Tantra is a Sanskrit word for a large body of old texts and practices; on a massage menu it names a technique defined by slow pace, breath and stillness.
The word is old and wide. In Sanskrit, tantra comes from a root meaning to stretch or to weave, and one of its early senses is the warp on a loom: the threads held taut so that others can be drawn through them. Over many centuries it came to name a varied body of Hindu and Buddhist texts and the practices described in them, most of which have nothing to do with massage.
In the West during the last century, a strand of teachers took the vocabulary of tantra, especially its attention to breath and to the body, and adapted it into forms of touch and bodywork. The massage that carries the name today descends from that adaptation rather than from the original texts. On this house's menu, tantra is a technique among eleven, distinguished by tempo: an unhurried opening, attention to breathing, long periods of stillness, and a close that is allowed to take its time.
A client needs no spiritual interest to book tantra, and the house makes no claims of that kind for it. It does not promise energy, awakening or healing. What it offers is a pace markedly slower than most of what a visitor to Amsterdam encounters in a day, in a room that is the client's own. Many people who book it are simply tired of speed.
Tantra costs what every technique costs for the same length on the ladder. It is usually booked at ninety minutes or two hours, for reasons given under the ninety-minute minimum. The tantra massage page describes the service, and the what to expect guide answers the questions first-time clients tend to bring.