page_title: Pagsanjan
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Pagsanjan / History
caption_attribution_description: Pagsanjan Falls, Pagsanjan, Laguna, Philippines. View from inside.
context_page_description: Pagsanjan, officially the Municipality of Pagsanjan, is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Laguna, Philippines. According to the 2015 census, it has a population of 42,164 people.
  Situated about 92 kilometres southeast of Manila, this town can reach via Manila East Road or Slex. Pagsanjan is the tourist capital of Laguna and is the home of the Bangkero Festival. The bangkeros are tour guides who steer tourists' boats along the river to Pagsanjan Falls, for which the town is well known but is actually located in the neighboring municipality of Cavinti. The Bangkero Festival is celebrated in the month of March.
  Pagsanjan was the capital of the province of Laguna for 170 years during which the town prospered as the commercial, cultural and learning center of the province.
context_section_description: Pagsanjan was originally a barrio of Lumban. In 1668, eight Japanese and Chinese traders who were highly impressed by the strategic location of the barrio at the juncture of Balanac and Bumbungan rivers founded the town. They established a trading settlement and engaged in the betelnut industry. In time, the barrio became the flourishing trading center of eastern Laguna and attracted families from the surrounding communities of Cavinti and Pila. On December 12, 1668, the then Governor, General Juan Manuel de la Peña Bonifaz, issued a gubernatorial decree elevating its status from barrio to a town. In 1688, Pagsanjan replaced Bay as the capital of the province. It remained such until 1858, during which it bloomed as the cultural and commercial center of the province.
caption: Pagsanjan Falls.
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