Tran Family Chapel

Imagine maintaining a family altar for over two hundred years, keeping incense burning for ancestors you never met but whose blood runs through your veins. That is exactly what the Tran family has done here since the early 1800s, and stepping into their ancestral chapel is one of the most intimate experiences Hoi An offers. The Tran Family Chapel sits at 21 Le Loi Street, and its mustard-yellow walls along Phan Chu Trinh Street have become one of the most photographed scenes in all of Hoi An. You have almost certainly seen this building in travel magazines and Instagram feeds. But the story inside is far richer than any photograph can capture. The Tran family traces its roots to a Chinese envoy who came to Vietnam in the 1700s and eventually settled in Hoi An. The chapel was built to honor the family's ancestors according to Confucian traditions of filial piety, the deeply held belief that you owe a debt to those who came before you. Every year on specific lunar calendar dates, family members gather here to perform elaborate rituals, offer food and incense, and consult with the spirits of their forebears. Architecturally, the chapel is a textbook example...