A yoga shala · Darjeeling

Sumitra
Yogashala

A small, unhurried shala in the Eastern Himalayas. Hatha, breath, and rest — a practice for every body, led by Kusang Doma Dong.

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The practice

No mirrors, no competition. A traditional, gentle approach to yoga that meets you where your body is today.

Breath first. The rest follows.

Sumitra Yogashala began as a few mats on a wooden floor and a teacher who believed yoga should be calm, patient, and available to everyone — the stiff, the nervous, the elderly, and the young.

The shala keeps to a traditional Hatha lineage: steady postures held with attention, pranayama to settle the mind, and long restorative practice to let the body absorb the work.

Classes are deliberately small. Beginners are not just welcome but expected — most of who comes through the door has never touched a mat before, and that is exactly the point.

It is a quiet counterweight to a loud world, and the practice this family grew up inside.

What we practise

Four ways in. Mix them as you like — most students move between all of them over a week.

Hatha

The foundation — steady postures, careful alignment, and the patience to hold them. The class everything else rests on.

All levels · 75 min

Pranayama

Breath work to steady the nervous system — simple, repeatable techniques you can carry off the mat and into the day.

All levels · 45 min

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Restorative

Long, supported holds for deep rest and recovery. The practice that teaches the hardest skill of all — to stop.

Gentle · 60 min

Beginners’ course

A four-week start from the very first breath. No experience, no flexibility, and no special clothing required.

New students · 4 weeks

Weekly rhythm

Monday to Friday, three sessions a day. Times shift gently with the season — message ahead to confirm.

Mon – FriMorning practice6:30 – 7:30 AM

Mon – FriMorning practice8:00 – 9:00 AM

Mon – FriEvening practice4:00 – 5:00 PM

The teacher

One teacher, many years of practice. The shala is an extension of how she lives.

Kusang Doma Dong has practised yoga for over thirty-five years. A mother of two and a grandmother, she has spent a lifetime making the practice gentle, ordinary, and available to everyone who walks through the door.

She is a certified teacher of Ashtanga, Hatha, Pranayama, and Face Yoga, having trained in New Delhi and Mysore — the two homes of the lineages she carries into the hills.

She is also a serious practitioner of Vipassana, returning again and again to silent courses in Sikkim, Nepal, Mumbai, and West Bengal. That stillness sits underneath everything she teaches.

Her teaching is unhurried and exact — more interested in your breath than your shape, and in keeping you coming back than in any single pose.

Kusang Doma Dong · Founder & teacher

Come practise

Drop in, or start with the beginners’ course. A mat is always spare.

Your first class is on the house.

Messagehello@sumitrayogashala.com

WhereDarjeeling, West Bengal

Mornings6:30 AM, most days