Surya Villa Ayurveda Wellness Zentrum — Husemannstraße 8, Germany

Sri Lanka-style Ayurveda house with a green courtyard in Berlin Prenzlauer Berg

In summer, the quiet corner of Surya Villa is the courtyard garden. A terrace looks onto the green, and anyone can sit down with an Ayurvedic herbal tea, even without a treatment booked. Beyond the wall is Prenzlauer Berg, a few steps from Kollwitzplatz, with its cafés and cultural life. Inside the house at Husemannstraße 8 the pace is different. The name is the first clue to the place. Surya is Sanskrit for sun, and it is also the name of a tree in Sri Lanka that matters in Ayurveda for its healing properties. Sri Lanka runs through the whole house. The rooms are painted in different colours and decorated with Asian details. The massage tables and the wooden steam bath were made in Sri Lanka to traditional designs, specifically for Surya Villa. The treatments follow the Ayurvedic tradition: oil massages, cosmetics, heat therapies such as the steam bath, nutrition consultation and meditation. The Ayurveda Wellnesstag, a vitalising and detoxifying programme of about three to four hours, begins with Abhyanga, a 90-minute full-body massage with warm herbal oils matched to the guest's constitution. After it come herbal tea, Swedana (a herbal steam bath) and Shirodhara, the stream of warm oil over the forehead, then fruit and tea. In two sessions, the nutrition consultation determines a person's constitution type and produces a detailed individual plan. The house also teaches. Yoga, Qi Gong and Buddhist meditation courses are offered for all age groups. Weekend seminars and workshops cover traditional healing methods, and lectures take up the philosophy, history and method of Ayurveda and yoga. Concerts of traditional Indian music are held here as well. For those who want a full Panchakarma cure, lasting two to three weeks, the centre arranges stays on request at an Ayurveda resort in Bentota, Sri Lanka, under traditional Ayurvedic physicians. A sauna with a rest area on the second floor can be booked by phone. The house is open Monday to Saturday and closed on Sundays.

Traditions: Ayurveda, Panchakarma, Yoga, Qi Gong, Buddhist Meditation, Traditional Indian Music

Programs: Ayurveda Wellnesstag (Vital- und Entgiftungskur), Abhyanga full-body massage, Shirodhara, Swedana herbal steam bath, Mukabhyanga head and face massage, Ayurvedic nutrition and health consultation, Yoga, Qi Gong and Buddhist meditation courses, Panchakarma cures arranged in Bentota, Sri Lanka