Tranquebar Mission

The Tranquebar Mission (Dansk: Trankebar Mission; Tamil: தரங்கம்பாடி மிஷன்) was established in 1706 by two German missionaries from Halle, Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau. Ziegenbalg and Plütschau, responded to the appeal by King Frederick IV of Denmark to establish a mission for the natives living in the Danish East India Company colony of Tranquebar. The mission was responsible for the printing and publication of the Bible in the Tamil Language. In 2006, the 300 years anniversary of the mission was celebrated by the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (TELC), with many international delegates in attendance. An monument to acknowledge 300 years of the mission was raised by the TELC on this occasion.

In 1620, the village of Tranquebar was acquired for the Danish Crown, by the Danish Admiral Ove Gjedde, by signing an agreement with the Raghunatha Nayak of the Tanjore Nayak Kingdom on behalf of the King of Denmark.

King Frederick IV of Denmark was very keen to spread Christianity among his non-European subjects and called from Royal missionaries. However, there was a lack of interest to his call among his Danish subjects. Hence, the king gave the task of finding the right people to his court chaplain Franz J Lütkens. After a search in German universities, Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau were selected. After being ordained in Copenhagen, they sailed to Tranquebar with a royal charter on the ship Sophia Hedewig on 29 November 1705, arriving on 9 July 1706.