The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. XXXII, 1940 - Khamkoo

P'l'. 1) EAHI,\' l'Ult'l'UUUI~Sg ACOOUN'l'S OF 1'HAJLAND 19
•
'l'lw L:1ku of Ohiwm.ai is not an invention of Pinto for it existed h1
luguml mul in popular bnliuf centuries before Pinto. ' The Portuguese
who visited Bnrum ttnd Sinm before Pinto were also told of this
lugembry Lttke of Ohiomwi, and Jol:to de Bttrros in 151:2, that is, when
Pinto was Htill roaming in the East and some years before he began
writing .his Pe?'e[J'I'ina~!(liln, places the Lake of Oh:ia/rnai not in Ohiangl!lai
but 30 degrocH north, that iH, in the plateaus of Tibet, where
within two degrees five grerLt rivers, the Bralunaputm, the Irrawady,
the Salween, the Mekhong tLm1 the YtLngtze-kiang take their odgin.
BtWl'UH derives Hix rivers hom the hoke, three of which join to form
tho l\1 (.lllUill 11nd the other three discharge in the Bay of Bengal. 41
Pinto was td~:~o told in Chinn and 'J'at'tary that the rivers in Burma, Siam,
Chitm nml Indochim~ wm·o derived hom this lake in the north called
by differont lltLmcs in different places. 42 He does not say that he
visitud and sttw tho htkc of: Singipamur in or ncar C!liangmai but that
tho K.ing of Sittrn after hiA Ohiangmai campaign marched north-east
for six dttyH and renchud the lt1lm of Singipamur called Oh-iama:i by
rwople.'w 'l'his ifl apptmmtly a misunderstanding on the pu.rt of Pinto
who might luwe becu told of n. sumlllagoon by the side of which the
king Htayed for twenty six: u11ys u,ml took it to he the lake of Okiamr.~i
of which lw had hmml so much. Pinto does say that he saw a lake,
with the names of: Fttnstir or Singipamur or Ounebete, but that was
in Tttrtctt•y ILltd not in Ohittngmai. 44
41 Decada, I, Bk. IX, eh. i., ftmln.Iso Dec(tcln III, Bk. II, eh. v. 'l'he th1•ee
riVfll'fl mnpt;yiHg in Uw Bn.y of Bengal are, of course, tho Brnhmnpntm, the
IrmwrL