![Parovozov](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Parovozov.jpg)
A ''banya'' ( rus, баня, p=ˈbanʲə, a=Ru-баня.ogg) is originally a Russian
steam bath
A steam bath is a steam-filled room for the purpose of relaxation and cleansing. It has a long history, going back to Greek and Roman times.
History
The origins of the steam bath come from the Roman bath, which began during the height of the R ...
with a wood stove. It is considered an important part of
Russian culture
Russian culture (russian: Культура России, Kul'tura Rossii) has been formed by the nation's history, its geographical location and its vast expanse, religious and social traditions, and Western influence. Russian writers and ph ...
. The bath takes place in a small room or building designed for dry or wet heat sessions. The steam and high heat make the bathers perspire. Genders were traditionally segregated in the ''banya'', with separate rooms for the sexes.
In the Russian language, the word ''banya'' may also refer to a
public bathhouse
Public baths originated when most people in population centers did not have access to private bathing facilities. Though termed "public", they have often been restricted according to gender, religious affiliation, personal membership, and other cr ...
, the most historically famous being the
Sanduny (''Sandunovskie bani'').
History
A mention of the ''banya'' is found in the ''
Radziwiłł Chronicle
The Radziwiłł Letopis, also known as the Königsberg Chronicle'','' is an Old East Slavic illuminated manuscripts from the 15th-century; it is believed to be a copy of a 13th-century original. Its name is derived from the royal Radziwiłł fa ...
'' in the story of
Princess Olga's revenge for the murder of her husband,
Prince Igor
''Prince Igor'' ( rus, Князь Игорь, Knyáz Ígor ) is an opera in four acts with a prologue, written and composed by Alexander Borodin. The composer adapted the libretto from the Ancient Russian epic '' The Lay of Igor's Host'', which re ...
, by the Slavic tribe of
Drevlians
The Drevlians ( uk, Древляни, Drevliany, russian: Древля́не, Drevlyane) were a tribe of Early East Slavs between the 6th and the 10th centuries, which inhabited the territories of Polesia and right-bank Ukraine, west of the ea ...
in 945 AD. The leader of the Drevlians had hopes of marrying the widow Olga and sent messengers to discuss the idea. "When the Drevlians arrived, Olga commanded that a bath should be made ready for them and said, 'Wash yourselves and come to me.' The bath-house was heated and the unsuspecting Drevlians entered and began to wash themselves.
lga'smen closed the bath-house behind them and Olga gave orders to set it on fire from the doors, so that the Drevlians were all burned to death."
An early description of the ''banya'' comes from the East Slavic ''
Primary Chronicle'' of 1113.
According to the Chronicle, or as it was called by its authors, The Tale of Bygone Years, the
Apostle Andrew
Andrew the Apostle ( grc-koi, Ἀνδρέᾱς, Andréās ; la, Andrēās ; , syc, ܐܰܢܕ݁ܪܶܐܘܳܣ, ʾAnd’reʾwās), also called Saint Andrew, was an apostle of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is the brother of Simon Pete ...
visited the territories that were later to become
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
and
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
during his visit to the Greek colonies on the Black Sea. Supposedly the belief was held that Andrew crossed through East Slavic lands from the mouth of the
Dnieper River
}
The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine an ...
, past the hills on which
Kiev would later be founded, and went as far north as the ancient city of
Novgorod.
"Wondrous to relate," said he, "I saw the land of the Slavs, and while I was among them, I noticed their wooden bathhouses. They warm them to extreme heat, then undress, and after anointing themselves with tallow, they take young reeds and lash their bodies. They actually lash themselves so violently that they barely escape alive. Then they drench themselves with cold water, and thus are revived. They think nothing of doing this every day, and actually inflict such voluntary torture on themselves. They make of the act not a mere washing but a veritable torment."
The original bathhouses were detached, low-lying wooden structures dependent on a fire lit inside to provide heat. A stove in a corner is made of large round stones that, when heated, are lifted with iron rods and placed in a wooden tub. Once the fire is built, the bather then removes the fire and flushes out the smoke before beginning the bath. Hence the soot and the term "black bathhouses" (''chernaya banya'').
