 Traditionally in India, any place where someone has engaged in serious spiritual retreat may become known as a tapovan, even if there is no forest.As well as particular caves and other hermitages where sages and sadhus have dwelt, there are some places, such as the western bank of the northern Ganges river around Rishikesh, that have been so used by hermits that the whole area has become known as a "tapovan".The most well known "tapovan" in India is the area above the Gangotri Glacier at one of the primary sources of the Ganges, in Uttarakhand, India.