The SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies was delighted to bring together two internationally renowned scholars of Tibetan and Indian yoga, respectively, to discuss a groundbreaking new publication in the field: The Dawn of Physical Yoga: Dispelling the Hindrances of Immortality (2025. Napoli: Unior Press.) by Professor Giacomella Orofino. This is a recording of a live event, which took place on Monday, 29th September 2025.
Dispelling the Hindrances to Immortality belongs to a remarkable corpus of texts preserved in the Tibetan canon, ancillary to the Amṛtasiddhi, the earliest known Sanskrit source to articulate the foundational principles and techniques of a yoga system based on physical practice, later referred to as 'the yoga of force' (haṭhayoga). While the colophons within this corpus consistently trace the tradition back to the seminal figure Virūpa (Tib. Bir ba pa), the compilation of these materials is attributed to the mahāsiddha Yogeśvara Amoghavajra, a yogin from eastern India who was active in Tibet during the latter half of the 11th century—and who most likely authored the collection directly in Tibetan. Among these, Dispelling the Hindrances to Immortality stands out for its presentation of 108 dynamic physical movements, each designed to remove obstacles to the tantric Buddhist practice, according to the Amṛtasiddhi tradition. Strikingly, many of these physical postures resemble āsanas later codified in Indian haṭhayoga literature and foundational to both premodern and modern yoga traditions. This makes Dispelling the Hindrances to Immortality one of the earliest known manuals to document dynamic yogic postures.
Through a close and comprehensive analysis of this little-known text, the study offers fresh insights into the origins and early development of physical yoga. It highlights the rich and dynamic transmission of yogic knowledge across regional and cultural boundaries, shedding light on the deeply interconnected trajectories of tantric physical practices in India and Tibet. As such, it represents a rigorous and insightful contribution to the scholarship on the origins and cross-cultural evolution of haṭhayoga.
Giacomella Orofino is Professor of Tibetan Language and Civilization at the University of Naples "L'Orientale" and Director of the university’s Centre for Buddhist Studies, a space she helped shape to foster interdisciplinary dialogue around Buddhist philosophy, art, and literature. She also serves as President of AISTHiM, the Italian Association for Tibetan, Himalayan, and Mongolian Studies. Her research delves into the rich landscape of Tibetan religious history, with a focus on Buddhist and Bon tantric literature. Her latest book, The Dawn of Physical Yoga, explores early textual sources that shed light on the historical origins of physical yogic practice across Indian and Tibetan traditions.
Jason Birch (DPhil, Oxon) is a historian of South Asian traditions of yoga and medicine and Research Associate at SOAS University of London. He is well known for his important paper on the meaning of haṭha in early Haṭhayoga, which has reshaped our understanding of the origins of this term by locating it within Buddhist literature. Through extensive fieldwork in India and the reconstruction of primary sources, Birch has identified the earliest text to teach a system of Haṭhayoga and Rājayoga, namely the twelfth-century Amaraugha and has defined a corpus of Sanskrit and vernacular texts that emerged during Haṭhayoga’s floruit, the period in which it thrived on the eve of colonialism.
Ulrich Pagel is the Seiyu Kiriyama Professor of Buddhist Studies at SOAS University of London and Chair of the SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies. He served as Head, School of History, Religions and Philosophies (2018–2022). Previously he worked as Assistant Professor at the University of Washington (Seattle) (1997–1999) and the British Library (Curator of the Tibetan Collections, 1993–1997). He also served two terms as General Secretary of the International Association of Buddhist Studies (2011 to 2019) and lead the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies as Editor-in-Chief (2010 to 2016).
His research interests include Buddhist Meditation practices in India and Tibet, Mahayana sutra literature, the culture and organisation of Indian Buddhist monasteries and Indian Buddhism more generally. Since 2012, Ulrich Pagel has convened the MA Traditions of Yoga and Meditation at SOAS, both leading the programme and contributing extensively to its teaching delivery. He has published six books and numerous articles.