The Portuguese
António Nunes Ribeiro Sanches
António Nunes Ribeiro Sanches (7 March 1699, – 14 October 1783) was an 18th-century Portuguese physician, philosopher and encyclopédiste. He was a '' cristão novo'' of Jewish descent, probably a practising Jew.
He studied at the univers ...
, court physician in Russia, acquainted western physicians with the effects of through his 1779
File:0-pohod-v-banu.jpg, Queue in the bath
File:0-sanduny.jpg, Sanduny bath
File:0-tsarskie-bani.jpg, Bathhouse of the Women's Institute of 1911
File:0-seleznevskie-bani.jpg, Seleznevskie bath
Cultural significance in Russian culture
Since ancient times, the ''banya'' has been considered an important bonding place in Russian culture. Throughout Russian history, the ''banya'' was used by all social classes within Russian society, including villagers and nobles.
Communal baths were very common in villages and towns.
It is also currently used as a place where Russian businesspeople and politicians meet.
Construction
![Typical Russian Banya](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Typical_Russian_Banya.jpg)
''Banya'' buildings can be quite large with a number of different bathing areas or simple wooden cabins like the traditional Finnish cottage saunas. Russian ''banyas'' usually have three rooms: a steam room, a washing room and an entrance room. The entrance room, called a ''predbannik'' (предбанник) or pre-bath, has pegs to hang clothing upon and benches to rest on. The washing room has a hot water tap, which uses water heated by the steam room stove and a vessel or tap for cold water to mix water of a comfortable temperature for washing. The heater has three compartments: a fire box that is fed from the entrance room, the rock chamber, which has a small hole to throw the water into and a water tank at the top. The top of the water tank is usually closed to prevent vapour from infiltrating the ''banya''. Water from a bucket by the stove is poured over the heated rocks in the stove. There are wooden benches across the room. People enter the steam room when the stove is hot, but before water is poured on the rocks. Getting a good sweat is thought to protect and condition the skin from the steam.
Black ''banyas'' and white ''banyas''
In a "black ''banya''" (or, more precisely, "black-way", по-чёрному, ''po-chyornomu''), the smoke escapes through a hole in the ceiling, while in "white ''banyas''" ("white-way", по-белому, ''po-belomu'') there are exhaust pipes to vent the smoke. In the former, the escaping smoke darkens the ''banya''s interior wood. Both styles are characterized by boulder stones, clay balls and large cauldrons for the hot water as well as stone stoves with a tank to heat the water. The firewood is usually birch. A black ''banya'' is more rudimentary than a white ''banya''.
''Pokhodnaya'' or hiking ''banyas''
![Pokhodnaya Banya](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Pokhodnaya_Banya.jpg)
The ''pokhodnaya'' ''banya'' (походная баня) or "hiking ''banya''", is popular among the Russian military, mountaineers and people who travel for extended periods in harsh environments. It consists of a stone oven set up in a small makeshift tent. Hiking ''banyas'' are usually made near a lakeshore or riverbank where many big, round stones are available to build the ''banya''s oven and there is plenty of cool water available for bathing. Large stones are made into a dome-shaped circular oven, one to four meters in diameter and a half to one meter in height so that there is space left on the inside to make a large fire. Firewood is burned for several hours in this improvised stove until the stones on the surface of the pile become so hot that water poured on them turns into steam. Around the pile, a space is tarped to form a small tent and the ''banya'' is ready when it becomes very hot inside and there is a lot of steam. Fresh ''
veniks'' (see "Bathing ritual" below) can be cut from nearby birch or oak trees and bathers can take turns cooling off in the ice-cold mountain water.
