Ancestral home

An ancestral home in Kolkata, India

There is a large range of ancestral homes in India, including more traditionally constructed ones, those constructed under colonial rule, and those traditionally belonging to members of higher castles or feudal estates. A notable type of ancestral home in India includes that of the Chettiar caste, who are a subgroup of the Tamil community.[12] Chettiar ancestral homes are often large, ornate houses or mansions built to accommodate members of an extended family.[12] These houses often consist of two floors, and were traditionally built to segregate men and women, with women's domain being the inside of the home and household chores, and the men's being the outer chambers to facilitate business deals and other public affairs. In line with their cultural practice of Hinduism, doorways of the home are often decorated with images of Hindu deities, and specific rooms of the home are used for worship.[12][13]

Indian ancestral homes also include the homes of former feudal lords, or talukdars, which were lost, or mostly vacated, during the 1947 India-Pakistan split. These homes have been subject to multiple court disputes, with many heirs struggling to regain possession of these properties.[12][13]

In Kerala, a south-western Indian state, ancestral homes are constructed using native materials including wood, mud, bamboo and straw.[14] Ancestral homes in this region do not follow traditionally ornate styles of architecture, but is instead constructed for functionality and according to the rules of the Mansara, an ancient Hindu system that likens the pattern of the house's construction to a mandala.[14] According to local cultural practice, an ancestral home in a mandala pattern represents a link between creatures and the divine, or the universe. Decorative features are minimalistic in these houses, unlike temples or other places of worship.[14] These simpler and more traditional architectural styles have natural ways of conserving energy, including wind catchers, temperature regulation and rainwater irrigation as well as protection from the elements.[14]

A traditionally constructed home in Kerala.

Ancestral homes are important in Chinese culture and society. There are sources that specifically describe these as the home of the patriline.[15] Research shows that these home-place identities are crucial in identity negotiations and identity processes in the country.[16] Aside from speaking the Chinese language and "acting" Chinese (e.g. the worship and veneration of one's ancestors), having an ancestral home in China is a key part of being Chinese for those who live overseas.[17] Ancestral homes in Chinese culture often reflect each individual family's history, with each family including shrines for deceased family members and other memorabilia or significant possessions of the dead. Ancestral homes also often include photographs and paintings of family members, and artefacts from various periods of a nation and family's history.[18]

The ancestral home of the Xie family at Jibi Alley in China

A traditional structure of Chinese ancestral homes include having two separate halls, one private, to store artefacts such as ancestral tablets, and one public, for receiving guests. The internal and external structure and architecture of ancestral homes is often decorated according to the Chinese principle of feng shui, which is said to bring good fortune and keep bad fortune away from the family and home.[18] Other structural aspects, such as the size of the halls, represented a family's specific rank in Imperial China.[19][18]

Ancestral halls in Chinese culture serve a variety of purposes, including a play area for children, and also host significant events such as family gatherings, weddings, town meetings, celebrations, homecomings and even public punishment.[19]

A recent phenomenon surrounding Chinese ancestral homes is the return of members of the Chinese diaspora to their native land.[1][11] A factor that influences the return of Chinese migrants to their ancestral homes is the economic growth that occurs in one's ancestral homeland over time since migration, producing new economic opportunities that would otherwise not have existed. This leads Chinese migrants to look for employment in China itself, causing a phenomenon called self-initiated expatriation.[9]

The experience of self-initiated expatriates is an experience that is often accompanied by difficult emotional and identity-related adjustments. Self-initiated expatriates often undergo a form of cultural adjustment and assimilation that differs widely according to individual circumstance and upbringing, or even familiarity with the language and local way of life.[9] This experience can also often lead to the individual feeling either in an ethnic minority or majority, or be fraught with issues from a language barrier, discrimination, and a general difficulty integrating after living overseas.[9]

Chinese ancestral homes are also established in countries outside of mainland China itself, notably in countries such as Malaysia. Notable ancestral homes include the Kee clan's ancestral home in Sungai Bakap, or the Tang Ancestral Hall in Hong Kong, which is approximately 700 years old.[19]

Ancestral homes in the Philippines are kept by generations of the same family. They remain an important part of the Austronesian Philippine culture as they tie large clans and families, which sometimes spread over vast areas and abroad with the wider Philippine diaspora, to a single home and origin. Ancestral houses are linked to the concept of ancestral hometowns, common throughout Asia.

Ancestral homes are a symbol of a family or clan's longevity and continuity, and serve as central meeting places for family reunions, and for specific events, rituals, ceremonies, and functions. The matriarch or patriarch of the family usually lives in this home, who manages its affairs; allowing for other family members in peril safe sanctuary.

Philippine ancestral homes are often either be of the bahay na bato architectural style (the colonial era architectural style popular between the 17th and 19th centuries: a mix of native-Austronesian, colonial Spanish and Chinese architecture concepts and sensibilities), the native Philippine-Austronesian wooden torogan or traditional bahay kubo and Cordilleran bale/fale styles which stretches back centuries before colonial rule; or a mix of a native base, with modern elements and extensions.

Some ancestral houses are listed as national shrines such as the Aguinaldo Shrine, the Marcelo H. del Pilar Shrine, and Rizal Shrines of Calamba, Laguna, Intramuros (old Manila) and Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte. Many ancestral houses that have been well or pristinely preserved for centuries are designated as heritage houses by the Philippine Registry of Cultural Property.

A wider international community of Filipinos from the diaspora associate themselves with a pan-national Filipino identity, but the differences in language, architectural styles and sub-cultures from island to island contribute to great variability among the styles and cultures around different groups' ancestral homes and ancestral homelands.

Architectural styles vary greatly from province to province, or region to region. 'Bahay na bato' styles of Filipino ancestral houses have become a central part of the movement called 'heritage consciousness' by organisations such as Tuklas Pilipinas, which encourage greater understanding of, appreciation for and agency in the tourism and protection of ancestral homes by locals.[20]

The Hungarians view their ancestral home as the Urals during the early medieval periods of the world. This is due in part to a Julian monk who found a Hungarian in the capital of the Volga Bulgar, and then took him to a Hungarian community living in the Urals. This interaction between the two was significant in Hungarian culture, and led to the establishment of the Urals being their eastern ancestral home. This territory was later known as Magna Hungaria (Great Hungary). This designation has been further used by modern historians and Hungarians living in recent times.[21]

The traditional Thai house[22] has acquired its own unique style after hundreds of years of evolution, made from wood and raised over pillars, it is adapted perfectly to its environment.

Different architectural styles are displayed depending on the region of the country, differing mostly in the kind of decoration and finishes that are used locally. Thai houses have in common, no matter in which area of the country are built, the manner in which their platform is raised over poles offering a shield against rough weather, wildlife and dirt.

A painting of an ancestral home in Lea, Lincolnshire in the United Kingdom

A painting of an English ancestral home in Chatsworth, Derbyshire.

One author has said of the phrase ancestral home that it "tends to conjure up images of European barons dining in chilly halls while dark portraits and empty suits of armor peer down silently".[23]

It has been noted that "[the] term "ancestral home"—usually applied to manor-house and halls of the county—is far more applicable to [small] cottages", because wealthy families may die out or otherwise relinquish their land while poorer families continue to occupy the same homes for generations.[24]

The British historical drama television series Downton Abbey was filmed in Highclere Castle, the ancestral home of several families, including the current Lord and Lady Carnarvon.