Silat

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Pencak Silat or Silat ("fighting by using techniques of self-defense") is a Southeast Asian martial art with roots in the culture of the Malay World. This art is widely known in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Philippines, and Singapore but can also be found in varying degrees among the Malay-affiliated communities in Thailand. The art has also reached Europe, and is especially popular in the Netherlands, where it is as popular as karate is in the United States. It is estimated that there are hundreds of aliran (styles) and thousands of schools. Many of the aliran find their origin in the observation of wild animals fighting. "Harimau" (Tiger) and "Helang" (Eagle) are some examples.

Contents

[edit] Aspects

There are four main aspects to pencak silat:

  1. Mental and spiritual:
    Pencak silat aims to build and develop personality and noble character. One must use their training to focus their mental and spiritual energies during combat situations or dangerous emergencies.
  2. Self-defense:
    Self-confidence skills and perseverance skills are very important. Without them, your skills are reduced.
  3. Culture and art:
    Culture and performing the "art" of pencak silat is very important. This combines Pencak Silat with traditional music and costumes.
  4. Sport:
    This means that the physical aspect of pencak silat is important. We try to have a sound mind in a sound body. Competitions and intense training are part of this aspect.
    There are full-contact matches, as well as form demonstrations, for single, double or teamed.

[edit] Styles

To be simplified, seni silat or pencak silat are based on 4 parts:

  1. Culture
  2. Self defense
  3. Weaponry
  4. Sport

The styles and schools of pencak silat differ from each other with regard to which aspects are emphasized. It is thanks to the sport and self-defense aspects that this sport has become popular in Europe (to give evidence of this, the character of Ulrich Stern from Code Lyoko practices the art on occasion, and utilizes his skills in battle). However, many believe the essence of pencak silat is lost, or watered down, when converted to a sport and therefore still focuses on traditional or spiritual forms of Silat, not strictly following the PERSILAT way.

Pencak silat is a system that consists of sikap-sikap (positions) and gerak-geri (movements). When pesilat (silat practitioners) are moving (when fighting) these sikap and gerak-geri change continuously. As soon as one finds an opening in their opponent's defense, they will try to finish the opponent with a fast serangan (attack).

Pencak silat has a wide variety of defense and attacking techniques. Practitioners may use hands, elbows, arms, legs, knees and feet in attacks. Common techniques include kicking, hitting, tripping, sweeps, locks, takedowns, throws, strangles, and joint breaking.

The pesilat, or silat practitioner, practices with djurus. A djuru is a series of meta-movements for the upper body used as a guide to learn the applications, or buah, when done with a partner. The use of langkah (steps), or lower body meta movements teach the use of footwork. When combined, it is dasar pasang, or whole body flow. This is common to most Asian martial arts and called kata in Japanese.

Pencak silat has developed rapidly during the 20th century and has become a competition sport under the PERSILAT rules and regulations. At the moment pencak silat is being promoted by PERSILAT in several countries. The goal of PERSILAT is to make pencak silat an olympic sport. Apart from the official PERSILAT line of making Pencak Silat a competition sport, there are still many traditional styles practicing old forms of Silek and Silat.

[edit] Weapons in Silat

Along with the human body, Silat employs the usage of several martial arts weapons. The primary weapon of most pesilat is the keris or dagger. In Malaysia and Indonesia, the keris has a reputation equal to the katana in Japan. Some keris were even said to give the owner supernatural powers. Other weapons include the sword (pedang), broadsword (golok), axe (kapak), cleaver (parang), spear (lembing), truncheon (tjabang), fan (kipas), staff and the Chinese sword. Even the Japanese sword is used in some Indonesian styles, probably an import from the Middle Ages.

[edit] History

It is not known exactly how old silat is but it can be traced back to the kingdom of Srivijaya. Indian martial arts had an impact on Southeast Asian styles, evident from the use of silambam staffs and the thigh-slapping found in many forms of silat which is reminiscent of Hindu wrestling for example. Bas-reliefs in Srivijaya which clearly illustrate warriors wielding weapons such as the Chinese double-edged sword also suggest Chinese influence.

There are a number of legends of how silat was created but only one has any historical significance. The story tells of a Sumatran woman who witnessed a fight between a tiger and a very large bird while fetching water from a well. Both animals, unfortunately, died in the fight. The woman's angry husband came to scold her for her tardiness but she blocked all of his attacks, remembering the movements of the fighting animals that she saw earlier. The couple later formulized the art and founded the first style of silat (sometimes said to have been Silat Harimau). However true this story is, archeological evidence shows that silat was indeed created in Sumatra and flourished after it spread to Java.

By the 15th century, silat was already highly refined. Besides the similarities to martial arts from China, India and other Southeast Asian nations, silat also bears a resemblance to karate and Japanese weapon arts, such as tessenjutsu and bojutsu. This is not surprising since Okinawa traded with both Java and Melaka. Some Okinawans still have South-East Asian facial features which indicates that silat also must have influenced karate. After Dutch colonization, silat spread to Holland from Indonesian immigrants. It still remains one of the most popular Asian martial arts in the Netherlands.

[edit] Competitions

PERSILAT (Persekutuan Pencak Silat Antarabangsa, the International Pencak Silat Federation) is promoting pencak silat as an international competition sport. Only members recognised by PERSILAT are allowed to participate at international competitions.

At the moment some European national pencak silat federations together with PERSILAT have founded a European Pencak Silat Federation.

In 1986, the first Pencak Silat World Championship outside of Asia took place in Vienna, Austria.

In 2002, pencak silat was introduced as part of the exhibition programme at the Asian Games in Busan Korea for the first time.

The last World Championships 2002 took place in Penang, Malaysia in December 2002.

[edit] Terms in pencak silat

  • Bersilat is the word given to the act of practicing silat.
  • Berpencak is the word given to the act of two pesilat in combat situation.
  • Pentjak is the old Indonesian spelling of the word pencak.
  • Another alternate spelling of pencak is the phonetic penchak (commonly used by French practitioners).

[edit] Fictional pesilat

[edit] See also

Portal:Indonesia
 Indonesia Portal

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/i/l/Silat.html"