Tamão
{{EngvarB|date=April 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2019}}
{{Infobox settlement
| name = Tamão
| native_name = 屯門
| native_name_lang = zh-hk
| settlement_type = Trade settlement
| image_skyline = 屯门海战 3426.jpg
| image_alt =
| image_caption = Imagined scenes of Battle of Tunmen
| image_flag = Flag of Portugal (1495).svg
| flag_alt =
| image_seal =
| seal_alt =
| image_shield = Coat of arms of the Kingdom of Portugal (Enciclopedie Diderot).svg
| shield_alt =
| nickname =
| motto =
| image_map = Tamao Map Full Hong Kong.png
| map_alt =
| map_caption = Possible extent of Portuguese settlement (1518–1521){{efn|Lantau Island (1) is one of the possible locations of "Tamão"; Castle Peak Bay (2) is a possible location of the "Tunmun Inlet"; the settlement is also said to have reached Kwai Chung inlet (3) as well.{{harvnb|Tang|1999|p=5}}}}
| established_title = Established
| established_date = 1514
| extinct_title = Battle of Tunmen
| extinct_date = 1521
| founder = Jorge Álvares
| subdivision_type = Country
| subdivision_name = Portuguese Empire
| seat_type =
| seat =
| government_type =
| governing_body =
| unit_pref = Metric
| footnotes = {{notelist}}
}}
{{Infobox Chinese
| t = 屯門
| s = 屯门
| p = Tún Mén
| y = Tyùhn mùhn
| j = Tyun4 mun4
| phfs = Thûn mùn
| hide = no
| altname = Tunmen Inlet
| t2 = 屯門澳
| s2 = 屯门澳
| p2 = Tún Mén Ào
| y2 = Tyùhn mùhn ou
| j2 = Tyun4 mun4 ou3
| phfs2 = Thûn mùn àu
}}
Tamão ({{lang-zh|屯門}}) was a trade settlement set up by the Portuguese on an island in the Pearl River Delta, China. This was the first time Europeans reached China via the sea route around the Cape of Good Hope.{{Cite web |title=Construction of Lung Kwu Chau Jetty – Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment |url=http://www.epd.gov.hk/eia/register/report/eiareport/eia_0812002/Final%20EIA/Html/sect_6.htm |website=epd.gov.hk |language=en}} The settlement lasted from 1514 to 1521, when the Portuguese were expelled by the Ming dynasty navy.{{Cite book |last=Porter |first=Jonathan |title=Macau, the Imaginary City: Culture and Society, 1557 to the Present |publisher=Westview Press |year=1996 |isbn=0813328365}}
Location
In 1514, the Portuguese explorer Jorge Álvares arrived on the Chinese coast at an island in the Pearl River Delta, which they called "Tamão". Many researchers take the name "Tamão" as a corruption of "Tunmen" ({{zh|t=屯門|labels=no}}), the name for what is now the western Hong Kong and Shenzhen area.{{Cite book |last=Braga |first=J. M. |title=China Landfall 1513, Jorge Alvares Voyage to China |date=1956 |publisher=Imprensa Nacional |location=Macau |oclc=10673337}} Chinese sources state that the Portuguese settled around the Tunmen Inlet ({{zh|t=屯門澳|labels=no}}), but the current whereabouts of the Tunmen Inlet is unknown, so the precise location of the Portuguese settlement remains a matter of debate among historians.{{Cite web |last=O'Connell |first=Ronan |date=2021-03-16 |title=The Long Lost City of Tamão is Hiding in Plain Sight |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/long-lost-city-tamao-hiding-in-plain-sight |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210315175412/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/long-lost-city-tamao-hiding-in-plain-sight |url-status=dead |archive-date=15 March 2021 |access-date=16 March 2021 |website=National Geographic |language=en}}
Rendered in Chinese, the name is identical to the Tuen Mun district in present-day Hong Kong. This leads some researchers to link the Tunmen of Ming times to Tuen Mun in the New Territories of Hong Kong. "Tunmen Inlet" would then refer to one of two bays around Tuen Mun: Castle Peak Bay,{{Cite book |last=Cremer |first=Rolph |title=Macau City of Commerce and Culture |date=1987 |publisher=University of Michigan |isbn=9623080026 |volume=1 |location=Detroit |page=9 |language=en}} next to the current Tuen Mun New Town; or Deep Bay between the New Territories and Nantou in present-day Shenzhen, where a Ming coastal defense force was stationed.{{Cite book |last=Lau |first=Chi-pang 劉智鵬 |last2=Liu |first2=Shuyong 劉蜀永 |date=2012 |publisher=Sanlian shudian |isbn=9789620431470 |location=Hong Kong |page=35 |language=zh |script-title=zh:屯門: 香港地區史研究之四 |trans-title=History of Tuen Mun}}
