Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts

Sunday, February 4, 2007

Villa Verde Trail, San Nicolas

Named after a Spanish Missionarry who used it to bring Catholicism to people in the mountains of northern Luzon. This 27 mile trail runs climbs over 5,000' from Santa Maria to Santa Fe along ridgelines large enough for foot traffic and horses. It terminates to the junction with Route 5 and the Cagayan Valley.

Battle of Villa Verde Trail

After the American landing at Lingayen Gulf on January 9, 1945, Japanese forces of the 'Shobu Group' defended this location, including 10th Recconssaiance Regimen and survivors of the 7th Tank Regiment from the battle of San Manuel. The US Army 32nd Infantry Division's 127th Infantry Regiment advanced along this trail beginning on January 30, 1945. The rough terrain made it impossible for vehicles to support the battle, Igorot laborers were employed to carry supplies and evacuate wounded.

32nd Infantry Division Villa Verde Monument
In 1987 with the help of the veterans of the 32nd and cooperation of the Santa Maria East the monument was restored from March - September 1989. The memorial's brass plaque reads: "Erected by the officers and men of the 32d Infantry Division United States Army in memory of their gallant comrades who were killed along the Villa Verde Trail Januray 30, 1945 - May 28, 1945".


Source: http://www.pacificwrecks.com/provinces/philippines_santa_maria.html

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

The Lingayen Gulf Landing


Gulf on northern Luzon, bordering Pangasinan to the south and west, and La Union province to the east. Site of both the Japanese (1941) and American (1945) landings.


Japanese Occupation Landing

Japanese General Homma's 14th Army landings on December 22, 1941 on the eastern side of the gulf, at Agoo, Caba, Santiago and Bauang.


American Liberation Landing

The massive US Army amphibious landing of the 6th Army occurred on January 9, 1945 when 68,000 troops landed on the first day alone and a and a total of 203,608 in subsequent landings along a 20-mile beachhead, stretching from Saul, Lingayen and Dagupan (XIV Corps) to the west, and San Fabian (I Corps) in to the east.

Once ashore MacArthur commanded over 280,000 men,more than Eisenhower in Europe. During the assault group's trip to Lingayen from January 4 - 12th a total of 24 ships were sunk and 67 damaged by kamikazie attacks. Damaged was the USS Mississippi BB-41, and light cruiser USS Colombia. The USS Colorado was accidentally hit by friendly fire and damaged.

Why the Americans chose Lingayen Gulf?

A look at a map of the Philippines shows why Lingayen Gulf was chosen for the initial landings. It offered a ‘protected’ anchorage, well-removed from the heavy concentration of forces and fortifications around Manila Bay, yet connected to Manila some 117 miles away by a river-level valley between two mountain chains. Plus, the roads to Manila lead through lands heavily populated by friendly Filipinos. Lingayen Gulf was, in effect, a perfect ‘back door’ to Manila for its would be liberators.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Local historian wants Urduja House renamed to Prinsesa Kabontatala

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – The legendary Princess Urduja may soon be relegated to historical oblivion following the proposal of a local historian here to change the name of the building that bears her name into Princesa Kabontatala.

“Why honor Princess Urduja? She is not a Pangasinense,” said Restituto Basa, author of Footnotes on Pangasinan History and The Story of Dagupan.

The Princess Urduja building, which is located at the right side of the capitol here, is the office and official residence of the governor.

It was built in 1956 by the Gov. Juan de Rodriguez and named it after Princess Urduja, who, Basa said, was thought of as a Pangasinense.

“But modern scholars say Urduja is a Cambodian. So, we might as well change the name of the Governor’s Office to Princesa Kabontatala because she is our own,” Basa said.


Citing historical sources, Basa said Kabontatala (a Pangasinense word for “morning star”) was a daughter of a local chieftain that ruled Barangay Domalandan here during the pre-Spanish times.

He said Kabontatala was married by Chinese pirate Lim-Ahong, when he found his way to Domalandan after retreating from a battle against the Spaniards in Manila Bay.

“It was Kabontatala who and her subjects who helped Lim-Ahong dig a canal to help him escape from pursuing Spanish forces, who blockaded the mouth of the Agno River in Domalandan,” Basa said.

“And do you know that she is the ancestor of two Pangasinan governors?” Basa said.

