{"id":18728,"date":"2026-07-05T14:21:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T12:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yogahel.com\/?p=18728"},"modified":"2026-07-05T14:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T12:24:16","slug":"the-strange-little-history-of-the-five-tibetans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yogahel.com\/en\/practice-tips\/the-strange-little-history-of-the-five-tibetans\/","title":{"rendered":"The strange little history of the Five Tibetans"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The strange little history of the Five Tibetans<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the world of yoga, useful movement practices often arrive wrapped in mythology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Five Tibetans story has all the classic ingredients: a mysterious traveller, a remote monastery, secret knowledge, ancient lineage, miraculous vitality, and a simple routine that supposedly unlocks it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sequence was first described in Peter Kelder\u2019s 1939 booklet The Eye of Revelation<\/em>. The story is of Colonel Bradford, whom the author supposedly met for the first time as a stooped grey-haired man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bradford learns the rites from lamas in a very remote part of Tibet, where he has travelled after listening to rumours of a \u201cFountain of Youth\u201d known to the lamas. He lives with the monks for two years, learns the 5 exercises and returns transformed, even his grey hair has darkened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no good evidence of these exercises being authentic Tibetan practices, let alone bringers of the fountain of youth. Physically, the exercises can be understood as calisthenic-style core, strength and mobility exercises, and some have argued that several of the movements resemble hatha postures that were already known in Western physical culture in the early 20th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story could be read as an early 20th century marketing device designed to popularise calisthenic movement. This is how many texts like this work – the myth gives the practice authority. Instead of saying \u201chere are some useful and fun strength and mobility exercises from the 1930s\u201d the mythical element gives the practice instant justification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, in yoga narratives part of the story often is that the source is unavailable. There is a very remote monastery, secret lamas, lost manuscript, maybe the ants ate the evidence. Any story becomes hard to disprove because the proof supposedly was seen by someone but is no longer available. At the same time hidden wisdom, transformation, and eternal youth are promises almost too good to ignore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing is, the story is fun and the actual practice is great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spinning, leg raises, backbends, glute strengthening, shoulder mobility exercises. All these things work toward real physical goals that can help support us moving well into older age: balance, core strength, mobility and coordination. Regular movement can also support circulation, metabolic health and general wellbeing, and in all honesty – health well into old age is maybe as close to eternal youth as we can realistically get.

You can try the Five Tibetans with us for the rest of July on Thursdays at 17-17:30.

– Minttu
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The strange little history of the Five Tibetans In the world of yoga, useful movement practices often arrive wrapped in mythology. The Five Tibetans story has all the classic ingredients: a mysterious traveller, a remote monastery, secret knowledge, ancient lineage, miraculous vitality, and a simple routine that supposedly unlocks it all. The sequence was first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18735,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-practice-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yogahel.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yogahel.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yogahel.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yogahel.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yogahel.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18728"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.yogahel.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18739,"href":"https:\/\/www.yogahel.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18728\/revisions\/18739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yogahel.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yogahel.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yogahel.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yogahel.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}