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| Laying on the Coromandel Coast, in the Bay of Bengal, the small town of Tranquebar remains a living museum of more than two centuries of Danish heritage in India Tranquebar [Danish: Trankebar] is a small coastal town in the Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu, some 270 km south of the city of Madras. In 1620 Tranquebar was chosen by the Danish East India Company for the foundation of "Dansborg Fort”, which became the most important outpost of Danish trade and culture in India until the colony was eventually sold to the British India Company in 1845. On December 26th 2004 Tranquebar was hit by a tsunami which caused many victims and devastated the village. Today, the town is back to life and Tranquebar proudly remains the most important centre of Danish heritage in India. From Denmark to Dansborg Fort Intercontinental trade was the booming business of the 17th century. The most powerful European nations were making fortunes by trading expensive goods from Asia, Africa, and the Americas, and King Christian IV of Denmark thought that his country should be having its share of that profitable business. Incorporated by royal charter in 1616, the Dansk Ostindisk Kompagni -Danish East India Company- was going to be in charge of the new trading venture between Denmark and Asia. The first Danish expedition to Asia left Copenhagen in 1618, ready for a long two-year sail to the East Indies. The Danes arrived to Ceylon as planned in 1620 and started looking for a place to settle and to establish a trading colony. The chosen spot was found on the Coromandel coast, next to the Cauvery river, on a place known as Tarangambadi, which thereafter became Trankebar. The Danes built rapidly Dansborg Fort and started trading spices and silk with Asian countries, sometimes for themselves, sometimes on behalf of other European nations. Besides their permanent settlement in Tranquebar, the Danes also created further trading stations, offices or factories in other places in the region: Masulipatnam, Balasore, Pipli... The expansion of the Danish colonial venture in India The Danish settlers in India had worked very hard building Dansborg and establishing a new trading network, but their resources were very small when compared with other similar colonial ventures from England, Portugal or Holland. The Danish East India Company had been born with limited finances and was obtaining too small profits from their Indian operations. Moreover, the new King Frederik III of Denmark was more worried about war in Europe than about commerce with Asia. In the early 1640's shipping between Denmark and Tranquebar stopped and the Dansborg settlers were left forgotten for almost thirty years. Shipping between Denmark and Tranquebar was eventually resumed in 1669 but by then most of the original Danish population had already died of tropical diseases. The Danish East India Company was refounded and new reinforcements were sent to Tranquebar. Some years later, in 1706, King Frederik IV sent two Lutheran missionaries to spread the Christian religion in the region. The Danish mission created the first printing press of India and printed the first Bible in Tamil language. One of the missionaries, Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg, wrote very informative accounts about the region, the people, the customs, and life in the colony during his time. By the 18th century the colony had become a large settlement which could be considered as one of Denmark’s largest towns since its administration and official language was Danish. In 1755 the Danes expanded their colonial activities to Serampore, in the Hughli district of West Bengal near Calcutta, and later on to the towns of Achne and Pirapur. There was also an attempt to colonise the Nicobar Islands, some 200 km off the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Back in the old world, Denmark and other European nations were entering a period of political and economic turmoil. The Great Northern War of 1700-1721 and the Napoleonic Wars of 1799-1814 left the Danish economy in a very bad condition. Overseas colonies were now a luxury that the national treasury could hardly afford, therefore Denmark started abandoning her colonial offices and factories on the East Indies. Finally, in 1845, the Danes sold the towns of Tranquebar, Serampore, and Balasore to the British East India Company, finishing a two-century colonial adventure in the Indian Ocean. Danish heritage in Tranquebar today Tranquebar was settled by the Danes during 235 years, and two centuries of Danish heritage have left an important cultural heritage that can still be seen today in colonial houses, churches, cemeteries, and most particularly, the Dansborg military fort. Dansborg Fort was built in 1620 by the first Danish expedition that arrived and settled in Tranquebar. It is a solid example of Scandinavian military architecture, similar to other Scandinavian forts. Dansborg was the administrative and military centre of the Danish East Indies. The fort has been restored and protected under India's Monuments and Archaeological Sites Act of 1966. Today, Dansborg Fort is a museum containing a varied collection of items from the Danish times of Tranquebar. "King street" or Kongensgade is Tranquebar's main street, and some of the most important buildings of the old Danish colony are still there. The main ones are the large Governor’s House, built in 1784 and now refurbished into an elegant hotel, and the New Jerusalem Church, built in 1718 by Lutheran missionary Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg, who is buried there. The churchyard has one of the town's three Danish cemeteries, which were the last resting place of many Danes and other Europeans. Another outstanding monument in Kongensgade is the town’s old Gate, built in baroque style in 1792 with the Danish Royal arms presiding over the main arch. Tranquebar conserves many other reminders of Danish heritage, most of them being colonial houses scattered around Kongensgade which remind us of the times when this busy trading centre was a rare outpost of Danish culture in the tropical Indian Ocean. The rich cultural heritage of this "little Denmark" is the cornerstone for a planned candidature of Tranquebar as a UNESCO's World Heritage Site.
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