According to him, Lim-Ahong and Kabontatala had a child named Quimson (a Chinese word for precious gold), and the late Governors Sofronio Quimson (1946-1950) and Francisco Quimson Duque were his descendants.

Duque, father of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, also served as Health secretary during the administration of President Diosdado Macapagal.

Rizal’s great grandpa

Basa also wants another building in the capitol compound to be renamed Manuel Facundo de Quintos from its present name Kalantiao Building .

The building houses the Provincial Employment Services Office, Provincial Nutrition Office and the Civil Service Commission field office.

“Again, Kalantiao is not a Pangasinense,” Basa said.

Kalantiao was a lawgiver from Ilolilo.

Basa said De Quintos, the gobernadorcillo of Lingayen in the 1850’s, is the great grandfather of national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal.

He said De Quintos’ was married to Regina Ursua of Cavite and Manila and they had a daughter, Brigida de Quintos.

Brigida married Lorenzo Alberto Alonzo, whose daughter was Teodora de Quintos Alonso, mother of Rizal.

De Quintos was born here.

“This is why Rizal may have spent part of his childhood in Lingayen,” Basa said.

Among Rizal’s descendants here include educator Margarita Hamada, who now runs schools here and in Dagupan City.

Basa said that it is important to rename the government buildings here properly “so that we will know our roots, so that we will know our past and we will value them.”

He added that there is no memorial yet to Victor Tomeldan, a provincial board member who helped then Gov. Daniel Maramba in building the capitol.

Tomelden is also the father of the late Sen. Geronima Pecson, the country’s first woman senator.

“The present generation hardly knows these people and by naming buildings after them, they will somehow ask about them,” Basa said.

Source: Prepys.com

Monday, December 11, 2006

Kingdom of Tawalisi: it seems it existed!

I grabbed this conversation from Anda Messageboard in the website pangasinan.org.

Dario Bernardino: Hello mga kababayan. Until now I am intrigue by the History of Pangasinan most importantly about Princess Urduja. Kababasa ko lang sa http://www.gopangasinan.blogspot.com Medyo di clear kung totoo nga si URduja pero ano po masasabi niyo. Meron nga po bang elephants sa Western Pangasinan noon lalo dito sa Anda? Grabe ngayon ko lang naiintindihan.

Anonymous:
To Dario Bernardino- that ancient fossil of elephant called "Mastodon" was indeed discovered in Anda,Pangasinan. If you go to Philippine National Museum, near Luneta Park, you can verify this info. You can check this also with the Archives Dept. of Philippine National Library in T. M. Kalaw, Manila. Actually it was published in a foreign book and a photograph of the bone was there, mentioning our town where it was found. One of the noted archeologist, the late Dr. Otley Beyer confirmed that mastodon roam this part of the land during the ancient time. Mastodon is similar to "mammot" which roam the earth from 3.75 million to 11,000 years ago. Anda land existed many million years ago. Regarding what you call the elephants during the time of Princess Urduja, I think there was mix-up on the research of this particular writer. What is factual is that there is really an ancient bone of mastodon discovered in Anda, Pangasinan.

It's really an informative answer by Anonymous. Well, someday I'll visit the Philippine National Museum. It makes sense to believe that there was really a kingdom in western Pangasinan.

Saturday, December 9, 2006

The Case for Princess Urduja

by John Smart

Fact or fiction? The only first-hand, documented case given for her existence is the writing of one Ibn Batuta -- a Moroccan born, Islamic lawyer turned travel writer, who journeyed on a Chinese merchant ship from India to Canton – whose last stop before arriving in the Southern Chinese port was to visit the Kingdom of Tawalisi,in the year 1347. The main case for her non-existence is that she is described as having elephants as load bearers and, of course, we all know that there are no elephants in the Philippines. Right?

But first, who was Princess Urduja and what did she do that made her so important as to become the subject of a detailed 14th century travelogue and, more
recently, erudite historic debate?

