Tamão ( zh, 屯門) was a trade settlement set up by the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

on an island in the

Pearl River Delta The Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region (PRD; ; pt, Delta do Rio das Pérolas (DRP)) is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary, where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. Referred to as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Ma ...

, China. This was the first time Europeans reached China via the sea route around the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is ...

. The settlement lasted from 1514 to 1521, when the Portuguese were expelled by the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

navy.

Location

In May 1513, the

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

Jorge Álvares Jorge Álvares (died 8 July 1521) was a Portuguese explorer. He is credited as the first European to have reached China by sea during the Age of Discovery. His starting of settlements on an island in what is now Hong Kong is still considered a sign ...

arrived on the Chinese coast at an island in the

, which they called "Tamão", which is understood to be a

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

of "Tyunmun" (), the name for the western Hong Kong and

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern provi ...

area. Chinese sources state that the Portuguese settled around the Tunmen Inlet (), but the current whereabouts of the Tyunmun Inlet is unknown, so the precise location of the Portuguese settlement remains a matter of debate among historians. Rendered in Chinese, the name is identical to the

Tuen Mun Tuen Mun or Castle Peak is an area near the mouth of Tuen Mun River and Castle Peak Bay in the New Territories, Hong Kong. It was one of the earliest settlements in what is now Hong Kong and can be dated to the Neolithic period. In the more ...

district in present-day Hong Kong. This leads some researchers to link the Tyunmun of Ming times to Tuen Mun in the

New Territories The New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of Hong Kong. Historically, it ...

of Hong Kong. "Tyunmun Inlet" would then refer to one of two bays around Tuen Mun:

Castle Peak Bay Castle Peak Bay is a bay outside Tuen Mun. Tuen Mun River empties into the bay. In the past, many Tanka fishermen harboured at the bay. In 1513, explorer Jorge Álvares arrived in the Pearl River Delta and started a Portuguese settlement, ...

, next to the current

Tuen Mun New Town Tuen Mun New Town (formerly Castle Peak New Town), commonly referred to simply as Tuen Mun, is a satellite town of Hong Kong. It is one of the new towns that were developed by the Hong Kong Government in the New Territories from the 1960s. I ...

; or Deep Bay between the New Territories and Nantou in present-day Shenzhen, where a Ming coastal defense force was stationed. One source specifically states that the settlement was at the "bay of Tyunmun ... now called Castle Peak". This merely adds to the confusion since the description in Portuguese sources clearly stated that Tamão was an island. As Tuen Mun is not an island, some researchers have proposed that Tamão may actually refer to one of the nearby islands.

Nei Lingding Island Nei or Inner Lingding Island, formerly romanized as Lintin or is an island in the Pearl River estuary in the southeastern Chinese province of Guangdong. Although it is located closer to the eastern (Hong Kong and Shenzhen) shore of the estuary, ...

has been identified by J. M. Braga to be the Tamão of the Portuguese sources, and is widely followed by Western scholarship; however, recent Chinese scholarship has argued that this identification is insufficiently supported by historical evidence, and suggests a number of other potential islands, such as the nearby

Chek Lap Kok Chek Lap Kok is an island in the western waters of Hong Kong's New Territories. Unlike the smaller Lam Chau, it was only partially leveled when it was assimilated via land reclamation into the island for the current Hong Kong International ...

or the larger

Lantau Island Lantau Island (also Lantao Island, Lan Tao) is the largest island in Hong Kong, located West of Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula, and is part of the New Territories. Administratively, most of Lantau Island is part of the Islands ...

. In 1521, the settlement was abandoned after the Battle of Tunmen with the Chinese navy; the Portuguese gathered in

Malacca Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has bee ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Mal ...

. According to sources quoted by ''

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widel ...

'', "Macau may never have existed if not for Tamão" where the Portuguese learned valuable lessons about "how China, the Pearl River Delta, and the South China Sea worked".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tamao 1510s in China 1520s in China 1510s in Portugal 1520s in Portugal History of Hong Kong New Territories Ming dynasty China–Portugal relations Populated places established in 1514 1521 disestablishments History of Guangdong 2nd millennium in Hong Kong

Location

See also

References