I would have to disagree with this. A pendekar should be a person of balance. If the knowledge of body destruction is learnt, then the knowledge of body repair should also be learnt. A healer doesn't necessarily constitute 'mystical' powers, as physical healing (knowledge of the bones, muscles, tendons, etc...) is as good in most cases. A pendekar should be able to aid and fix any injuries caused during training, or at least have the knowledge to deal with them. As you know, due to the nature of silat, some of the training can be quite brutal. Without this knowledge, if an accident were to occur, the pendekar wouldn't be in a good position to assist, if he didn't have this knowledge. Agreed.
Point taken I think we were looking at the term 'healer' from different perspectives. Any pendekar would certainly have an in depth knowledge regarding training injuries. With regard to muscles and tendons, it seems that most Indonesians certainly have a much better knowledge of such things than the average Westerner to start with. I tore something in my shoulder, surfing, a few years ago-felt it rip! My mother-in-law was straight on the case, and fixed it in the traditional manner-linaments, manipulations and massage. It was all very painful but it worked.
Dear ICT, It is good to question things and not to follow things blindly. I do exactly the same thing. Next to that it is good to share your vision/ideas with others, because by sharing you get a better understanding of eachothers visions/opinions and it also gives you the opportunity to get confirmation of your ideas or to adjust your opinion. This is also for me the case and if my ideas seem to be wrong then this is a good learning for me, because then I have learned something new. I hope you also see it this way. As said in a previous post it is not my intention to offend anyone, but I value a good discussion. Furthermore regarding the word pencak silat. It is my opinion that the meaning of the word pencak silat is in fact not very important, because it is just a general name to denominate the major part of the MA of Indonesia, etc. That is why I said in a previous post: Garuda...
