Sacred grove
[1] They were important features of the mythological landscape and cult practice of Celtic, Estonian, Baltic, Germanic, ancient Greek, Near Eastern, Roman, and Slavic polytheism.
In antiquity, the area had no town, but the grove was the site of one of the most famous of Roman cults and temples: that of Diana Nemorensis, a study of which served as the seed for Sir James Frazer's seminal work on the anthropology of religion, The Golden Bough.
[5] A sacred grove behind the House of the Vestal Virgins on the edge of the Roman Forum lingered until its last vestiges were burnt in the Great Fire of Rome in 64 CE.
As with other sacred groves in the ancient world, the trees here were seen as living symbols of the deity’s presence, reinforcing the connection between nature, agriculture, and the divine.
The reverence for groves dedicated to gods like Zeus and Adonis shows how sacred natural spaces were integral to the religious and social fabric of ancient Near Eastern cultures.
These sacred groves often became the heart of religious life in their respective regions, not only as sites for ritual but also as places of healing and divine communication, reinforcing the deep connection between nature and the divine in ancient belief systems.A sacred grove is known as alka(s) in Lithuanian and elks in Latvian, however, the terms are also sometimes used to refer to natural holy places in general.
A few sacred groves in Sambian Peninsula are mentioned in the 14th-century documents of the Teutonic Order (sacra sylva, que Scayte vulgariter nominatur..., silva, quae dicitur Heyligewalt...).
By the early 15th century, with the disappearance of cremation traditions among the Curonians the sacred groves of Courland had lost their crematory function but remained as an inviolable place reserved for the dead.
Existence of such groves have been found in Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Hungary in Central Europe, in many sites of ancient Gaul in France, as well as England and Northern Ireland.
[14][15] Nemetons were often fenced off by enclosures, as indicated by the German term Viereckschanze – meaning a quadrangular space surrounded by a ditch enclosed by wooden palisades.
Across Benin and Togo (Dahomey Gap, West Africa), sacred forests form islands of biodiversity in the middle of overgrazed, woody, semiarid savannahs and croplands.
There are many groups of trees and groves that remain sacred to local indigenous populations, such as the Kikuyu, the Maasai, and the Mbeere tribe of central Kenya.
The hill and forest cover a distance of 283 hectares (699 acres) and is home to rich flora including trees, shrubs, flowers, over 100 plant species in total.
[28] Sacred forests continue to hold an important place in the everyday lives of Indigenous and rural people across South, East, and Southeast Asia.
A large-scale comparative analysis of sacred groves in ten countries within these regions indicates that they have long played a critical role in the protection of watersheds and water sources.
While many of the groves are looked upon as abode of Hindu gods, in the recent past a number of them have been partially cleared for construction of shrines and temples.
[34][35] Ritualistic dances and dramatizations based on the local deities that protect the groves are called Theyyam in Kerala and Nagmandalam, among other names, in Karnataka.
Unlike typical forests, these sacred groves are alpine meadows, deeply tied to the ethnic identity of local groups.
Customary taboos forbid harming the groves, including plucking flowers, uprooting plants, or disturbing animals and religious objects.
Much of the ways of the ancient inhabitants of Malaysia have largely been forgotten, mostly due to the taboos among the local populace on putting certain esoteric knowledge down in ink, thus only passed down through examples and word of mouth from mother to daughter and father to son.
The whole area are covered by large and tall trees, so much foliage that the scorching tropical sun is reduced to a dim shadow as temperatures drop to a comfortable cool.
Malay folklore relates that the trees whisper prayers to the creator in absolution of the past transgression of the ground's once human inhabitants.
Granted World Heritage status by UNESCO in 1997,[44][45] Lumbini Grove is a Buddhist pilgrimage site in the Rupandehi District of Nepal.
Aside from individual trees, natural formations, bodies of water, rocks, groves, and even entire forests also commonly became sacred places to various communities.
The coordinating steering committee of the Conservation Plan consists of Environment, Agriculture, Internal Affairs and Education and Research ministries, National Heritage Board and MK.
While the exact definition of the word hiisi is still unclear, they are often describes as situated on the top of stony mountains or hills and are often close to water.
Folklore researcher Sandis Laime has suggested that the sacred grove might have been a religious centre and probably covered a more extensive area in the past.
Lithuanian archaeologist Vykintas Vaitkevičius has grouped some of the sacred forests and groves according to the components šventas (13), alka (11) and gojus (more than 520) in their name.
[64][circular reference] Sacred groves are found to be some of the first examples of habitat and ecological protection in human history, due to the spiritual importance of the area.
[65] Due to this historical protection, sacred groves have been found to harbor larger amounts as well as more breadth of biodiversity than surrounding areas.
