Throughout India, hundreds of thousands of ancient trees are focal points for worshipping community deities, or gramadevatas. These shrines are usually places of quiet calm and reflection, providing refuge from the noisy demands of life. Shrines may be several trees together, or a single tree with a large platform built around it, marked with flags and banners or with its trunk dressed like a Goddess.
Hindus consider many species of trees as sacred. By far the most common are two varieties of ficus trees: Banyan trees, known locally as vata, and Peepul trees, known as bodhi.
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