Tranquebar, the Tarangambadi of the singing waves, is unrecognisable today. I last visited it in 2006 in connection with the tercentenary celebrations of the arrival of Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg and the establishment under leadership of the Danish Halle Mission, the first Protestant mission, not church, to put down roots in Asia. Not only was it then recovering after the 2004 tsunami which had swallowed much of its coast and taken a heavy toll of life and property, but several non-governmental organisations had begun to team together to resurrect Tranquebar as a Heritage Town, a status it got like Chettinad/Kanadukathan got only on the insistence of INTACH Tamil Nadu (as INTACH Chennai was then) who had been asked to review the list prepared by the Department of Town and Country Planning, Government of Tamil Nadu.

Tranquebar Crafts Resource Centre, Tranquebar. The town gate.

Historically the Poompuhar (Kaveripoompattinam)-Tarangambadi Nagapattinam coast has been a signally important one, for it is from here that the Chola and, later, Pandya fleets sailed to South and Southeast Asia between the 10th and the 14th Centuries. Muslim and Nayak influence left its mark on the small port town between the 14th and 17th Centuries. And then, in 1620, it was granted by King Raghunatha Naik of Thanjavur to the Danes to establish a trading settlement. Dansborg (the Danish fort) was completed in 1624 and in 1701 the Zion Church was built to serve the Fort. In 1645, the Danish Government, which had taken over the settlement and 15 surrounding villages after the Danish Asiatic Company had been dissolved in 1732, sold the territory to the British East India Company for Rs. 12.5 lakh and it remained British till Independence when it became part of Madras/Tamil Nadu State. The influence left by all these rulers has long been reflected in the town, but the interest in doing something about this ‘treasure’ began only in the new Millennium when a few Danes working on a schools’ project in the Arcots visited Tranquebar and caught up with its history. Initial attempts by this group to spruce up a couple of the historic buildings with coats of paint led to the founding, on their return to Denmark, of the Danish Tranquebar Association. It now has a membership of over 300 and has been able to get the Bestseller Foundation (the CSR wing of a major Danish conglomerate), the National Museum of Denmark and some NGOs to work with the Tamil Nadu Tourism Department, the Government of India’s Tourism Department, the Archaeological Department, Tamil Nadu, the Archaeological Survey of India, the HR & CE Department, Tamil Nadu, the Lutheran & CSI Churches, the Pondicherry and Chennai chapters of INTACH, Upasana, a design centre in Auroville, the Crafts Council of India, St. Joseph’s Development Trust, Tranquebar, and the Neemrana Group to work together and breathe new life into the dying town. What I saw on my recent visit was a work in progress. But there has been sufficient progress to make this a heritage destination worth visiting – for a weekend and, perhaps, more particularly with good accommodation now available. The Neemrana Group of heritage hotels has restored the Collector’s Bungalow on the beach as an upmarket property. It has restored two old Tamil houses, the Gate House and the Naik Bungalow, as mid-level properties, and runs Tamil Nadu Tourism’s Hotel ‘Tamil Nadu’ as something much better than the usual such hostelries.

The Fort, on which some restoration work was done in 2002, and the Museum set up in it need a considerable amount of work and more to be done by the Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department and by those it might be willing to team with. So does the ‘Land Gate’, the gateway to what was a walled town. It was first reconstructed in 1792. After Independence, it has been little looked after by the Archaeological Survey of India after every renovation by it. And the CSI’s Zion Church needs restoration. Elsewhere there is much positive work.

Reconstruction of the Tamil Nadu Tourism-owned Governor’s Bungalow is nearing completion (it will probably be ready for the Tamil New Year) and is to house a Tranquebar Cultural Centre in which the National Museum, the Bestseller Foundation, Tamil Nadu Tourism and the Chennai and Pondicherry INTACH Chapters have all promised to play leading roles. And to which, it is hoped, will be added inputs from the Lutheran Church on the ever-so-important Zienbalg-Tamil Nadu connection. The Bestseller Foundation has restored five Tamil houses on Goldsmith Street. One is now a guest house, two of them house INTACH Tranquebar’s office and an exhibition on Tranquebar’s history, and the other two are home to the Tranquebar Craft Resource Centre where local craft is being revived with the help of Upasana and the Crafts Council working with the St. Joseph Development Trust self-help groups.

The Danish cemetery has been restored and so have been several old buildings in the Ziegenbalg complex, including his home. A Ziegenbalg Museum has been partly developed here and a printing museum awaits development in the premises where Ziegenbalg’s printing press, the first in Asia after printing died out in Portuguese territories, was located, a promise of the Madras Printers’ Association still to be fulfilled. The Commander’s House next to the Governor’s Bungalow, the colonnaded Rehling’s House, Van Teylingen’s House and Zion Church (1701) are all to be restored by INTACH Pondicherry with the Bestseller Foundation’s help. The Sivan Temple is being restored by the HR & CE Board and suggestions have been given to them to restore the Masilamani Nathar Temple dating to 1306, a rare coastal temple that has to a great extent been swallowed by the sea. The 1350s old mosque, later renovated, has had a newer mosque built neighbouring it and there has been restoration of the latter.

Under a Destination Development Scheme drawn up by INTACH Pondicherry and the Tamil Nadu and Government of India Tourism authorities, the local Panchayat and the Bestseller Foundation, the Parade Ground, a ‘brown’, has been converted into a ‘green’ with a granite walkway separating it from the Governor’s Bungalow and its neighbours. The ‘walkway’, with its new row of old Danish lamp posts could pass for a promenade. Similar lighting will illuminate the ‘green’ to be developed around Dansborg, some of which will reflect the positioning of the moat that once surrounded the fort. With the whole area to be made ‘pedestrians only’ – a welcome thought – it tends to give an impression of a contrived, deliberately created bit of heritage, rather than truly reflect the past. But then many a heritage destination in different parts of the world has followed this route – and who are we to crib when so much has been done to bring Tranquebar alive again.

The Danish Tranquebar Association has established a Danish Maritime Museum, at present in rented premises but to be moved to Van Teylingen’s House on King’s Street after its restoration. The Association also contributes to Tamil, English and Danish road signage, a cleaner Tranquebar and prevention of coastal erosion while beautifying the road along the coast.

Taken altogether, the efforts of all those working together to restore Tranquebar has resulted in what is without doubt the best re-creation of a heritage town in the State, perhaps even in South India.