If Batuta’s first-hand reports are correct, the Princess was a leader of such significant import that the lowland and highland tribes, from Mountain Province to Zambales,acknowledged her unifying power such that peace reigned throughout the central regions of Luzon for fear of retribution by her “red-breasted warriors” or kinalakian -- Batuta’s explicit description no doubt stems from the striking contrast
a topless, suntanned, copper-skinned woman must have offered when compared to those in his own country, who more timidly exposed their bodies in private and far away from any sunlight. The daughter of the King of Tawalisi, she was given charge over
much of his Kingdom after the King’s son failed to make an impact in battle and
left it to his sister to defeat a formidable enemy. She and her father are reported
to have been the recipient of tributes equal to those bestowed upon the King of
China (a significant accolade in the 1300s); together, they commandeered Chinese junks that trespassed waters under their control and audaciously negotiated reparations before releasing them back to the owners. She was unassailed in combat by any men who had thought to court her Urduja was by any measure a woman of substance,
learning and immense presence such that all who were subject to her governance lived peacefully and in awe of her power, which protected them from erstwhile enemies.
But . . . was she real?

First let us consider the elephants. Batuta actually wrote that, amongst other things, he was presented with “two elephant loads of rice”. Consider how you might describe to someone across the other side of the world the size of a jeepney-load of rice? If your intended reader had knowledge of elephants (they certainly did across much of South Asia and the Middle East – Batuta’s origin) then this would be a
useful simile to use, without the need for physical elephants to be present to transport the rice at hand. But . . .In Rizal province there can be found Elephant
Hill, so named for the remains of elephants found there in recent history. And, on Anda Island, off the north coast of Pangasinan (in the middle of what was then known as Tawalisi), during the last century, elephant remains were found while foundations for a house were being excavated. In other words, it appears to matter not whether the reference to elephants was unambiguous or as simile . . . beasts of the
elephant genome did indeed inhabit our islands.

Then, there is a question as to why a Princess in Luzon would have an apparently middle-eastern name: Urduja. This was the argument that I thought would most likely dispel my idolatrous vision of a true Filipino goddess. But then I chanced upon translations of transcripts from records of the Ibaloi tribes people (still living in the mountains of northern Luzon) and discovered that their orally preserved historical records, handed down since before the Spaniards rewrote most everyone else’s, laud a Princess Deboxah (pronounced Debuca) as being the founder of their tribes and who, they claim, is The Princess Urduja. Could “Urduja” be a simple
mispronunciation by our Islamic lawyer friend who, by his own account, arrived late for the party being thrown to greet his traveling companions? One can imagine Batuta
trying to translate the name most accurately above the cacophony of boisterous celebrations and, failing to find another Muslim (i.e. another sober) partygoer with whom to compare and confirm, phonetically recording people’s names (the written Philippine Baybayin script of the time was in any event based upon a phonetic, sanskrit style alphabet) for future transcription.

The only argument that seems to be potentially in favor of the naysayers is the nevertheless huge question of whether Dr. Jose Rizal’s computation of the distances, detailed in Batuta’s travelogue, cause the Kingdom of Tawalisi to be headquartered in or near Pangasinan. Despite a thorough trawl of literature referenced on the subject of Princess Urduja and Tawalisi, it seems nobody has been able to use Batuta’s records to definitively relocate the Kingdom.

And what of the source: Ibn Batuta -- a Moroccan born, Islamic lawyer turned travel writer. Have his other words from the same and subsequent manuscripts been questioned for their accuracy? Whilst some have suggested that he may have added some color to certain items in his chronicles, nobody has discredited his texts to the point that
any of his work is dismissed as fanciful or fiction. In fact his work has been hailed in most quarters as a “valuable record” of South East Asia at that time. If final confirmation is necessary, the renowned Philippine artist Fernando Amorsolo famous for his vivid scenes of everyday rural life and depictions of the beautifully romantic countryside in oil on canvas, saw the Princess as a fitting subject for a number of works. We are pleased to be able to reproduce one here with the kind permission of the current owner, Ms. Dorothy Francy. Thus, without veraciously tested evidence being offered to the contrary, it is my belief that Tawalisi, Princess Urduja, her "red-breasted warriors” and their descendants are integral parts of this patchwork quilt of an archipelago that the Spanish deemed worthy and desirable as conquest.

Long live the Princess!

