A personal welcome from Iris Disse

Watch before you scrollthis is for you if you are ready to go deep.

Durga's Tiger School®

Step Into Your Power.
Learn to Ride the
Waves of Change.

Wild, Sacred, Free.

An immersion in Yoga, Tantra, Shamanism & Arts

Durga's Tiger School · Ilaló Volcano · Andes, Ecuador

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Something in you already knows.

The waves are here.
Will you ride them?

You've built a life that looks right from the outside. And still — there's a hum underneath it. A sense that you're capable of more aliveness than you're currently living. That somewhere between the roles you play and the person you actually are, something got quiet.

You don't need this explained to you. You already feel it — in the moments when the noise stops and something older, wilder, more true tries to speak.

This is the call to ride the tiger!

What tantra actually is

Most people think tantra is only about physical pleasure.

It is about life.

Life force flows through everything — your creativity, your relationships, your courage, your capacity to love. In this school, we learn to move that energy consciously, so it feeds every dimension of who you are.

Tantra is the ancient art of becoming fully alive — of meeting reality without flinching, without numbing, without pretending. It is a practice of wholeness. Of learning to inhabit your body, your relationships, and your existence with presence and intention.

This is what Iris has been teaching for over 30 years. Not theory. Not performance. A lived path.

Woman dancing freely — tantra as aliveness

A Mirror

This path might be for you if...

Read slowly. There may be more than one line here that was written for you.

A shamanic smoke cleansing ceremony between two women, full ritual scene

A living ritual, not a metaphor

Some things can only be released— not reasoned with.

There are patterns you cannot think your way out of. Fear you inherited before you had words for it. Agreements you made with an old version of yourself, just to survive. Talking about them only goes so far.

This is where ritual becomes medicine. Smoke, sound, touch, presence — ancestral tools that speak directly to the body and the energy field, not just the mind. You do not analyze what you are carrying. You put it down.

This is how you take your power back — not by understanding your wounds more precisely, but by finally, physically, letting them go.

Tiger Riders gathered in a circle around the fire at Casa Kiliku, sharing an evening ceremony

Where Transformation Takes Form

Not in theory. Not alone. Around a fire, in a circle, held by people who are doing this work too — this is the shape transformation actually takes here.

Tiger Riders

Truth seekers from around the world, here to remember who they are.

Women in practice
In stillness, you meet yourself
Man in practice
Every seeker walks their own path
Group in savasana
Rest is also practice
Water flowing over a stone fountain with a single red rose — stillness and life force

A word from our founderIris Disse

Perhaps you have always felt that there is more beneath the surface. You have lived, loved, struggled, changed—and still, something inside you asks: Is this all?

Beautiful. This question is not a failure. It is the tiger waking up.

At our school, spirituality does not float somewhere above life. It has feet, a belly, a voice. It laughs, cries, dances, becomes angry, falls in love and meets its inner demons. Everything belongs. Yoga, Tantra, Shamanism and Art create a field of investigation—and the subject of this investigation is your own life.

We do not want you to become a copy of a teacher. We invite you to discover what is true for you, to take responsibility for your happiness and to trust the creative power moving through your body.

The courage is to live what you discover—in your relationships, your sexuality, your decisions and your dreams.

Then you leave this harbour in your own boat. Your sea. Your storms. Your mystery. Your light.

Ride the tiger.

Iris Disse · Founder, Durga's Tiger School®

Playfulness in the yoga room

The path is not always serious

Laughter is alsopart of the practice.

The path at Durga's Tiger School is deep — but it is not heavy. Alongside the inner work, the ritual, and the transformation, there is something equally important: joy. Playfulness. The freedom to be ridiculous, surprising, and fully alive.

You will find yourself laughing in postures you never expected to try. Discovering new sides of yourself. Seeing your fellow seekers with completely fresh eyes.

This is what the path does. It does not just deepen you — it lightens you. It makes room for the child inside you to come out and play again.

4 to 9 Weeks
Ride the Waves.

Change comes. Sometimes gently. Sometimes — BANG — it tears apart the picture we had of ourselves.

Can I remain alive in the middle of it?
Can I breathe when I do not know?
Can I dance when the ground beneath me is moving?

For 4 to 9 weeks, we enter the research laboratory of life: Tantra, Kaula Tantra Yoga, Shamanism, art, ritual, breath, voice, silence, community.

We do not escape the waves.
We learn to ride them.

Old patterns become visible. The body remembers. The voice returns. Fear loses its throne. Something wild, tender and fearless begins to breathe again.

This is not a workshop. It is an adventure into the inner spaces. A dying and becoming. A journey back to the one person you can never leave: you.

Ready? Let's ride Durga's Tiger.

Two women in warm partner connection during practice, part of the diverse international community at Durga's Tiger School

What you will live

Not a retreat you attend.A life you inhabit.

Every day is woven from practice, ritual, community, and reflection. You will not just learn about this path — you will live it, in your body, in community, in the land.

Practice at Durga's Tiger School
01

Kaula Tantra Yoga — daily

A slow, flowing, meditative practice rooted in ancient lineage. Each session is a moving meditation — 2 to 3 hours — that reunites body, mind, and energy. No pressure. No performance. Your body finds its own truth.