However, the identification of Tunmen Inlet with modern-day Tuen Mun is confused by original Portuguese sources that clearly state 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 has been identified by J. M. Braga to be the Tamão of the Portuguese sources, and is 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 or the larger Lantau Island.{{Cite book |last=Jin |first=Guoping 金國平 |url=https://www.macaudata.mo/showbook?bno=b000452 |title=Xīlì dōngjiān: Zhōng Pú zǎoqí jiēchù zhuīxī |date=2000 |publisher=Aomen jijin hui |isbn=99937-1-007-5 |location=Aomen |pages=21–42 |language=zh |script-title=zh:西力東漸 : 中葡早期接觸追昔 |trans-title=West to the East: China and Portugal's early contacts and reminiscences}}
History
During the Ming dynasty, private maritime trade by Chinese was prohibited and foreign trade in Chinese ports was officially restricted to highly regulated tribute embassies. Despite these restrictions, Chinese illegal maritime trade continued, and by 1500 it was flourishing. Under the Zhengde Emperor (r. 1505–1521), restrictions on tribute missions were relaxed to the extent that ships from Ming tributary states in Southeast Asia could trade freely. Rather than being forbidden, this trade was officially approved and taxed by the Superintendencies of Maritime Shipping ({{Lang-zh|p=Shi Bo Si|labels=no}}), led by eunuchs who sought to obtain rare goods for the emperor. The Guangdong Superintendancy apparently established a tax-collection station at Tunmen or Macao sometime between 1500 and the first Portuguese encounters.{{harvnb|CHC|1998|pp=333–335}} By 1519, it was "the island center for the trade of all foreigners".{{harvnb|CHC|1998|pp=337}}
The first visit to China by the Portuguese took place in 1514, when the Portuguese explorer Jorge Álvares arrived at Tunmen (Tamão) in the Pearl River Delta. Álvares likely traveled on Malaccan or Chinese ships and returned with profitable cargo.{{harvnb|CHC|1998|pp=336}} In 1517, Fernão Peres de Andrade arrived in the Pearl River Delta with eight ships and an ambassador from the King of Portugal, Tomé Pires. When Peres de Andrade left in September 1518, he posted a notice at Tunmen that "anyone who had been injured by a Portuguese or to whom a Portuguese owed money should see him for redress", which (according to a Portuguese source) made a very good impression on the Chinese.{{harvnb|CHC|1998|pp=336–337}}
The good relations between Portugal and the Ming established by Fernão Peres de Andrade were ruined by his brother, Simão de Andrade at Tunmen in August 1519. Simão built a small fort on Tunmen, ceremoniously executed a Portuguese, interfered with other (likely Southeast Asian) traders, bought Chinese children (possibly kidnapped) from good families, and "knocked the hat off an official who tried to assert Ming authority on the island". Simão's group left in September 1520; reports of their abuses, alongside other factors, led to the rejection of the Pires embassy the day after the death of the Zhengde Emperor on 19 April 1521.{{harvnb|CHC|1998|pp=337–339}}
In 1521, the settlement was abandoned after the Battle of Tunmen with the Chinese navy; the Portuguese gathered in Malacca in Malaysia.
According to sources quoted by National Geographic, "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".
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
Bibliography
- {{Cite book |last=Tang |first=Kaijian |title=Aomen kai bu chu qi shi yan jiu |date=1999 |publisher=Zhonghua shu ju |isbn=978-7-101-02275-9 |edition=1st |location=Beijing |language=zh |script-title=zh:澳门开埠初期史研究|ref={{harvid|Tang|1999}}}}
- {{Cite Cambridge History of China|volume=8|chapter=Chapter 7: Relations with Maritime Europeans, 1514–1662|pages=|ref={{harvid|CHC|1998}}}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tamao}}
Category:China–Portugal relations
Category:Populated places established in 1514
Category:1521 disestablishments