Source: http://www.subicchamber.org/newsletters/dec2005-jan2006.pdf

Friday, December 8, 2006

In Search for a Princess


By Chit Balmaceda Guiterrez

Princess Urduja ancient accounts say, was a 14th century woman ruler of the dynastic Kingdom of Tawalisi in Pangasinan, a vast area lying by the shores of the Lingayen Gulf and the China Sea. Pangasinan was an important kingdom then, and the sovereign was equal to the King of China. Known far and wide, Princess Urduja was famous for leading a retinue of woman warriors who were skilled fighters and equestrians. They developed a high art of warfare to preserve their political state. "These womenfolk took to the battlefields because the male population was depleted by the series of wars which came with the rise and prominence of the Shri-Visayan Empire in the sixth to the 13th centuries," the accounts said. Strong and masculine physique, they were called kinalakian or Amazons.

The saga of this unique princess was the stuff of legend. Parents and teachers tell her story like they would a fairytale, or the biography of Gabriela Silang, an 18th-century revolutionary, or Tandang Sora, a granny who fed members of the Katipunan.

The legend of Princess Urduja can be attributed to the famous story of Mohammedan traveler, Ibn Batuta of India. In 1347 he was a passenger on a Chinese junk, which has just come from the port of Kakula, north of Java and Sumatra and passed by Pangasinan on the way to Canton, China.
Urduja, who had a particular fascination for the renowed "Pepper Country"--pepper being considered black gold then--was quoted by Batuta as saying, "I must positively go to war with that country, and get possession of it, for its great wealth and great forces attract me."

For a time, feminists tried to revive the Urduja story but were discouraged to learn that Batuta's account of the voyage to Tawalisi was labeled as either an intrigue or a fantasy. Scholars, considering the story absurd, declared Urduja a myth.

The Philippines' national hero Dr. Jose Rizal, in Dr. Austin Craig's 1916 paper
"Particulars of the Philippines' Pre-Spanish Past" was quoted as saying in one of his letters: "While I may have doubts regarding the accuracy of Ibn Batuta's details, I still beleive in the voyage to Tawalisi". He went as far as to calculate the distance and time of travel from the port of Kakula. Rizal's commentary was triggered by a scholar, Sir Henry Yule, who wrote in his time that: "Tawalisi may be found only in a Gulliver geography."

Today, years after scholars have passionately debated whether the 14th-century heroine is a product of mythology or history, Princess Urduja continues to fascinate Filipinos. In Pangasinan, the Governor's office building in the coastal town of Lingayen is called the Urduja Palace. So is a hotel along the highway.

Urduja's name still has great resonance among the Ibaloi, one of the major ethnolinguistic tribes in the Cordillera region. Dr. Morr Tadeo Pungayan, a respected scholar of Ibaloi culture and professor at the St. Louis University of Baguio City, said, "Linguistically, Urduja is Deboxah (pronounced Debuca) in Ibaloi. We've always had a woman named Deboxah from time immemorial among the genrations of Ibaloi. The name usually describes a woman of strong quality and character who's nobly descended. That name is an Ibaloi name. That's why Ibaloi trace their ancestry from Urduja".

The Cordillera tribes, also known collectively as Igorots, pride themselves as being the only ethnic group that doesn't talk about the origin of man according to Spanish chronicles. Among the tribes, genealogy and family history are orally passed history. The Ibaloi, just like other highland tribes, could easily trace their ancestry. This is ensured by their custom of naming newborns after ancestors to help keep their memory alive and evoke affection and protection.

"No Ibaloi will bear the name of an ancestor unless she's related," Dr. Pungayan explained. While the Bontoc tribe bestows the name of an ancestor to a grandchild, the Ibaloi style is namesaking the great-grandchild, he added.

A book on the history of Benguet province, written by Anavic Bagamasbad and Zenaida Hamada-Pawid, shows the Benguet genealogy tracing tribal family lines from the year 1380 to 1899. The book says, "The extent of inter-settlement alliances is climaxed in the memory of Tublay informants with the reign of Deboxah, Princess Urduja, in Pinga. She's acknowledged as the granddaughter of Udayan, an outstanding warrior of Darew. Her death signaled continuous decline of kinship and alliance between highland and lowland settlements."

The Darew mountain range is remembered as the earliest settlement in the mining town of Tublay. The close relations between the Cordilleras and Lingayen are well-accounted for in Batuta's chronicle. It said that the Kingdom of Tawalisi was very extensive, including the vast areas up to the fringes of the Benguet mountains and the Cordillera ranges in the east of Luzon.
Th ruler, Batuta further said,"possesses numerous junks with which he makes war upon the Chinese until they sue for peace and consent to grant him certain concessions."

