Silence and the sea
The heat rises as the engine steams off angrily, the Puducherry bus halts at Tranquebar, a small fishing hamlet enroute Karaikal on the Coromandel coast and I set foot on an unfamiliar ground in search of a 17th century fort. The folks take shelter under a man- made bus stand; fried fish hang by the grills on the roadside shack, the smell of salt and sea wafts in the air, and the sultry hotness gets itchy on the skin. This is a typical summer scene of an expedition, to find the lesserknown Dutch fort, Fort Dansborg of Tharangambadi. The south has very little historical remains to flaunt, but whatever continues to exist is not widely known to the people. After being misled and straying away, I finally reached the fort entrance. The conservation work that goes underway has been dragged on for months. Furthermore, tourist attraction from Puducherry has increased lately.
The Town Gate was built in 1792 by the then governor of the region, Peter Anker. With an elegant chiseled hallow interior dome and freshly painted outsides, the walk to the fort from here resembles a classic movie scene. The settlements in the surrounding were primarily fisherfolk but as time lapsed, jobs took a different spell for them. It was ideally built to strengthen the trade links between the Dutch with the other parts of the world. Built in the year 1620 by a Dutch admiral named, Ove Gjedde, Tharangambadi was a thriving port for trade. The Dutch fort is renovated with major portions of it being cemented as it suffered the wrath of the tsunami in 2004. It also houses a museum inside it that contains Dutch manuscripts, swords used by the soldiers, porcelain wares, cannon balls and a skeleton of a giant whale. Tranquebar is decked with heritage buildings and churches and has 33 such buildings that have been renovated and preserved. It is the domicile of the oldest protestant church in the country, Zion Church which was sanctified in 1701. The New Jerusalem Church was built by the Royal Danish Missionary Bartho lomä us Ziegenbalg in 1718. He further brought a printing press to Tanjore and printed the Bible for the natives to read. A weekend drive or a one day trip, Tranquebar is a sea haven waiting to be explored.
How to get there: There are a number of buses from Puducherry to Karaikal which stop at Tharangambadi or take a bus to Velakanni from Chennai