At 98, she is a poster child for yoga, wellness
hartsdale (United States) — She is the ‘World’s Oldest Yoga Teacher’ who, at age 98, still teaches five classes a week. But above all, Tao Porchon-Lynch is a poster child for health and positivity in a world obsessed by wellness and longevity.
The former model and Hollywood contract actress still has a delicate, slender physique.
Tao, as everyone calls her, grew up in India and lives in the New York suburbs, travelling the world attending yoga retreats. Stylish and fashionable, she zips from her Hartsdale home in Westchester County to the studio in a Smart car.
Once in the studio, she happily demonstrates yoga poses, even if she sometimes calls on one of her dedicated students to show off others. “Don’t be afraid,” she tells her class. “Don’t let others tell you what you can’t do.” She cautions her pupils against giving in to fatigue. “Breathe, feel this life force within you.” Students of all ages quickly become devotees.
Her life did not begin, however, in the most auspicious of circumstances.
Born on August 13, 1918 at the end of World War I, her mother died when she was just seven months old, and her father entrusted her to an uncle and aunt who brought her up in Pondicherry, then part of French colonial India.
She was raised a vegetarian. French and Hindi were her first languages. When still very young, she travelled to a number of countries with her uncle, who designed railway projects. At 12, she met Gandhi when he visited the family home, The onset of World War II saw her leave for Europe looking for her father, who was called up in France. She travelled to London where she performed Indian dances for American troops. It was there that she met Dietrich, who became a “very good friend.” After the war, she returned to France before travelling to the US in 1948.
She returned to America for good a year later and worked in Hollywood, under contract for MGM for several years.
In California, she became a yoga teacher. —