Despite recent research, however, most academicians remain cold to oral history, saying that such accounts still have to pass through stringent rigors of scholarship.

Today, some historians consider the issue of Urduja's historicity as closed. Compounding the issue is the lack of archaelogical evidence on the existence of the Shri-Visayan Empire. In fact, other aspects of Philippine history are being doubted,too, especially since the late William Henry Scott, an American historian in the Cordillera, proved that the so-called pre-Hispanic laws--the Kalantiaw and Maragtas Codes--were faked or invented by psuedo historians who only wanted fame or riches for themselves.

Dr. Jaime Veneracion, the University of the Philippines head of history department, said that the old Chinese scripts which may have chronicled Urduja's kingdom have remained inaccessible for their archaic language and calligraphy.

But history buffs like writer Ed Reyes remain undaunted. He says: "The researchers aren't conclusive, given the fact that the Philippine history has only been covered in writing for the last 500 years".

Filipinas Magazine June l999
*Re-printed with permission from Filipinas magazine
Visit their website at www.filipinasmag.com

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Tawalisi in Pangasinan?

I have an insatiable longing about the history of this province. Talking about the history, we cannot neglect what our textbooks in schools are saying about Princess Urduja who was undeniably sculpted in our minds as the province hero. Everytime we talked about Princess Urduja we have to mention Pangasinan.

Who is Princess Urduja? "Urduja was a princess who was the ruler of a city called Kaylukari in the land of Tawalisi mentioned in the travel account of Ibn Battuta (1304 - possibly 1368 or 1377 C.E.), a Muslim traveler from Morocco who was on his way to China. Princess Urduja was described as a daughter of a king named Tawalisi of a land that was also called Tawalisi. The ruler of Tawalisi, according to Ibn Battuta, possessed many ships and was a rival of China, which was then ruled by a Mongol dynasty. Ibn Battuta sailed for 17 days to reach China from the land of Tawalisi."

Our Capitol's name is "Urduja Palace". A statue of Princess Urduja stands at the Hundred Islands National Park. And there was the the Urduja hotel in Urdaneta City. Almost all of us believe the story of Princess Urduja.

But I got a problem with our history. With the sources I read, I am doubtful about the location of the story of Princess Urduja. We've come to live with what they taught us without understanding the source. Here's the full text in the Cathay and the way hither on the Travel of Ibn Battuta interpretted by Henry Yule.

This Tawalisi is a great difficulty. The French translators say, " The Isle of Celebes, or rather perhaps Tunkin;" Dulaurier, "The coast of Camboja, Cochin-China, or Tunkin ; " Lassen, "By this name no place can be meant but Tonkin ; " whilst Walckenaer identifies it with Talual, a small island adjoining Bachian, one of the Moluccas. This last suggestion seems to have been based on the name only, and all have been made in connection with the assumption that the Mul-Jawa of our author is Java, which we have seen that it cannot be.

It seems to me impossible that Tawalisi should be Cambodia, Cochin-China, or Tunking, for two conclusive reasons (1) that the voyage from Mul-Jawa to Tawalisi occupies seventy-one days, and is considered by our traveller's shipmates an unusually good passage ; (2) that the last thirty-seven days of this time are spent on the passage of the Bahr-al-Kdhil, disturbed by neither winds nor waves, a character which in this case we should have to attach to the China Sea, the very metropolis of Typhoons.

But I do not find it easy to get beyond a negative. Indeed, considering that Killer-Karai is the real name of a port in South India, and that Ur duja is a name which our author in a former part of his travels has assigned to one of the Queens of Mahomed -Uzbek Khan on the Wolga, and has explained to mean in Turkish 'Born in the Camp,' whilst the Lady of Tawalisi herself is made to speak not only to the traveller but to her own servants a mixture of Turkish and Persian, a faint suspicion rises that Tawalisi is really to be looked for in that part of the atlas which contains the Marine Surveys of the late Captain Gulliver.

