Vietnamese ancestral house

An ancestral house (Vietnamese: nhà thờ họ, chữ Nôm: 茹悇𢩜 or Vietnamese: từ đường, chữ Hán: 祠堂) is a Vietnamese traditional place of worship of a clan or its branches which established by male descendants of paternal line.

[1] This place would be called nhà thờ đại tôn (lit.

A nhà thờ họ is usually built follow the traditional 3 rooms house architecture in which the middle room is extended in the back so that a worship pedestal could be placed.

The ngai holds a vermilion-painted-and-gold-gilded box, which contains family genealogical book, and is covered by a piece of red cloth.

This is the most sacred site of a nhà thờ họ, which people consider the gathering place of ancestors' soul.