| For nearly four hundred years many maps of Asia, | | | | reassociated with local rivers such as the Irrawaddy, |
| and particularly India and Southeast Asia, depicted an | | | | the Dharla, the Mekong, and the Chao Phraya. |
| enormous lake far to the northeast of the Bay of | | | | From a European perspective, associating these |
| Bengal. This lake, alternately called Chiamay, | | | | rivers systems with one another and with a single |
| Chiam-may, Chian-nay, or Cayamay, is postulated to | | | | source is an almost natural assumption. All five rivers |
| be the source of four to five of the great Southeast | | | | bear a great deal of similarity. That is, all seem to |
| Asian river systems, the Irrawaddy, the Dharla, the | | | | originate from roughly the same area, all flow along |
| Chao Phraya, the Bramaputra, and the Mekong. | | | | roughly parallel courses, and all have enormous fluvial |
| Today we know that the Lago de Chiamay is entirely | | | | volume. Associating a great lake with said source is |
| non-existent, but where did this persistent myth | | | | equally natural. Given the size and orientation of these |
| come from? | | | | river systems, one naturally speculates that the |
| 1685 Bormeester Map of the World showing Chiamay | | | | source lake itself must be enormous. Such speculation |
| The earliest reference to the Lago de Chiamay that | | | | was not uncommon for map makers working in the |
| we have been able to come across is the c. 1550 | | | | 18th century and earlier. Cartographers, who rarely |
| geographical study produced by Jao de Barros. | | | | traveled the world themselves, had the difficult job |
| Barros, who is not known to have traveled to the | | | | of piecing together and interpreting various vague |
| orient himself, compiled his geography from reports | | | | and often contradictory traveler’s accounts as |
| from Portugese explorers in the region, who | | | | well as reconciling such new information with |
| themselves no doubt extracted many of their ideas | | | | accepted mappings. |
| about the remote interior of Asia from indigenous | | | | Whatever the original source for the Lago de |
| authorities. His most likely source for our purposes is | | | | Chiamay may have been, it begins appearing on maps |
| most likely Fernao Mendez Pinto. Today the Barros | | | | as early as the Gastaldi map of 1550 (though some |
| geography is unfortunately lost, but some of its | | | | speculate that this map was actually drawn a few |
| commentary survives via G. B. Ramusio and his 1554 | | | | years earlier). The Lago was embraced by Ortelius in |
| edition of “Navigationi et viaggi”. While some | | | | his c. 1570 mappings of Asia and was eventually |
| have argued that Ramusio could not have possibly | | | | associated with various hopeful fantasies of a river |
| have had access to Barros’ commentary, as it | | | | passage through central Asia to the North Sea. |
| had not been published at the time, Ramusio himself | | | | Almost all subsequent mappings until the late 18th |
| provides clear reference that he did in fact have an | | | | century included the Lago de Chiamay in various |
| unpublished Barros manuscript. Ramusio includes | | | | forms. Later, as explorers began to penetrate the |
| several maps in his “Navigationi et viaggi” | | | | region with greater regularity, Chiamatwas at various |
| that were drawn around 1550 and depict the Lago. | | | | point associated with any lake discovered in the area, |
| Fernao Mendez Pinto, Barros most likely source and | | | | including Koko Nor (Qinghai Lake) in China and the |
| the lake’s supposed “discoverer”, is the | | | | actual Lake Manasarovar in Tibet. By the late 18th |
| only European who claims to have visited the lake | | | | century the lake had moved far west of its original |
| itself. Pinto apparently discovered the lake in 1744. | | | | location and been reduced to a fraction of its original |
| Generally speaking, while Barros was well respected | | | | size. By the 19th century, it disappeared entirely. |
| in his day, Pinto is considered an unreliable geographer | | | | The source of the name itself, “Chiamay” |
| at best and at worse has been dubbed the | | | | may be derived from Pinto’s original discovery of |
| “prince of fiction”. Why this is the case when | | | | the lake in the records at the Royal court in Siam. |
| he was without a doubt actually in Siam, may be | | | | Pinto was told of a royal raid to conquer and claim |
| explainable when his own sources are evaluated. Pinto | | | | Chiang Mai, once the Capital of the Lanna Kingdom. |
| may have heard about the lake in the Royal Court of | | | | 1848 Homann Heirs Map of India & Southeast |
| Siam, one of the kings of which is said to have | | | | Asia |
| invaded Chiamay and captured many cities around it. | | | | The city of Chaing Mai, now fully part of Thailand |
| 1540 Seutter Map of India, Tibet and Southeast Asia | | | | was founded in 1296 and was frequently invaded and |
| That Pinto derived much of his geography from local | | | | conquered by both the Siamese and Burmese |
| sources is highly likely. What he and his readers back | | | | empires before being formally incorporated into the |
| in Europe may not have counted on is the presence | | | | Siamese empire in the late 18th century. Though |
| of a mythical and semi-mythical Hindu-Buddhist | | | | there is no lake near Chiang Mai, Pinto, who is not |
| geography overlaying the actual geography. Hindu and | | | | known for reliability, may have misinterpreted what |
| related Buddhist mythology consider Lake | | | | he was told. The Lago de Chiamay is most likely the |
| Manasarovar and Lake Rakshastal, in modern day | | | | result of Pinto’s misunderstanding of stories from |
| Tibet, to be the spiritual source of four religiously and | | | | the royal court of Siam, misassociations regarding the |
| geographically important subcontinent rivers, the | | | | Buddhist-Hindu mythology associated with Lake |
| Brahmaputra, the Karnali, the Indus and the Sutlej. As | | | | Manasarovar, and natural assumptions based upon |
| the Hindu-Buddhist culture expanded into southeast | | | | the observable similarities of the great southeast |
| Asia, these four rivers and their source lake were | | | | Asian river systems. |