Putting aside this suspicion, no suggestion seems on the whole more probable than that Tawalisi was the kingdom of Soolo or N.E. of Borneo. "Owing to some cause or other," says Crawfurd, "there has sprung up in Soolo a civilisation and power far exceeding those of the surrounding islanders. A superior fertility of the soil, and better means of maintaining a numerous and concentrated population, has probably been the main cause of this superiority ; but whatever be the cause, it has enabled this people not only to maintain a paramount authority over the whole Archipelago (i. e. the so-called Soolo Archipelago), but to extend it to Palawan and to the northern coasts of Borneo and islands adjacent to it." Adopting this view, we should have the Bahr-al-Kali:it in the sea between Java Borneo and Celebes, where hurricanes are unknown, and stormy weather is rare. And, the time mentioned by Ibn Batuta, if we suppose it occupied in the voyage from the upper part of the Gulf of Siam through the Java Sea and Straits of Macassar to Soolo, a distance of some 2,200 nautical miles, over a great part of which the ship had to be towed, would seem much less improbable than if the course were to Cochin-China or Tonkin. The naval power of Tawalisi is one of the most prominent features in the narrative, and the Soolo people have been noted throughout the seas of the Archipelago for the daring exploits of their piratical fleets from our earliest acquaintance with those regions. It would seem also from Ibn Batuta's expression, "the load of two elephants in rice," that elephants were used in Tawalisi. Now the elephant is alleged by Dalrymple to exist in Soolo, and though Crawford doubts the fact, there seems no sufficient reason for his doubts. It is known, moreover, to exist in the adjoining part of Borneo, which may have belonged to Soolo then as it does now, and though not used now it was found in a domesticated state at Brunei by Magellan's party in 1521. These are the only portions of the Archipelago east of Sumatra in which the elephant is known.


Jose Rizal disagreed with the scholar Henry Yule who said:

"Indeed, considering that Killa-Karai is the real name of a port in South India, and that Urduja is a name that our author in a former part of his travels has assigned to one of the Queens of Mahomed Uzbek Khan on the Volga, and has explained to mean in Turkish 'Born in the camp,' whilst the Lady of Tawalisi herself is made to speak not only to the traveler but to her own servants a mixture of Turkish and Persian, a faint suspicion rises that Tawalisi is really to be looked for in that part of the atlas which contains the Marine Surveys of the late Captain Gulliver."

In a letter to A.B. Meyer of the Dresden Museum, Dr. Jose Rizal wrote:

"I cannot accept Yule's suggested suspicion that Tawalisi may be found only in Gulliver's Geography. While I have doubts regarding the accuracy of Ibn Batuta's details, still I believe in the voyage to Tawalisi. There are details that only the reality of the statements could have furnished, details which could not have been invented -- like the change in the government of Kailucary, previously ruled by the son of the King, etc. Besides, what possible interest could Ibn Batuta have had in falsifying? In this travel account, he introduces nothing in favor of his religion or to himself, nor does he mention new marvels or entertaining adventures. The traveler had visited so many and such beautiful countries much more interesting than Tawalisi. He would not go out of his way to discredit them in order to invent an insignificant incident. That after his return he tried to embellish his travels with some exaggerated and fanciful details is possible. But imagination, love of the marvelous or a certain confusion produced by the multitude of things seen can equally well have been the cause.

"The principal data in which I think this ought to be sought are the distances, which do not vary with time and I give preference to these over details regarding names and customs. Travel from Kakula, in Mul-Java, to Tawalisi usually took 74 to 84 days. Ibn Batuta spent 71 days, 34 going under sail and 37 days rowing. From Tawalisi to Canton was 15 days with a favorable wind. These details argue for Ibn Batuta's veracity since travelers usually make the lands they invent remote.

"With these two data, and knowing the average attainment of Ibn Batuta's ship was from eight to 10 geographical leagues (15 of these to the degree) -- from the Maldives to Bengal, 43 days, from Bengal to Barahuagan 15, we may trace two arcs, one from Canton with a radius of 180 geographical leagues -- on the supposition that with favoring winds the day's sail might be 12 leagues, and the other arc from Kakula (between Java and Sumatra) of 430 leagues 7 radius -- calculating that by oars the speed would only be half. The intersection of these arcs, we should find, would be exactly in the neighborhood of the northern part of the Philippines."

Rizal was the voice then, so our history books follow. If Rizal was right

1. Where are those Turkish and Persian- speaking Pangasinenses?
2. What happened to the elephants which existed in Pangasinan? It would be harder to believe than the story of the Princess.

Are we just content with what Dr. Jose Rizal had to offer or Henry Yule had more substance?

If Tawalisi is not in Pangasinan, our history is wrong and there should be no Princess Urduja.


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