page_title: Tranquebar Mission
section_title: Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg
hierarchical_section_title: Tranquebar Mission / Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg
caption_attribution_description: English: Ziegenbalg Leaving Tranquebar (p.170, 1890), London Missionary Society
context_page_description: The Tranquebar Mission was established in 1706 by two German missionaries from Halle, Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau. Ziegenbalg and Plütschau responded to the appeal of 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, with many international delegates in attendance. A monument to acknowledge 300 years of the mission was raised by the TELC on this occasion.
context_section_description: Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg was the first Protestant missionary to land in India, sent as a Royal Missionary by King Frederick IV, from the Kingdom of Denmark. Ziegenbalg landed at Tranquebar, then part of Danish India colony of the Danish East India Company, on 9 July 1706. Ziegenbalg attended the local school, sat amongst the village children and learnt Tamil. He set up a Tamil seminary in 1707, and preached Christianity to the villagers. In 1711, he was able to convince the University at Halle at Halle to start scholarly study into the Tamil language.
  In 1715, he translated the Bible into Tamil and helped set up India's first printing press at Tranquebar, with Tamil being the first Indian language to be printed. Ziegenbalg championed the cause of women's education and abolition of caste system, and gained the respect of the local people. Ziegenbalg established the very first school for girls in India at Tranquebar in 1707. In 1713, in a letter written to Johann Georg von Holstein the privy counsellor to King Frederick IV, Ziegenbalg mentions 47 students in the Tamil school, 20 pupils in the Portuguese school and 15 pupils in the Danish school, with the students of the Tamil and Portuguese schools being provided free tuition, boarding, lodging and food. Between 1717–1718, he helped establish the New Jerusalem Church at Tranquebar for the use of the native people, conducting services in Tamil. Ziegenbalg died on 23 February 1719, aged 37, and is buried in the New Jerusalem Church.
caption: Ziegenbalg Leaving Tranquebar (p.170, 1890), London Missionary Society[9]
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