The Misunderstood Geography of Ptolemy. 

Modern scholarship often stumbles when interpreting Ptolemy’s maps, offering colonial-era opinions without engaging the corrections made by Magellan, Pigafetta, or even Columbus. Few realize that Ptolemy’s knowledge ended east of India — he never mapped the Philippines, as confirmed by Magellan himself. Instead, he skipped directly to regions like Taprobane (which classical sources and maps correctly equate with Sumatra, not Sri Lanka) and Maniolas, a clear reference to Manila. 

The result? A cartographic void filled with guesses — while Magellan and other explorers offered the course correction. Yet academia, in Colonial British propaganda, continues to anchor itself to the South and West, ignoring the obvious: the Region of Gold was the Philippines. It still is.

We introduce this correction here — but the full breakdown comes in upcoming blogs. This is not our position but that will be forthcoming, and overwhelming.

🗺️ Real Map Above: The 11th Map of Asia (Descriptio Undecimae Tabulae Asiae) from Ptolemy’s Geography, depicting India beyond the Ganges (India extra Gangem) and the land of the Sinae in Southeast Asia. British Library Harley MS 7182, 15th century reproduction. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

🪶 THE SMOKING QUILL | June 18, 2025

Maniolas, Lequios, Luzon — and the Golden Isles Unveiled

📜 Ptolemy’s Final Frontier:

When Claudius Ptolemy composed his Geographia in the 2nd century CE, his empirical reach ended somewhere near India. What came after — Taprobane, Barousai, Chryse Chersonesos, Catigara, Sabadibae, Argyre, and Maniolas — formed a speculative appendage: a constellation of lush, golden isles beyond the edge of certainty.

This blog centers on one of them — Lequios — and its undeniable Philippine identity. While other legendary places like Maniolas and Chryse are mentioned in the same breath, we will not unpack those positions here. That evidence, vast and overwhelming, will be addressed in a dedicated series and one of our next books coming soon.

For now, understand this: the mainstream academic establishment has long recycled colonial guesses without ever conducting serious geographic or linguistic analysis. It's not just lazy — it's negligent. At best, one studies a centuries-old chain of antiquated thinking that never corrected itself, (ignoring Magellan, Behaim, Columbus and many others did) which was the ultimate intent in Colonial bias. And as you’ll see below, even 19th-century scholars knew better.

But even in speculation, truth can leak through.

🔍 What We Now Know and Will Prove Over Time:

• Maniolas was Manila — not metaphorically, but directly and cartographically, as many scholars, maps, and colonial-era sources have affirmed. [a plethera of sources say so, we will cover these, not in this article]

• Lequios was Luzon — a name so prevalent that 16th-century Portuguese and Spanish explorers used it interchangeably with the archipelago. [we have obliterated any notion of a Ryukyu theory]

• Taprobane ≠ Sri Lanka — As you've pointed out, Ptolemy’s Taprobane matches Sumatra, not Ceylon, which reorients the entire Southeast Asian mapping tradition forward toward the Philippines. [multiple primary sources clarify this which we will cover soon]

Even in later Spanish historical scholarship, the verdict was clear: ‘These islands... the Maniolas or Lequios, were called Luzones.’ (Luque, Historia política, vol. 5, p. 124). Long before modern academia attempted to move these terms north into Ryukyu, educated Iberian writers affirmed what was always known — that Lequios was Luzon, and Maniolas the ancient name for Manila. The debate was already settled, until revisionism reopened it.

📍 Toponym Breakdown: Matching Names

• Huansi (king’s clan name) ≈ Hangsa (Ivatan for a surgeonfish — common symbolism for leadership and maritime connection)

• Duobatu (queen’s name) ≈ Datwaw (place name in Babuyan even), Batoy, or Vatuy (rock, boulder, or rocky formation — feminine metaphors)

• Boluotan Grotto (royal palace) ≈ Balogan, a cave-rich zone in Babuyan Claro — still used in local Ivatan speech

[Ibatan-English Dictionary]

🗺️ How Did Ryukyu Get the Name?

• The later term 琉球 (Liúqiú with different characters) was retroactively applied to Okinawa by Ming dynasty scholars, over 700 years after the Sui dynasty expeditions. That is not scientific nor definitive. They conducted no resource test to match the story which is the only way to understand it. They failed to note the journey distance.

• As Ming China expanded tribute routes and redefined political territories, names were reassigned for bureaucratic convenience.

That’s not evidence of origin. That’s imperial rebranding.

🚨 What This Means

The “Flowing Dragon” Liuqiu of 636 AD is NOT Okinawa.

It’s the Batanes Islands, or Northern Luzon — the very same area Portuguese sources would later call “Lequios.” The origin is far more likely the Ilocono "Leuk" (Lawak), not even Chinese, and that ain't Spanish either.

This confirms:

✅ 流求 = Lequios = Luzon–Batanes
❌ 流求 ≠ Ryukyu

The Book of Sui didn’t describe Okinawa.
It described the dragon-shaped, tattoo-bearing, tropical, rock-lined, serpent-tattooed, wine-trading, cave-dwelling tribes of Batanes and Northern Luzon of the right distance.

And the dragon didn’t lie.

📌 #LiúqiúUnmasked #SmokingQuill #LuzonDragon #BookOfSuiTruth #PhilippinesHistory #LequiosRevealed #JesuitGeographyFails #MapForgeryExposed #AncientLiuqiu #RyukyuMyth #PhilippineAncientSovereignty