Authors: Bhagwat, Shonil;

The tradition of maintaining ‘sacred natural sites’ can be traced in many indigenous societies. These sites are considered important in the development of religion and spirituality in our distant ancestors and today they demonstrate the special relationship between people and nature. Numerous examples of sacred trees, groves, forests, ponds, lakes and rivers exist throughout the world. These hundreds of thousands of sites are distributed across all inhabited continents. This talk will present an overarching perspective on sacred natural sites that spans their global distribution and their historical origins. I will draw on a number of case studies from around the world to illustrate the development of sacred natural sites in space and in time.