Tranquebar Travel Attractions

Pondicherry situated in the state of Tamil Nadu is a beautiful region in this part of India. Visit this land and enjoy the pleasures of being in a pristine land with the best travel pleasures. Lying 15 km north of the Karaikal region, there is a fascinating land called Tranquebar which is a great place to visit and a lovely locale to relax and rejuvenate.

Tranquebar was actually a fort that was established for the Danish so that they could export pepper and today this is a great tourist attraction and is a place where travelers love to enjoy the peace and tranquility that it exudes. Relish the beauty of the constructions here and also enjoy the beautiful facades that are so full of the British and Danish influences.

Tranquebar is an idyllic local on the Chennai suburbs and is a great getaway spot for all those who live in this metropolis. So it was but obvious that when my cousin asked me if I could accompany her to Tharangambadi or Tranquebar I was quite excited and thrilled to visit this beautiful spot in southern India. This panchayat town as it is called in Indian parlance, lies in the district of Nagapattinam in the state of Tamil Nadu and is a fantastic region in the mouth of the distributaries of the River Kaveri. Tharangambadi means the place of the singing waves. This was earlier a Danish colony from the years 1620 to 1845. Danish used to call it “Trankebar” or “Tranquebar”.

Tarangambadi has had references in the 14th century in the inscriptions and was then known as Sadanganpade. The Danish East India Company found this place in the year 1620 when there was a commercial settlement that was opened here along with a fort which was called the Fort Dansborg. It was Ove Gjedde who was a captain who built this. This was the place where the governor and many other officials resided for more than 150 years. Today this is a lovely museum with the best kind of artifacts that were obtained from the colonial era.

Tranquebar is the place where the Protestant missionaries set foot and started work in the year 1705. Then these missionaries translated the Holy Bible into the Tamil language which is the local language here ans later the Bible got translated into Hindustani. Then there was a printing press that was established here and within 100 years more than 300 books were printed in the Tamil language. Gradually the press made progress and today the mission has spread to Tanjore, Cuddalore and Madras. Today the Bishop of TRanquebar is the official name given to the bishop in the Tamil Evangelical Church in the southern part of India. This was founded in the year 1919.

There is a lot of history of Tranquebar and it is said that the Moravian missionaries operated from Tranquebar for many years. There was an Italian Catholic Fatehr who worked here from the year 1711 to the year 1740.

Then Tranquebar came under the British control, and then after the Treaty of Kiel, was given back to Denmark. There were many Danish settlements that were sold to the British in the year 1845 and Tranquebar was one of them. Tranquebar was a

very busy port then but then when the Nagapattinam city got a railway station, Tranquebar lost its importance.

We went to the Danish Museum and had a look at the antiquities that are stored here. There were lot of exhibits like the Danish manuscripts, the Chinese tea jars, the glass objects, the steatitle lamps, the figurines, decorated terracotta objects, sculptures, stones, daggers, sudai, spears, and other wooden objects. A whale skeleton is also exhibited here and it totally is an intrigue to the tourists to see such lovely attractions.

We went to the Tharangampadi fort which has two structures. There is a rampant wall here and there are four large structures that are found at the cardinal points. Then there are rooms which are used as barracks, jail, kitchen and warehouse. The rooms on the southern side of the fort are well maintained but the rooms on the other sides are totally damaged. There were two storeys here. The lower storey was a magazine and a warehouse while the upper storey is the church and also the governor’s residence. The upper storey also had the Chaplain and the senior merchants residing here. There was a moat which surrounded the fort and there was a drawbridge which gave access to the fort. Today this moat is not there and has completely vanished.

Tranquebar with its intriguing history and lovely sights is a great place to visit and an ideal travel destination if you want to feel the calmness and the ambience of a lovely surrounding. With the best sights of travel and adventure, the Tharangambadi beach is a great place for beach enthusiasts for here is where you would find the best shores and also the lovely sun giving you the tan you always wanted. The past legacy of the Danes is seen here and it is a wonderful feeling to take this journey down the past Indian history that has happened in this small land enconcsced somewhere in the state of Tamil Nadu.