The room is damp, hot and black with soot.
It smells of peat, autumn forest plus a hint of ham. There is no window, just a tiny light source dimly illuminating Eda Verooja’s face as she sits naked with her drum on the wooden bench.
“Exhale,” she says and makes a few muffled beats. “Now inhale.”
Deeper and slower. “This connects us to the heartbeat of the sauna, to our ancestors and all the generations that will come after us.”
She closes her eyes and hums in time with the beat. Then she splashes water on the hot stones. It hisses and steams, and the first drops form on her skin.
Eda is Estonia’s most famous smoke sauna master. Her smoke sauna is over 100 years old. Situated on a small lake on her Mooska farm, it is surrounded by dense forests in the south-east of the country.
Here, in the sparsely populated region of Voromaa, a tradition that dates back millennia is still practised, while in the north of the country or among Estonia’s Finnish neighbours, it is all but forgotten.
It is the original form of sauna, and Estonia’s traditional saunas may be the oldest in the world.
What makes them special is that unlike conventional wood-fired saunas, there is no chimney.
The sauna stove is heated up eight hours in advance. That fills the room with hot, dense smoke, which turns the wooden walls deep black. It’s released through the door or a window but the heat it leaves behind is particularly pleasant, mellow and long-lasting.
Cooling off in icy water at Mooska-Farm in Estonia.
Neither man nor woman
“Every smoke sauna has its own soul,” says Eda. “It is the gateway between worlds, a spiritual place of purification. In the smoke sauna, you connect with yourself and shed your roles.
“In it, you are neither woman nor man; you have no gender, only a body.”
The ritual can last up to seven hours as the transformation Eda describes takes time.
Sweat drips from our bodies as our pores open up. Eda hands out juniper branches tied into bundles, which everyone uses to pat themselves down.
We start with our left foot, move our way up to our heart and back down to our right foot. The delicate needles scratch pleasantly and the essential oils they carry stimulate our blood circulation and ease our muscles.
Then it’s time for our first cool-down. We run out of the sauna and into the lake and rub ourselves down with snow. Wonderful! Back inside, in the adjoining room, a fire is burning, there are blankets to snuggle up in and sweet tea with honey and cranberries.
The sauna is heated with smoke, which is released before guests enter, in Estonia. — TONU RUNNEL/Brand Estonia/dpa
Symphony for smoke sauna
The smoke sauna culture is deeply rooted in Estonian identity, serving as a church, a sanctuary and place where everyone takes off their masks. With his Smoke Sauna Symphony, premiered in 2019, composer Mart-Matis Lill has composed the first and only piece of music to be dedicated to a sauna.
This is the place where children were born and the elderly came to die.
It is also used to smoke meat or dry wool.
Politics also happens here, even today. Estonian heads of state and other lawmakers go to the sauna together to talk. Many say wise decisions are made there.
Eda meanwhile is handing out ash, salt and honey to rub on our bodies and give ourselves loving caresses. Again she splashes water on the sizzling stones and again we sweat, sing, sigh and breathe.
“Only when we are truly relaxed can we open up,” says Eda. Anything can happen in a smoke sauna: crying, laughing, letting go, ecstasy, even states that Eda describes as “ego dissolution”.
The sauna provides space for all the emotions that want to come out, she says.
Towards the end of the ritual, people often have intense conversations that are brutally honest, without taboos. Many guests find this liberating. Suddenly, it becomes easy to talk about topics that have no place outside.
“The smoke sauna can be like a mini therapy session,” says Eda. You’re naked anyway, so the last layer of protection quickly falls away.
Interestingly, you cannot really argue in the sauna. Differences of opinion take your breath away. The spirit of the sauna immediately sends you outside.
Saviour of ancient culture
If it weren’t for Eda, the smoke sauna culture might already have been forgotten. Many of the wood-fired saunas in the country are being replaced by saunas heated by electricity which Eda considers only good enough “to warm your limbs”.
In 2007, she had the idea of making her knowledge available to the whole world. She opened her sauna to the public, founded her own sauna school and did all the paperwork to have the smoke sauna included in Unesco’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
She succeeded in 2014 and ever since, people have been coming from all over to experience this special state of being, likely only possible in a real smoke sauna.
We lose our sense of time, constantly alternating between immersing ourselves in ice-cold water, drinking tea by the fire and returning to the dark, humid heat.
Hours pass until Eda finally beats our warmed bodies with dried linden blossom branches. It is a loud, intense massage that penetrates every cell with a slap.
That leaves us with rosy, baby-soft skin, our minds free of thoughts and a deep sense of contentment. Eda says, “You come out a different person.”
At least the unique scent of a smoke sauna lingers for days, earthy, peaty, resinous and pure.
“The most precious perfume in the world,” the Estonians say. – FRIEDERIKE OSTERMEYER/dpa