Kaula Tantra Yoga
02

Heartful communication

Through the Talking Stick circle and applied tantric philosophy, you learn to speak and listen from the heart — not the ego. A practice that can change how you relate to everyone in your life.

Heartful communication practice — touch and presence in circle
03

Massage & partner work

You learn to give and receive — consciously, lovingly, without pressure. Partner yoga and the Yogic Walking Massage teach you to hold sacred space for another's body and energy.

Partner work
04

Shamanic ritual & ceremony

Temazcal sweat lodge, cacao ceremonies, ritual and nature connection practices drawn from Andean and Tibetan traditions. These are doorways into altered states and expanded awareness — practical shamanism you carry into your life.

Shamanic ceremony
05

Art, dance & expression

Durga's Tiger Dance, mantra chanting, shamanic clown, voice liberation. Through movement and sound you deepen creativity and intuition — and learn to see life from a completely new perspective. Your inner child, your wildness, your joy.

Dance and expression
06

Community living

You share meals, practice, and life with an international group of up to 30 people. In this sangha you are not alone in your growth — you are held, witnessed, and celebrated.

Durga's Tiger School community

In their own words

Francisca and Javier
🐯

To come here is a great experience. I take so many powerful moments and fun moments… There is a lot of great energy and beauty in the place, in the other students, in the teachers — it is very inspirational.

Javier

🐯

It is a very safe space. I dive deep into my own heart. I take the ability to express how I am and how I feel. And that I am ok as I am.

Franciska

Craig in prayer pose
★★★★★

I was simply looking for a yoga retreat — a place to decompress and meet like-minded people. When I spotted a Kaula Tantra, Art and Shamanism path at Durga's Tiger School, I jumped at the chance.

There's such great energy here — you can feel it in the air, across the landscape, in the yoga shala, and between the group. The teachers build and maintain a safe space and sense of trust needed to heal, to peel back some layers, let go, let loose, and allow our seeds to grow.

I loved the heady mix of classes — the majority of learning done in an experiential, hands-on, caring and sharing way. Exactly what my spiritual awakening journey desperately needed.

I'll definitely be coming back to complete the 500 hour immersion.

Craig · Solo seeker · Latin America travels

Hear it from her directly

Real voices. Real transformation.

Words can only go so far. Watch what our Tiger Riders have to say in their own voices.

Solo seeker Tingting shares her experience

All seekers welcome

This path is for everyone

Aliveness does not comein one shape.

At Durga's Tiger School, this path belongs to every person who feels called to it — regardless of who you love, how you identify, or where you are in life.

What matters is the intention you arrive with: the willingness to be honest, to grow, to open. Every seeker who walks through these doors is received with the same warmth, the same depth, and the same freedom to be exactly who they are.

Come as you are. You are welcome here.

Women laughing together, arms around each other, faces marked with ceremonial paint

The body remembers how to celebrate

You will laugh like this again.Loudly. Unapologetically.

Somewhere along the way, many of us learned that being spiritual meant being serious — that depth and pleasure could not live in the same body. Here, they do. Ecstatic joy, uninhibited laughter, the freedom to be held by other women without performing anything — this is not a break from the work. It is the work, arriving in a different shape.

Why this is different

So much more thana yoga teacher training.

Most trainings give you techniques and send you home. Here you live the practice — every day, in community, in nature, in ritual — until it becomes part of who you are.

  • You stop outsourcing your power

    In a world built to keep you anxious and reactive, this path teaches you to make decisions from your own deep knowing — not from fear. That shift changes everything else.

  • You become your own authority

    This path teaches you to evaluate theory from your own experience. You become less easily manipulated, more deeply yourself.

  • Tantra is grounded and embodied

    No abstraction. No performance. It is lived through breath, movement, sound, and conscious touch — in a safe, respectful, boundary-clear environment.

  • You are held by community

    You grow alongside others — not in isolation. The sangha of international Tiger Riders creates a field of trust and shared transformation that amplifies everything.

  • The land is part of the teaching

    Casa Kiliku sits at the edge of the Ilaló natural reserve. The mountain, the river valley, the forest — they hold the space for inner work in a way no urban retreat can replicate.

The rhythm of the immersion

Again and againwe return to the circle.

Practice takes many forms here — on the mat, in nature, in one-on-one conversation. But throughout the program, the group comes back together in circle: to share what moved, to witness each other, to let wisdom be spoken aloud instead of kept private. This rhythm is not incidental. It is the container that makes the depth possible.

Candlelit sharing circle around a fire at night, Durga's Tiger School

Ways in

2026-2027 Immersion Programs

One journey. Three depths of immersion.
Choose the rhythm and depth that are right for you—4, 6, or 9 weeks.

Each path is a transformational immersion in Tantra, Kaula Tantra Yoga, Shamanism, and the Arts. You do not need to want to become a yoga teacher. Come for your own growth, your own questions, your own life.

An internationally recognized Yoga Alliance training certificate is included—giving you the freedom to teach afterward, if one day you choose to.

