Pencak Silat is known as the Southeast Asia martial art and it has been practiced many years ago. The Pencak Silat has been included in International Championship, and as the new branch of sport in Asian Game Competition. This martial art is a full-body fighting form incorporating strikes, grappling and throwing in addition to weaponry. Indonesia itself has legalized an association named Indonesia Pencak Silat Association, and become a liaison body for International Pencak Silat. The Pencak Silat is widely known in Southeast Asia, the word "Pencak Silat" is mainly adopted from Indonesia languages since this fighting sport is quite popular among Indonesia people. In 1948 the Pencak Silat was chosen as a unifying term for the Indonesia fighting styles. In the past time, the Pencak Silat was practiced in many regions in Indonesia which had the different style of Silat.
Pencak itself was the term used in central and east Java, while silat was mostly used in Sumatra, Malay Peninsula and Borneo, Kalimantan. Just like other martial arts, Pencak Silat is the essence of combat and self-defense, which require the technique and tactic while practicing silat. Somehow, silat cannot stand alone without pencak, and pencak without having skills is purposeless.
Speaking about silat, we speak about the skill of fighting that has hundreds of styles and it oriented to combat ideology and use as the deathly weapon in the past time. Silat also holds many systems of kuntao, a form of Chinese boxing that has similarities to silat and it is also found within the Chinese community in Indonesia. Malaysia is home to a style known as bersilat, which can be divided into two forms: putat, a dancelike series of movements intended for public display, and buah, a realistic combat method never publicly displayed. Bersilat is also found in the southern Philippines, as well as langkah silat, kuntao silat and kali silat. Silat techniques vary greatly, from the low ground-fighting postures of harimau (tiger) silat to the high-flying throws of made silat. The principles of Silat revolve around physics: the efficient use of all body parts for locking, joint breaking and striking. Silat focuses on close combat and uses minimum energy to cause maximum damage.
Chinese fighting tactics have had positive influences on the development of pentjak silat,” says noted martial arts historian and author Donn Draeger.
Interestingly, silat, in term of technique, used the animal. It is like a harimau (tiger) that is name of takedown involves when the strike coming in low against an opponent's punch, capturing his foot with your foot, and forcing his knee outward with a strike or grab to the inside knee to effect the takedown while cipecut silat makes extensive use of the practitioner’s sarong for throwing and controlling the opponent. In Philippine silat, it is common to trap your opponent’s foot with your own foot while controlling his head and arm, then spin him in a circle. The opponent’s body rotates 360 degrees, but his knee and foot remain in place, causing severe injury. The sheer number of silat styles allows practitioners a tremendous amount of variety, as well as a certain amount of freedom and self-expression. By researching a number of silat systems, you can add tremendous diversity to your combat arsenal.
Different styles of Pencak Silat
There is no overall standard for Pencak Silat. Each style has its own particular movement patterns, specially designed techniques, and tactical rationale. The richness of terms reflects a wide diversity in styles and techniques across the regions due to the fact that pencak silat has been developed by different masters who have created their own style according to their preferences and to the physical environment and social-cultural context in which they live. For example, West Java, Central Java, and West Sumatra.
West Java is inhabited by a specific ethnic group with specific cultural and social norms. For them, pencak silat is part of their way of life or as they say, "the blood in their body". In their language they say "penca" or "menpo" (from "maen poho', which literally means play with trickery) to indicate their main four styles Cimande, Cikalong, Timbangan, and Cikaret and all the schools and techniques which have derived from them. The Sundanese people have always utilized penca/menpo for self-defense and recreation, and only recently have started to use it as a sport in national and regional competitions.
The bela-diri (self-defense) aspect of penca can be very dangerous. Therefore it was kept secret, especially its mystical aspect where only selected students were taught in phases. Penca as an art (penca ibing) has been a source of inspiration for traditional Sundanese dances such as Jaepongan, Ketu'tilu', Dombret, and Cikeruhan and actually, it resembles dance in its use of music instruments. These instruments, called "pencak drummers" (gendang penca), are devoted exclusively to penca performances and consist of two sets of drummers (gendang anak dan kulantir), a trumpet (tetet) and a gong. Pencak performances also use standard music rhythms such as tepak dua, tepak tilu, tepak dungdung, golempang and paleredan. Penca as art is not considered dangerous and can be openly shown to everyone. From generation to generation until today, penca performances animate wedding parties, rituals of circumcision, celebrations of the rice harvest and all kind of national festivities.
