, ‘A dog is for life, not just for Christmas’, (including birthdays or any other festival), holds very true for this compassionate guy, who feels that education about the true meaning of keeping a pet and caring for it is the way forward.

The fertile plains of Phrao district, surrounded by the foothills of the Himalayas, are home to both Lanna Thais and a number of ethnic hill tribes living high in the forested hills. The majority of these proud people live far below the poverty line with reported incomes as low as 50 US cents per day.

Providing for a family is difficult enough; providing a good education for one’s children is close to impossible, especially for hill tribe parents who live in tiny villages many miles from the nearest school, with access roads closed during the wet season. Participants in the Chiang Mai University Language Institute’s Cultural Exchange program are hoping to make a difference, in conjunction with the Warm Heart Foundation, a grassroots NGO recently established just outside Phrao town.

The two organisations and their participants are working together to promote equal access to education for all local children, to encourage sustainable development via micro-finance and other programmes and to teach business skills in Phrao, one of the poorest districts in Thailand.

Two dedicated members of CMU’s Cultural Exchange Program are at present prioritizing the most urgent need for the mountain peoples’ school-age children, accommodation. Warm Heart’s compound is near the town’s main schools, a perfect location for a ‘village in the valley’ to house children from far-flung areas during the school year. The foundation is also providing, together with Cultural Exchange program participants, an after-school and Saturday curriculum including English, Thai, Math and Science classes as well as traditional dance and weaving,.

Bob, a highly experienced architect and Dean, an expert in horticulture and landscaping, have committed to costing, designing and supervising the layout of the complex and its new buildings, which will use traditional low-cost materials such as home-made sun-dried straw-bale/mud bricks and bamboo. Plans for the separate dormitories and facilities for boys and girls have been carefully laid out so that a breeze-flow is created in what will become the children’s own space, adjacent to the essential football field and a community building.

The project is a fascinating challenge for Bob, who arrived in Chiang Mai six months ago, and whose career included designs for the ultra-modern Hong Kong Science Park and the City of Dreams casino and hotel complex in Macao. Each eco-friendly building for his Warm Hands project will take six men just one month to complete! As Bob says, ‘Back to Basics!’ Dean, of course, can’t wait to make the entire complex green and beautiful!

A presentation of the project’s zoning plan and details of construction and materials has been made to Warm Heart’s founders, Michael and Evelind, although at present their time is taken up with the small school already in place on the complex and detailed discussion is proving difficult. Funding for the project is crucial, and may pose problems in the present economic climate.

‘Our children are our future’ – especially true in this impoverished area. With good educational facilities, accommodation and training in essential life and business skills for all in eco-friendly, traditional surroundings, the future for this beautiful valley and its diverse inhabitants must surely improve. The CMU Cultural Exchange Program will continue to provide whatever skills are needed to make it happen.

Sitting in a cafe on Huay Kaew Road, sipping hot chocolate and nonchalantly flipping through the Bangkok Post, my gaze was drawn to a poster advertising a one-year Cultural Exchange Program being offered through Chiang Mai University.

I had arrived in Chiang Mai two months earlier full of enthusiasm and a lust for culture and did not want to leave.  It was not my first time in Thailand, nor was it the first time I had fallen in love with the food and the people, but it was my first time in the Lanna region.  This time I was falling in love with the city and the lush mountain ranges.

Signing up for the program was easy; deciding what to sign up to was the difficult part.  Thai culture and language, teaching English to orphans, disadvantaged children, monks, disabled adults and young people, the list was endless.  My head was telling me ‘Thai culture and language’ - my heart was telling me ‘orphans’.

Grudgingly waking up one Saturday at the crack of dawn to get a bus to Phrao, 90 kilometres north of Chiang Mai, I wondered what on earth I was doing.  I'm not a morning person.  I don’t drink coffee.  The bus ride was one and a half hour's journey through lush green landscapes, rice paddies and small villages.