Come for your transformation. Leave with the freedom to pass it on.

Fire ceremony pot with community gathered close, Durga's Tiger School
FoundationBook Now
28 days

A first immersion

  • Oct 11 – Nov 7 2026
  • Nov 15 – Dec 12 2026
  • Jan 10 – Feb 6 2027
  • Feb 14 – Mar 13 2027
  • Mar 28 – Apr 24 2027
  • Jun 13 – Jul 10 2027
  • Jul 18 – Aug 14 2027
  • Oct 10 – Nov 6 2027
  • Nov 14 – Dec 11 2027
DeepeningBook Now
42 days

Going further in

  • Oct 11 – Nov 21 2026
  • Nov 1 – Dec 12 2026
  • Jan 10 – Feb 20 2027
  • Jan 31 – Mar 13 2027
  • Jun 13 – Jul 24 2027
  • Jul 4 – Aug 14 2027
  • Oct 10 – Nov 20 2027
  • Oct 31 – Dec 11 2027
Full ImmersionBook Now
63 days

The complete journey

  • Oct 11 – Dec 13 2026
  • Jan 10 – Mar 13 2027
  • Jun 13 – Aug 14 2027
  • Oct 10 – Dec 12 2027
Yoga Alliance RYS 200, RYS 300, RYS 500 and Certified Yoga School logos
Durga\'s Tiger School temazcal and sacred garden

Durga's Tiger School · Ilaló · Ecuadorian Andes

Sacred Ground for Real Transformation.This land does not perform for you. It meets you exactly as you are.

Durga's Tiger School rests on the slopes of Ilaló, an extinct volcano rising above the Tumbaco Valley near Quito. Set within the indigenous community of Leopoldo Chávez and beside the protected landscape of Ilaló, this is wild land close enough to reach — and far enough from ordinary life to let something in you finally exhale.

Built over years by artists, from adobe, brick, wood and stone drawn from this volcanic earth, every corner of the school carries intention. Gardens, open terraces, mature trees and sweeping views across the Andes hold the practice without ever performing it. On clear days, the great volcanoes of the region rise on the horizon — a reminder of how small, and how vast, a single life can be.

Ilaló is not a backdrop. It is ancient, alive, and deeply significant — home to communities whose relationship with this mountain reaches back through generations. Here, the land becomes part of the work itself: an invitation to step outside familiar roles, meet your own edges, and remember a way of being that modern life rarely makes room for.

  • Edge of the Ilaló natural reserve, Ecuador
  • Tumbaco — 30 minutes from Quito
  • Safe, peaceful, community neighborhood
  • 3 vegetarian meals per day, shared together
  • Temazcal sweat lodge on site
  • Weekend excursions to Ecuador highlights
  • Maximum 30 students per group
  • Power plant ceremonies available (optional)
Iris Disse — Founder

Meet your guide

MeetIris Disse

Founder · Energetic Choreographer · Director

Iris is a composer, writer, radio producer, and filmmaker — and the living creative force behind everything Durga's Tiger School does. She has been on the tantric path for over 30 years, and in a tantric relationship with her partner David for 34 of them.

She did not found this school from theory. She founded it from lived experience — from the transformations tantra, shamanism, yoga, and art brought into her own life, her love, and her creative work. She teaches what she lives.

In each training you have the opportunity to work directly with Iris — to be guided, witnessed, and challenged by someone who has walked every step of this path herself.

Getting here

How tofind us.

Getting to Durga's Tiger School is easier than you might think. Ecuador is well connected internationally, and our location just outside Quito makes arrival straightforward and stress-free.

  • ✈️The training location is approximately 30 minutes from Quito International Airport — easily accessible by taxi or arranged transport.
  • 📍We are located in Tumbaco, a calm and peaceful area just outside Quito, in the lush Andean valley.
  • 📋You will receive detailed arrival instructions after booking — including transport options and what to bring.
  • 🤝The team at Durga's Tiger School is always happy to assist with travel coordination. Just reach out — we are here to make your arrival as smooth as possible.

About Ecuador

You may have heard things about Ecuador.Here is what our students actually felt.

Ecuador has had challenging press coverage in recent years. We understand this may give you pause. But we want you to hear it directly from people who came — who moved through Quito, lived in Tumbaco, and experienced the country with open eyes. Durga's Tiger School is a safe, peaceful sanctuary. Ecuador, approached with awareness, is a deeply beautiful country to be in.

Tomas & Amelie share their experience of safety in Ecuador

Take the next step

Could this beyour next chapter?

If something in this training speaks to you, we would love to hear from you. Tell us a little about yourself, what is calling you and any questions you may have.

You do not need to know yet which program is right for you—or whether you intend to teach afterward. We will respond personally, help you explore your options and share the practical details you need to make a clear decision.

It is a genuine conversation about whether Durga's Tiger School is right for you.

Or speak to us directly

Some people prefer to write. Others prefer to talk. Either way, we are here — and we respond personally.

📱 WhatsApp / Telegram: +39 349 78 13 230
📱 Phone: +593 99-280-5875

Want to discover more about our school, philosophy, and community?

Visit the Durga’s Tiger School website →