Pencak Silat

The creation of Pencak Silat is attributed to a woman shows us the technical features of this style of martial arts.

Pencak Silat the common name for Indonesian and Malay martial arts, which includes two main sections: fighting without weapons and fighting with weapons.

At the heart of the modern styles of Pencak-silat (there are more than 50 of them) are the fighting techniques of various tribes and peoples inhabiting Indonesia, the country of “one hundred thousand islands”.

The most accurate translation of the phrase “Pencak-Silat” will be the following interpretation of these words: “Pencak” is a skillful change in body position for self-defense, and “Silat” is the combat use of Pencak.

In Indonesia, they say: “There is no Silat without Pencak, and Pencak without Silat is useless!”

THE HISTORY OF PENCAK SILAT

Pencak Silat has been passed down from generation to generation mostly orally from teacher to student and much of its history is only known through archeological artifacts and legends.

According to ancient tradition, Silat was developed by a woman. The story tells about a certain observant peasant woman Rama Sukana from the island of Sumatra, who went for water and became an accidental witness of a duel between a tiger and a giant bird. An animal fight ended in the death of both. When she returned home, her angry husband scolded her for her delay. He even tried to beat her, but she managed to repel all his attacks, remembering the movements of the animals during the battle she had just seen. After that, the couple managed to create a set of techniques for this new martial art, which was called "Silat".

There are several more variants of this story depending on the region. In East Java it is said that Rama saw the fight of monkeys, and in West Java it is believed that she saw the fight of a monkey with a tiger.

The accuracy of these legends cannot be confirmed, but the fact that the creation of Pencak Silat is attributed to a woman shows us the technical features of this style of martial arts.

Regardless of how true this legend is, archaeological research suggests that Silat did indeed originate in Sumatra, in the Srivijaya empire, and then spread to the island of Java. In Java at that time there was the kingdom of Mataram, which, like Srivijaya, was the center of education and religion, mainly Hinduism and Buddhism. The kingdom attracted monks and pundits from all over Southeast Asia.

Through trade links with Okinawa, Japan, and China, Silat acquired a number of traits from some of the Chinese and Japanese weapon martial arts.

However, by the early 1300s, Pencak Silat was the sophisticated Malay martial art that it still is today.

After the Dutch colonization, Pencak Silat began to spread in the Netherlands along with immigrants from Indonesia. After that, it spread to other European countries; it has now become a very popular form of martial arts all over the world.

The name Pencak Silat was chosen in 1948 as an umbrella term for various styles of Malay and Indonesian martial arts.

In the modern sense, Pencak and Silat are seen as two aspects of the same practice.

Pencak is the spiritual aspect of the martial art, while Silat is the essence of combat and self-defense. The origin of the words Pencak and Silat is not known. Some believe that Pencak comes from the Sanskrit word pancha - five, or avoid, distract. Silat - from sekilat, which means "(quickly) like lightning." This name may have been used to describe the movement of a warrior, and eventually shortened to Silat.

FOUR ASPECTS OF PENCAK SILAT

Psycho-spiritual or self-regulating Pencak Silat
pays attention to the development of self-control; the emphasis is on the psychological aspects. The goal of Pencak Silat, like that of other martial arts, is to develop the individual and to form a noble and honest character.

The artistic Pencak Silat (Seni Budaya) focuses on the beauty of movement; the emphasis here is on aesthetic aspects. The most important thing here is the culture of movement and performance skills.

Pencak Silat as self-defense (Bela-Diri) focuses on aspects of self-defense. The most important factors in it are self-confidence and perseverance; without them, self-defense skills are useless.

Sports Pencak Silat (Olah Raga) focuses on sports aspects. Practitioners of Pencak Silat strive to develop a "healthy mind in a healthy body." Frequent competitions and intense training help to hone the skills of this martial art.

Pencak Silat is a combat system consisting of secaps (positions) and gerak-geraks (movements). As fighters move during fights, these secaps and gerak-geraks are constantly mutating. As soon as there is a gap in the opponent's defense, the fighter tries to hit the opponent with a quick "serangan" (attack).

Silat uses a variety of attack and defense techniques. Silat uses arms, legs, elbows and knees to attack. The most common techniques include kicks, punches and palms, trips and trips, pushes, grabs, blockages, throws, chokes, and joint submissions.