What is "pangasinan"

Pangasinan or Pangasinense may refer to:

• Pangasinan, one of the provinces of the Philippines, on the island of Luzon
  • Pangasinan people, one of the indigenous peoples of the Philippines
  • Pangasinan language, a Malayo-Polynesian language
  • Pangasinan literature
• Pangasinan Island in the Sulu Archipelago, Philippines

Pangasinan (; ) is a province in the Philippines. Its official language is Pangasinan and its provincial capital is Lingayen. Pangasinan is located on the western area of the island of Luzon along the Lingayen Gulf and South China Sea. It has a total land area of . According to the , it has a population of people. The official number of registered voters in Pangasinan is 1,651,814.

Pangasinan is the name for the province, the people, and the official language spoken in the province. Indigenous Pangasinan speakers are estimated to number at least 2 million. The Pangasinan language is one of the officially recognized regional languages in the Philippines. In Pangasinan, there were several ethnic groups who enriched the cultural fabric of the province. Almost all of the people are Pangasinenses and the rest are descendants of Bolinao and Ilocano, who settled the eastern and western parts of the province. Pangasinan is also spoken as a second-language by many of the ethnic minorities in Pangasinan. The minority ethnic groups are the Bolinaos and the Ilocanos.

The name Pangasinan pronounced as "Pa-nga-si-nan" in Pangasinan means "place for salt" or "place of salt-making"; it is derived from the prefix pang, meaning "for", the root word asin, meaning "salt”, and suffix an, signifying "location". At present it is pronounced Paŋgasinan based on the Spanish pronunciation due to their inability to utter or pronounce the nasal sound /ŋ/. The province is a major producer of salt in the Philippines. Its major products include " bagoong" ("salted-fish") and "aramang" ("salted-shrimp")

Pangasinan was founded by Austronesian speakers who called themselves Anakbanwa by at least 2500 BC. A kingdom called Luyag na Kaboloan, which expanded to incorporate much of northwestern Luzon, existed in Pangasinan before the Spanish conquest that began in the 16th century. The Kingdom of Loyag na Kaboloan was known as the Huangdom of Pangasinan in Chinese records. The ancient Pangasinan people were skilled navigators and the maritime trade network that once flourished in ancient Southeast Asia connected Pangasinan with other peoples of Southeast Asia, India, China, and the Pacific. The ancient kingdom of Luyag na Kaboloan was in fact mentioned in Chinese and Indian records as being an important kingdom on ancient trade routes.

Popular tourist attractions in Pangasinan include the Hundred Islands National Park and the white-sand beaches of Bolinao and Dasol. Dagupan City is known for its Bangus Festival ("Milkfish Festival"). Pangasinan is also known for its delicious mangoes and ceramic oven-baked Calasiao puto ("native rice cake"). Pangasinan occupies a strategic geo-political position in the central plain of Luzon, known as the rice granary of the Philippines. Pangasinan has been described as a gateway to northern Luzon and as the heartland of the Philippines.