An ancestral home is the place of origin of one's extended family, particularly the home owned and preserved by the same family for several generations. The term can refer to an individual house or estate, or to a broader geographic area such as a town, a region, or an entire country. An ancestral home may be a physical place, part of a series of places that one associates with state, nation or region. In the latter cases, the phrase ancestral homeland might be used. In particular, the concept of a diaspora requires the concept of an ancestral home from which the diaspora emanates. However, it is also possible that "[t]he family living in an ancestral home is surrounded by visible, physical symbols of family continuity and solidarity". Ancestral homes and diaspora Ancestral homes are considered by some social scientists to be central to humans' need to acquire a sense of rootedness and smoothly transition to and from different stages of life. People maintain their connections to their ancestral homes at a physical, cultural, symbolic and spiritual level, and these connections are explored differently by members of different generations of migrants. The existence of modern technology, globalisation and increased access to the internet through social media also allows individuals to access art, websites and depictions of their ancestral homes and homeland with greater ease. Certain cultural groups have also found ways of engaging and caring for their ancestral homes despite physical separation or destruction in the wake of war or natural disasters. In the case of the Hyolmo, the destruction of their local villages in Kathmandu following the 2015 earthquake led some community members to rebuild their ancestral homes from rubble as a way of physically retaining a connection to their place. Some of the Hyolmo community members rebuilt a monastery in Tinchuli, one of the towns where they had resettled. Davide Torri, a social scientist, has noted this as the Hyolmo’s way of keeping their heritage alive by finding and building a place for cultural and religious activities and maintaining a sense of community. Expatriation to ancestral homelands The process of returning or finding a sense of engagement with one’s ancestral home or homeland plays a role in the search for belonging and the creation of a sense of personal and cultural identity. Many people return home due to home ownership, strong nationalism or the desire to reconnect with old