Caboloan

Origins

The Ming records name a polity called Feng-chia-hsi-lan, identified with Pangasinan, which sent tribute missions to China in the early 15th century under a ruler named Kamayin. The people lived around the Lingayen Gulf and along the Agno River, with their centre at Binalatongan, later San Carlos.

Rule and society

Caboloan was governed by a hereditary chief over a society of nobles, freemen and dependants. It exported deerskins, gold and salt, and in the 16th century Japanese traders visited, so that the Spanish called the port of Agoo on the gulf Puerto de Japon. Its people practised indigenous religion.

Decline and legacy

Spanish forces under Juan de Salcedo reached Pangasinan in 1572, and the area was brought under Spanish rule in the following years. Pangasinan became a province of the Captaincy General of the Philippines and its people resisted in revolts such as that of Andres Malong in 1660.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.