Question

Discussion in 'Silat' started by Chazz, Feb 27, 2002.

  1. Chazz

    Chazz Keepin it kickin TKD style

    What is Silat. I have never heard of this until i came here

    Please help!
    -Chazz
     
  2. pesilat

    pesilat Active Member

    The word "Silat" is like the words "Gung Fu" or "Karate" ... these are umbrella terms which apply to many systems.

    Silat refers specifically to the martial arts from Malaysia, Indonesian, and some from the southern Philippines. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of systems of Silat throughout the archipelago.

    I believe I heard once that there were something like 300+ systems formally recorded on the island of Java alone. This doesn't include any of the systems on Java that aren't recorded (and I'm sure there are plenty of those), nor does it include any of the systems practiced on any of the other 6,000 inhabited islands in the archipelago. So, as you can guess, it doesn't seem a stretch at all to figure that there are easily 1,000 systems of Silat in Indonesia alone ... and that's not counting what's in Malaysia or the southern Philippines.

    The systems are also very diverse.

    Cimande is a striking art which conditions the forearms (and I think they traditionally condition the shins also) to use them as incredibly effective striking implements (compare to Muy Thai's shin conditioning).

    Cipecut is a flexible weapon system which uses the sarong (or any other flexible item) as a weapon.

    Harimau is, primarily, a groundfighting art from Sumatra based on the movements of the tiger ("harimau" literally means "tiger").

    Batin is a healing art.

    Rikasan (literally "to break") is a joint locking/breaking art which has a lot of similarities to Chinese Chin Na (though, to my knowledge, there is no direct connection).

    Nampon is an internal art which might be compared to Chinese Chi Gung.

    Serak is an art which uses strikes to unbalance the opponent and set him/her up for a vicious takedown.

    Sumpat is a stick art which uses a strange curved stick (Victor de Thouars has been shown in a couple of recent issues of IKF with this stick and illustrating some aspects of this art).

    Pamonyet is a system based on the movements of the monkey and, as one would expect, looks a lot like Monkey Gung Fu.

    So ... that's a little bit about Silat :)

    As you can tell, the subject is *HUGE* and I only know, comparatively, a little bit about it :)

    Mike
     
  3. Chazz

    Chazz Keepin it kickin TKD style

    Ahhhhh i c now. Thanks for the info. Learn something new everyday. *LOL*

    -Chazz
     

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