The worship place of the Tang family in the ancient city of Hoi An, has been recognised in the UNESCO 2009 Asia-Pacific awards for cultural heritage preservation.

This house now hosts a gallery and a sourvenir and cloth shop, however, anyone can enter the house to see it and take photos.

Tim Curtis, chief representative of the UNESCO’s cultural office in Bangkok, Thailand, said the Tang family worship place is one of the most important relics in Hoi An and its recent restoration ensures it retains as much of its history as possible.

This relic is located on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street, around 50m from the famous Chua Cau (Bridge pagoda). Its gate and surrounding lime made walls makes the low roofed but airy building an architectural work unique in Hoi An.

Tong Quoc Hung, an expert on preservation in Hoi An, told Tuoi Tre newspaper that this worship house was built in the 19^th century and is the one of the best preserved wood-made houses in Hoi An. The local authorities provided the Tang family with several hundred million dong to cover restoration.

This house now hosts a gallery and a sourvenir and cloth shop, however, anyone can enter the house to see it and take photos.

This year 14 countries sent details of 48 construction works including hotels, offices, education institutes, religious centres and residential buildings to UNESCO to be considered for the awards.

UNESCO presented the Most Excellent Project award to Mongolia’s Sanglin Dalai cemetery complex and three Excellence Awards to Australia’s M24 Midget Submarine area, Pakistan’s Ali Gohar house and South Korea’s ancient village of Bukchon.

Vietnam’s Tang family worship house, China’s Visual Arts Institute of the Baptist Hong Kong University, China’s heritage houses in Zhejiang, and India’s YWCA Lady Willingdon guest house all received awards of honor.

This is the third UNESCO award for Vietnam for preservation of cultural heritage. Vietnam won the Excellence Project award in 2000 for the project to preserve Hoi An and the Award of Merit for traditional houses (six ancient houses restored in the north, the south and the central region).

VietNamNet/Tuoi Tre