The Pencak Silat Competition
In 2016, the seventieth of International Pencak Silat Competition was held in Bali with number of 44 countries took a part in this competition, they were: 1. Australia, 2. Austria, 3. Azerbaijan, 4. Banglades, 5. Belgia, 6. Brunei Darussalam, 7. Kamboja, 8. Canada, 9. Perancis, 10. Jerman, 11. India, 12. Indonesia, 13. Iran, 14. Jepang, 15. Kazakhstan, 16. Kyrgyzstan, 17. Kuwait, 18. Laos, 19. Malaysia, 20. Mauritius, 21. Myanmar, 22. Nepal. Kemudian 23. Belanda, 24. Pakistan, 25. Filipina, 26. Rusia, 27. Saudi Arabia, 28. Singapura, 29. Afrika Selatan, 30. Korea Selatan, 31. Spanyol, 32. Suriname, 33. Srilanka, 34. Swiss, 35. Tajikistan, 36. Thailand, 37. Turki, 38. Turkmenistan, 39. Inggris, 40. Amerika Serikat, 41. Uzbekistan, 42. Ukraina, 43. Vietnam, dan 44. Yaman.
Upon the initiation of Indonesia, Pencak Silat is officially included in Asian Games. It means, today Pencak Silat is considered an ancient art-form, and its existence must be conserved by holding the competition throughout the provinces and International competition is as a way to introduce the traditional sport to the world. As with most things in Indonesia, variety is at the core and there are over 150 styles of Pencak Silat practiced in the nation, many influenced by Islamic, Hindu, Chinese and Indian techniques. Malay myths describe Pencak Silat originating in the jungles of Indonesia and Southeast Asia by tribal groups that observed the movements of wild animals. In advancing the Pencak Silat popularity, many competition was held throughout Indonesia provinces and placed this martial art as the huge famous sport in Indonesia.
Pencak Silat in Asian Games
Good news, the Pencak Silat is also considered as the official world class competition. This has been included as one of the sports that will be going side by side with other sports branches in the Asian Games. Another good news was found from India where the Indian Olympic Association has added one member to the truncated Pencak Silat squad for the upcoming Asian Game in Indonesia this year 2018. The national Olympic body, which had dropped as many as 20 athletes to participate in the Asian Game in Palembang from August 18 to September 2. Actually, the Pencak Silat is a new sports branch that is included in the Asian Game. As the host of the Asian Game, Indonesia has given a right to add the three sports branches, and the Pencak Silat was chosen to be included in this Asian Competition. In SEA Game 2017, Indonesia won 2 gold medals, 4 silver and 9 bronze. Two medals were won by Wewey Wita, Anggi Faisal Mubarok, Asep Yuldan Sani and Nunu Nugraha from the male fighter group.
Final Thought
Pencak Silat is an heritage martial art of Indonesia and Southeast Asia in general. However, the origin of Pencak Silat still needs to trace where it is actually coming from, due to the lack of written documentation. The history of Pencak Silat was collected from gurus or masters. The silat itself has the different styles in each region and country which still adopted the traditional style. Pencak Silat is known as the martial art for self-defense which was existed since human being had to fight with each other and with the wild animal in order to survive. Silat combines the fighting techniques and skill that is comprehensively known as Pencak Silat. Considering, the Pencak Silat is the famous fighting sport in Southeast Asia, Indonesia took a fast step to form an association and become a liaison body to unify all Pencak Silat practitioners to set the general rule and style for competition purposes. Today, Indonesia Pencak Silat Association was already established and become a body for International Pencak Silat.
Work Cited
Martial Art Around the World Indonesia
Pencak Silat, Beladiri Nasional yang Mendunia
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