Bathing ritual
''Banya'' temperatures often will exceed , and felt or wool hats are typically worn to protect the head from this intense heat and hair from heating to a point that might cause burns on contact. It is common to sit on a small mat brought into the ''banya'' to protect bare skin from the hot wood and nails of the interior benches, and for hygienic reasons. In Russia, special felt hats are commonly sold in sets with felt mitts, along with extracts for inclusion into the steam water. Use of homemade herb extracts and beer is common. Dried
wormwood may be hung over walls as well. Bunches of dried branches and leaves from
white birch
''Betula papyrifera'' (paper birch, also known as (American) white birch and canoe birch) is a short-lived species of birch native to northern North America. Paper birch is named for the tree's thin white bark, which often peels in paper like ...
,
oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...
or
eucalyptus
''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as e ...
(called ''
banny venik
Bath broom ( rus, банный веник, p=ˈbanːɨj ˈvʲenʲɪk; fi, vasta or '; et, viht); lt, vanta) is a besom, or broom, used for bathing in sauna
A sauna (, ), or sudatory, is a small room or building designed as a place to ex ...
'', банный веник, "''banya''
besom
A besom () is a broom, a household implement used for sweeping. The term is now mostly reserved for a traditional broom constructed from a bundle of twigs tied to a stout pole. The twigs used could be broom (i.e. '' Genista'', from which comes ...
") are commonly used for massage and to facilitate heat transfer from hot air to body. The dried branches are moistened with very hot water before use. Sometimes in summer, fresh branches are used instead. Sometimes instead of drying the venik, it is frozen in the summer when it has fresh leaves and then thawed before use. In the central European Jewish baths long brushes made of
rafia
Raffia palms (''Raphia'') are a genus of about twenty species of palms native to tropical regions of Africa, and especially Madagascar, with one species (''R. taedigera'') also occurring in Central and South America. ''R. taedigera'' is the sou ...
, known as Schmeis, were used in place of birch twigs.
After the first sweat is induced, it is customary to cool off in the breeze outdoors or splash around in cold water in a lake or river. In the winter, people may roll in the snow with no clothes on or dip in lakes where holes have been cut into the ice. Then the ''banya'' is re-entered and small amounts of water are splashed on the rocks. If too much water is used at once, the steam will be cool with a clammy feel. A small amount of water on sufficiently hot rocks will evaporate quickly, producing a steam consisting of small vapor particles. Waving the venik causes convective heat. The second sweat is commonly the first time venik is used, but some people wait until the third session.
After each sweat, cooling off is repeated and patrons use the break to drink beer, tea, or other beverages, play games or relax in good company in an antechamber to the steam room. ''Banya''s might have a bar for people to have drinks and sometimes light meals afterwards.
''Banyas'' and Eastern Slavic mythology
![Bannik](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Bannik.jpg)
In
Slavic mythology
Slavic mythology or Slavic religion is the religious beliefs, myths, and ritual practices of the Slavs before Christianisation, which occurred at various stages between the 8th and the 13th century. The South Slavs, who likely settled in the Balk ...
, specifically East Slavic mythology every ''banya'' is inhabited by the Slavic bathhouse spirit
Bannik
The Bannik () is a bathhouse ('' banya'') spirit in Slavic mythology.Alexinsky, G. ''Slavonic Mythology'' in ''New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology''. Prometheus Press, 1973, p. 287-88 He is usually described as a small, naked old man with a l ...
. He is described as a wizened little man with wild white hair and a long, straggly beard, long nails and hairy hands. He lives behind the stove and his temperament is supposed to be very capricious. Because of the dimmed light in the ''banya'', he was sometimes considered even to be malicious. It was said that by anger he could throw boiling water or even burn down the bathroom. He likes spying on bathers, particularly undressed women. He has the ability to predict the future. One consulted him by standing with one's back exposed in the half-open door of the bath. If the future predicts good, he strokes the back lovingly, by bad prospects he grabs the back with his claws.