Hopping off the bus at the end of a long dirt road, we were met by two local children with dirty clothes and beaming smiles, offering to carry our bags to the school where they also lived.  Walking up the dusty dirt road surrounded by fruit trees and old wooden houses, bright blue roofs came into view.  We had arrived at the school.

A sea of children of all ages greeted us, waving and smiling widely, full of excitement and anticipation.  My heart leapt, and my tiredness at having to be awake so early disappeared.  A new day and a new experience had dawned.

Within the old city walls, in a beautiful 100 –year old building, is the only women’s prison in the North of Thailand. With around 2,000 inmates, many from disadvantaged and poverty-stricken backgrounds, this innovative facility strives to re-educate and train prisoners, giving them the expertise, confidence and positivity to make a success of their lives after their sentences have been served. Government support is insufficient, providing only 50% of running costs. Consequently, the many rehabilitation and educational programmes rely mainly on volunteers, both from the immediate community and from overseas. From teaching the English language to prisoners who are planning to work in the tourism industry, through cooking, massage, sewing, business and many other skills to designing and making jewellery and fashion items, the inmates need all the help they can get in reconstructing their lives.

At any one time there are approximately 2,000 female inmates serving time at the Chiang Mai Women’s Correctional Institution, the sole women- only prison in the North of Thailand, located in an historical 100- year old building within the walls of the old city.

Although space is at a premium, with up to 17 women sharing a cell, the prison is run as a forward- thinking reform institution which supports its inmates in a number of ways with the aim of reducing the likelihood of their re-offending. Personal counselling for depression and grief, help with safely rehoming their children until a sentence has been served, career and educational advice and training, courses ranging from basic literacy to a university degree and work which earns the inmates a small wage are all on the Institution’s agenda.

Vocational skills training is essential to help prevent re-offending by released prisoners and ensures that a living wage can be earned on the outside. Wages can either be spent in the prison, sent out to family or saved against a release date. Inmates are trained in sewing, embroidery, mechanics, wood carving, gardening, massage, beauty, computing, bakery and many other skills, mainly by volunteers and prison officers as government maintenance only covers food, medicine, sanitation, bedding, security and housing, a total of 50% of the prison’s running costs. Many prison officers have degrees in education, with local school teachers and university lecturers giving their time and expertise as well. Student prisoners have gone on to achieve degrees in political science, law, tourism, agriculture, food technology and various other specialities. Hill tribe women prisoners, often illiterate due to lack of educational opportunities, are helped to full literacy.

Grants to further the prison’s educational and training facilities are often given by international foundations and local business owners. A Japanese foundation donated hundreds of sewing machines, resulting in a contract being signed with a Lamphun clothing manufacturer. The prison’s massage centre, staffed by trained women, attracts a good number of paying customers, and the coffee shop in the grounds provides experience for women who are studying catering. A plant and flower business in Kam Tieng now orders cutting from the prison gardens, having been impressed by the care taken by prisoners of the Canna flowers on display at the facility. The many available programmes ensure that the women feel pride in their achievements and their ability to earn money, and help with the provision of rehabilitation support.

Before release, a six-month period of readjustment to the outside world is implemented, with prisoners being allowed to work outside the secure areas in, for example, government offices or shops close to the prison. The aim of the programmes in their entirety is to give women offenders a sense of their own worth, self reliance and capabilities in order to enable them to succeed in their objectives once they leave the sheltered environment behind the prison walls.

So you want to take a break in a warm, friendly environment a long way from the stress-saturated streets of your homeland! Or, you’re already living in Thailand, with time on your hands and help in your heart? You have skills, whether work or hobby related, you’re not a beach-bum and you’d rather ‘give and receive’ in a place where local people, their families and their economies can benefit from your skills. At the same time, you’d like to learn about a fascinatingly different culture, its history and its traditions.

Sounds as thought the Chiang Mai University Language Institute’s Give to Receive Program is just what you need, doesn’t it! But...why Chiang Mai? Why notsomewhere else just as warm, friendly, interesting and needing your input?

