In the last decade there has been considerable interest in Tranquebar in reviving memories of a 200-year-old Indo-Danish connection. This interest started when a few Danes who were involved in a school project in Tamil Nadu visited Tranquebar and saw how badly preserved the old Danish fort, Dansborg, was and felt that both the fort and the rest of Tranquebar deserved restoration. At first they planned just to paint the main building where the Danish Governor had his residence during the first centuries of Danish presence in India. They got permission from the Government of Tamil Nadu for this and, investing their own money, made the building look presentable – only to find it deteriorate in the years that followed. The Government of Tamil Nadu then restored the fort, completing the work by 2002 and developing with the help of the Danes a museum in it. During this restoration period, the old Danish Land Gate was restored by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Both have now deteriorated.

Fort Dansborg. The Danish Cemetery

Meanwhile, to further push for the restoration of Tranquebar, the Danish Tranquebar Association was founded in 2002. At present it has more than 300 members. The Association undertook the cleaning and restoration of the cemetery in New Street (Riverbank Street). Before the end of this work, the tsunami of December 2004 hit Tranquebar.

After the tsunami the Association collected money in Denmark to help the hard-hit fishermen’s community to get new boats. But at the request of the fishermen’s leaders, the money was instead used to construct a huge granite coastal sea wall with permission from the Tamil Nadu Government.

Partly as a consequence of the work of the Association, the Bestseller Foundation (the corporate social responsibility wing of a large Danish conglomerate) became interested in helping with development work in Tranquebar. The foundation established a mason training programme for women that would help in the restoration of Tamil buildings and, it hoped, the preservation of Tamil cultural heritage. Bestseller also started some programmes to strengthen traditional craft skills, established a nursery for plants suitable for coastal protection, and developed a public park by the shore. The Foundation also funded a bank for micro credit loans to help people establish their own businesses.

After restoration of the Danish cemetery, the Association got the Danish National Museum interested in the Danish Governor’s Bungalow, owned by the Tamil Nadu Toursim Department. The Department agreed to the Danish National Museum funding the restoration of the building teaming with INTACH’s then Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry chapters. The restoration of the building has now been done by INTACH Pondicherry and will be completed by March 2012, when it will become an Indo-Danish Cultural Centre managed by an Indo-Danish Committee and maintained for an initial period by the Bestseller Foundation.

Opening Tranquebar Maritime Museum

The Danish Tranquebar Association has for some time now been drawing up plans to restore the former Danish Commander ’s Building next to the Governor’s Bungalow. It has procured the necessary funding but has to reach agreement with the local Lutheran Church authorities who own the building. The Association has also renovated the roof of Ziegenbalg’s Prayer House in Admiral Street. And has offered to help with the renovation of the early 14th Century Sri Masilamaninathar Temple, badly eroded by the sea.

With fishing playing such an important role in the history and culture of Tranquebar, the Association decided to establish a Tranquebar Maritime Museum. An exhibition about fishermen and their history was inaugurated in February 2010 by the leaders of the fishing community and representatives from  the Association. The museum was to be situated in Van Teylingen’s House in King Street, the former residence of a Danish doctor, but because Van Teylingen’s House is to be totally restored, the museum is in a rented space at present. The musuem has a department for marine archaeology, the object of which is to explore the sea bed along the coast of Tranquebar where sailing ships used to anchor in the Danish period from 1620 to 1845. “We have knowledge of a number of shipwrecks in the Tranquebar area,” the Association says.

It is also planned to have a historical type of boat, the Selling, on exhibition in the museum. This boat, locally known as a Masula, was used to bring goods to and from the big sailing ships that had to anchor out at sea. It was handled by 8 or 10 rowers. It was also used for fishing. What makes the Masula so special is that its planks are sewn together. In this way the boat gets a high elasticity that makes it extremely suitable to pass through the strong surf of the Coromandel Coast. It is planned, as a part of the new exhibition, to assemble the boat in the presence of visitors, making the museum a living museum.

Meanwhile, a Restoration Development Plan has been drawn up by INTACH Pondicherry, the Tamil Nadu and India Tourism Departments, and the local Panchayat. Under the plan, beautifying the square in front of the fort has begun and it will be possible to walk around the square on a granite walkway, to sit for a while on the benches under shade trees, and see the environment lit up by traditional Danish lamps at night.

Tranquebar has been designated by the Government of Tamil Nadu as a Heritage Town. Such a town will need Government to provide it better water supply, much improved roads, a more reliable system of electricity supply, and an effective sewage system. This the Panchayat need to press for.