Tamão

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Tamão 屯門
Trade settlement
Flag Coat of arms
Possible extent of Portuguese settlement (1518–1521)
Country	Portuguese Empire
Established	1514
Dissolved	1521
Founded by	Jorge Álvares

Tamão (Chinese: 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.^[1] The settlement lasted from 1514 to 1521, when the Portuguese were expelled by the Ming dynasty navy.^[2]

Location

In May 1513, the

One source specifically states that the settlement was at the "bay of Tyunmun ... now called Castle Peak".[6] 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 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 or the larger Lantau Island.^[7][4]

In 1521, the settlement was abandoned after the Battle of Tunmen with the Chinese navy; the Portuguese gathered in Malacca in Malaysia.^[4]

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".^[4]

See also

• Tuen Mun
• Macau
• History of Macau
• Shuangyu
• Shangchuan Island
• Lampacau
• Luso-Chinese agreement (1554)

References