Chiang Mai, the Northern Thai ‘City of Roses’, is unique in many ways. Founded by the great King Mengrai in 1292 a.d, it is still the centre of the ancient Lanna Kingdom, although the incorporation of Lanna itself into Thailand, (Siam), began in 1875, ending in 1939 with the death of the last Lanna prince, Jao Kao Norawat. Lanna culture and many of its traditions still survive, and the Lanna identity is preserved and highly valued by the many different ethnic groups which make up the region’s population.

A mainstay of the area’s economy is tourism, together with agriculture and the local manufacture of traditional goods aimed mainly at the visitor and export markets. With traditional tourist numbers at an all-time low, the province is turning to eco-tourism as an attraction, and needs help not only with the projects themselves but with the training of guides in the English language.

Agricultural incomes have been falling for some time, due to increased competition from China and other south-east Asian growers. There are also problems with the operation of the government’s guaranteed price scheme, resulting in many local growers being forced to sell their land and return to it as hired labourers. Much land in the area has been over-used or damaged by indiscriminate use of chemical fertilisers. As a result, a recent development is the popularity of organically grown vegetables and fruit, with smallholdings going back to traditional methods of preparing and maintaining their land.

The global recession and the currency exchange rate has hit not only the tourism industry, but also the many local communities which manufacture traditional products, with orders from abroad being cancelled as a result .These small co-operatives need advice on marketing, exporting, increasing sales and updating their products.

The city itself is an amazing mix of traditional and modern, with a huge number of Buddhist temples crowding side by side with high rise 5 star hotels, small guesthouses, innumerable restaurants and entertainment venues. Many of the temples date back to the founding of the city; others, built or renovated during the Burmese occupation, show strong Burmese architectural influence. The old city, enclosed by a moat and city wall (restored in 1800 a.d.), is a warren of tiny streets with fine examples of traditional teak houses dotted amidst boutique hotels and monuments.

Transport is easy, with songthaews, (small red ‘buses’ strongly resembling trucks) and tuk-tuks, (tiny three-wheeled, noisy, gas-fuelled people-carriers), providing for most needs. There is a municipal bus service, but waiting times are long and routes are restrictive. A recently introduced metered taxi service is proving useful, especially for those who live out of town.

Shopping opportunities cover all needs, from the bustling local markets all over town and in the suburbs and country districts, through modern superstores and shopping malls to upmarket shops aimed mainly at the expat sector. Eating out varies from high-society Thai/Western fusion and French restaurants through Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, organic and vegetarian outlets to traditional Thai outdoor eateries and the numerous food stalls along main streets, where one can buy a delicious rice or noodle based Thai meal for 25 baht. Something for everyone! Cafes and coffee shops are everywhere, with prices varying according to location.

Special features in the city include the two must-visit weekend ‘Walking Street’ markets, selling everything and anything in glorious, colourful profusion. The larger is the Sunday Walking Street, held on Rachadamnoen Road in the old city, which also features traditional Lanna and hill tribe musicians and dancers. The smaller is held Saturday evenings along Wualai Road just outside the moat in the heart of the silversmiths’ village. Don’t bother with the admittedly famous but now very tired, relatively expensive and ‘touristy’ Night Market…anything you need can be bought more cheaply and with much more enjoyment in the Walking Street markets.

Festivals, both local and city-wide, abound, from the famous annual Loi Krathong, Songkran and Flower Festival celebrations through local Buddhist events to spectacular parades and religious ceremonies held by local ethnic groups. Most are linked to the Buddhist calendar, and all welcome visitors. City museums provide a fascinating glimpse into the varied history of the region, its traditions and its arts.

So that’s ‘Why Chiang Mai?’- a unique and ancient culture surviving in spite of the inevitable incursion of the modern world. A culture that its welcoming people value and protect and are more than happy to share with visitors. A laid-back, charming place in stunning natural surroundings, where you will be able to ‘give and receive’ in a way you will never forget.