Comparison with thermal bathing in other cultures
Ancient Roman thermae
Ancient Romans had a cult of bathhouse. Greeting each other they said: "How is your sweating?" In the bathhouse they not only washed themselves, but socialized, painted, read poetry, sang, and feasted. Their bathhouses had special rooms for massage, gyms, and libraries. Wealthy citizens went to the bathhouse twice a day. Both private and public baths were distinguished by exceptional luxury – swimming pools were made of precious marble, silver and gold were used to decorate sinks. By the first century BC there were around 150 thermae in Rome. Steam rooms were heated in the same way as Russian ''banya''s and Finnish saunas: the oven was placed in the corner, stones were laid on a bronze frame over red-hot charcoal. Rooms with wet and dry steam were also available. Hot air came through a pipe under the floor. The structure of thermae was complex: there were 5 rooms: a room for undressing and resting after bathing, a swimming pool for the first bathing, a room for washing with warm and hot water, and finally a room for dry steam and wet bath.
[saunahistory.com, "The Russian Banya – Its Relatives"]
Finnish sauna
The Russian ''banya'' is the closest relative of the Finnish sauna. In modern Russian, a sauna is often called a "Finnish ''banya''", though possibly only to distinguish it from other ethnic high-temperature bathing facilities such as Turkish baths referred to as "Turkish ''banya''". Sauna, with its ancient history amongst Nordic and Uralic peoples, is a source of national pride for Finns.
Swedish Bastu
The Swedish Bastu is derived from the words Bad (bath) and stuga (cabin).
Bastu began to be popular in cities in the Middle Ages. Due to many bastu in the cities, they were banned for a few years.
Swedes enjoyed bathing around Christmasit was popular during the 16th century and 17th centuries. Swedish sauna buildings used to dry meat and grains were used to bathe in.
It is common to see bastu in sports venues, gyms, swimming pools and arenas. In public bastu, for example in swimming pools, the bastu are separated for each gender but in private they can be mixed.
Turkish hammam
![Banya Karachayevsk](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Banya_Karachayevsk.jpg)
The ''hammam'' (Turkish saunas / baths) are often as glamorous as Roman baths. A visitor who enters the bathhouse finds himself in a spacious hall, where he leaves his clothes and then proceeds down the stairs and through a long narrow corridor to the soap room. In this room he sees several niches for bathing and three narrow doors leading to steam bath, to a cooler room, and to the hall for resting. This is the order of the bathing procedure. Only after having completed it, one goes to a masseur. The source of steam is a gigantic tub of water inside the wall. The steam goes through a hole in the wall. Moreover, the entire bath is heated by hot air, coming through a special pipe located under a marble floor. The bather lies on the hot stone and sweats. When sweating is plentiful, massage starts.
Sweat lodges in the Americas
In North America, the use of sweat lodges by
Native Americans is similar in concept to the smoke saunas of Finland or the black ''banya'' and was recorded as early as 1643.
There is evidence of the use of sweat lodges in Mesoamerica before the European arrival, such as the
Temazcal
A temazcal is a type of sweat lodge, which originated with pre-Hispanic indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica. The term ''temazcal'' comes from the Nahuatl language, either from the words (to bathe) and (house), or from the word (house of heat ...
which is still used in some regions of Mexico and Central America.
See also
*
Public bathing
Public baths originated when most people in population centers did not have access to private bathing facilities. Though termed "public", they have often been restricted according to gender, religious affiliation, personal membership, and other cr ...
*
Destination spa
A destination spa or health resort is a resort centered on a spa, such as a mineral spa. Historically, many such spas were developed at the location of natural hot springs or mineral springs; in the era before modern biochemical knowledge an ...
*
Hot tub
*
Steam shower
A steam shower is a type of bathing where a humidifying steam generator produces water vapor that is dispersed around a person's body. A steam shower is essentially a steam room that offers the typical features of a bathroom shower. Steam showers ...
*
Bannik
The Bannik () is a bathhouse ('' banya'') spirit in Slavic mythology.Alexinsky, G. ''Slavonic Mythology'' in ''New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology''. Prometheus Press, 1973, p. 287-88 He is usually described as a small, naked old man with a l ...
References
External links
{{Nudity
Bathing
Russian culture
Russian inventions
Sauna