The National Museum of Denmark has over the last year worked closely with Associate Professor, dr.phil. Esther Fihl, head of Centre for Comparative Cultural Studies to launch an interdisciplinary and international project on the Indo-Danish cultural encounter in Tranquebar – an Indian locality which from 1620-1845 was a Danish colony and today part of the modern State of Tamilnadu.
An overall perspective of the initiative is to preserve and to present the joint Indo-Danish cultural heritage and to explore historical materials on Danish colonialism from both Tamil and Danish cultural perspectives.
Furthermore, the goal is to relate the historical topics to the social and cultural living conditions of the people of Tranquebar today. In a modern perspective, the aim is to provide insights of relevance for the great challenges facing Tranquebar today especially within agriculture and fishing, where the tsunami caused the loss of approx. 800 lives and also severe damage, swiping away the whole fishermen quarter of the village.
For further information: www.komparativekulturstudier.ku.dk/forskning
Tranquebar – 300 years of Indian-Danish Christian Relations
In honour of the tercentenary of the commencement of the Lutheran World Mission on the 29th of November 1705 with the emission of the two Germans Bartholomæus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau from Halle as missionaries of the Danish King to the colony Tranquebar in South India, The Faculty of Theology held a seminar in the Ceremonial Hall of Copenhagen University on 29 November 2005.
To mark the tercentenary the festschrift “It began in Copenhagen. Junctions in 300 years of Indian-Danish Relations in Christian Mission” edited by George Oommen and Hans Raun Iversen was launched at the same day. Contact: [email protected]
