page_title: New Jerusalem Church, Tranquebar
section_title: Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg
hierarchical_section_title: New Jerusalem Church, Tranquebar / Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg
caption_attribution_description: Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg (1682-1719), German Lutheran missionary to India
context_page_description: The New Jerusalem Church was built in 1718 by the Royal Danish missionary Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg in the coastal town of Tranquebar, India, which was at that time a Danish India colony. The church is located on King Street, and church services are conducted every Sunday. The church, along with other buildings of the Tranquebar Mission, was damaged during the tsunami of 2004, and were renovated at a cost of INR 7 million, and re-consecrated in 2006.
context_section_description: Bartholomäus 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 1707. 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 convinced the Martin Luther University 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 for 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 tuitions, boarding, lodging and food. Between 1717 and 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: Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg (1682–1719)
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