Acrobatic asanas were the order of the day on Thursday as events marking the fourth International Yoga Day were organised in many countries around the world. From soldiers striking yoga poses in the Himalayan snow to religious leaders standing on their heads, the global event offered several picture-worthy moments.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Yoga Day celebrations at Forest Research Institute in Dehradun, where he performed asanas with an estimated 50,000 people. He said yoga is inspiring people everywhere “from Dehradun to Dublin and Jakarta to Johannesburg”.

“Yoga Day has become one of the mass movements for good health and well-being,” Modi said at the event. He asserted that yoga was the “perfect solution” to all the problems people face every day. “Yoga binds together a person’s body, brain and soul, hence making one experience a feeling of peace,” Modi added.

In 2015, the central government held Yoga Day celebrations for the first time on June 21. India had proposed naming the day International Yoga Day at the United Nations, which was taken up by 177 nations.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi performs yoga in Dehradun. (Reuters)
A yoga event at the United Nations headquarters in New York. (Global Goals/Twitter)
Around 60,000 people gathered to practice yoga at the Race Course Grounds in Mysuru – "probably the largest gathering in the world today", according to the government. (PIB Karnataka/Twitter)
A religious leader performs yoga on International Yoga Day at Kamakhya temple in Guwahati. (Anuwar Hazarika/Reuters)
School children sit as they form the word "Yoga Day" in Chennai. (P Ravikumar/Reuters)
Revellers welcome the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge in the United Kingdom. (Toby Melville/Reuters)
The Yoga Day programme in Dehradun led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (Narendra Modi/Twitter)
Ministry of Tourism organises yoga at Victoria Memorial in Kolkata. (PIB India/Twitter)
A yoga event in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. (PIB India/Twitter)
Screen grab from a video shared by Press Information Bureau on Twitter.
People perform yoga in Beijing, China (PIB India/Twitter)
Yoga on board the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force ship JS Ise and Indian Navy ship Sahyadri. (PIB India/Twitter)
Yoga practitioners meditate during a special session on International Yoga Day at Tokyo's Zojoji Temple. (Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP)
A yoga session at the sunrise organised by Nava Yoga Nantes association at a rooftop in Nantes, France. (Loic Venance/AFP)