Travelogue | தரங்கம்பாடி | trip to tranquebar | Fort Dansborg | Tranquebar Beach | Bungalow on beach

 

Travelogue | தரங்கம்பாடி | trip to tranquebar | Fort Dansborg | Tranquebar Beach | Bungalow by the beach | tranquebar | Danish settlers | Danish fort | Discover India | Tamilnadu | Enchanting

 

The name Tharangambadi itself means ‘the land of singing waves’, which is very apt for the village because of the constant sound of the sea that provides background music throughout the streets of Tranquebar. As per popular legend, Tranquebar was a name coined by the Scandinavians because they had huge difficulty in pronouncing Tharangambadi.

 

This quaint seaside town on the Coromandel coast was once the trading post of the Danish East India Company.

 

A large part of Tranquebar village was damaged due to the tsunami in 2004. With the help of Tamil Nadu State Archeological Department and the Royal Danish family, the Danish Tranquebar Association has managed to restore some parts of Tranquebar.

 

The museum at Dansborg Fort contains all the information one might want about Danish rule. Among other treasures, the museum contains interesting documents such as a copy of the treaty between the Nayak King and Denmark East India Company, carefully preserved copy of the sale deed between the Danes and the British (from 1845), old maps of Trankebar town and a collection of miniature Danish ships that first docked at Tranquebar.

 

The Zion Church was consecrated in 1701 and is the last building on King’s Street. It lies inside a lovely compound with greenery and seems to have been well maintained with constant renovations. Inside the church, polished brass plaques on the wall signify that the first five Indian protestant converts of the Danish mission were baptized in Zion church in the year 1707.

 

Tranquebar is located at a distance of 280 kms from Chennai and 120 kms from Pondicherry. There are regular buses that run via ECR (East Coast Road) to Karaikal. Tharangambadi is the local Tamil name that is more widely used and it is quite possible that the locals haven’t even heard of Tranquebar. It is a very small town on the coast with limited population and fishing is the main occupation of the locals here.