Interest in Pencak Silat is growing furiously here in the U.S.A. Almost weekly, new teachers are popping out of the woodwork. However, there is a puzzling question:
Where are all the pure styles? It seems that almost every teacher of Indonesian martial arts in the U.S. is teaching their own personal "Kuntao" blend of different styles. You won't find a pure Cikalong teacher, or a straight Cimande teacher. Even the supposedly pure styles being taught over here seem to be modern Dutch/Indo blends. What gives?
Before we try and answer that question, I'd like to note that I think this is can be a blessing and a curse: As far as I'm concerned, Willem DeThouars can make up his own styles all he wants, but on the other hand I have seen some truly inferior arts in this category.
So I have a few possible answers to our question:
1) People are making up their own arts because they never finished studying any one art.
There are a lot of "multi-yellow-belt" teachers out there, and Silat is an open field for people to pass themselves off as masters.
2) Traditional Silat styles are small, modular systems that each focus on a narrow set of skills.
Traditionally you would perhaps have to learn several different styles to round out your fighting skills. This fits with my understanding of the older arts. If you read the Chinese and Japanese classics, the old masters used to learn several styles on their road to mastery. Large, all-in-one styles are more of a modern invention.
3) We have modern, left-brained methods of organizing and teaching our arts that require different approaches to styles.
Please "write in" and discuss. I'd love to hear your ideas.
Well...one thing is that since Indonesian independence, about 60,000 Dutch-Indos have immigrated to America, while only about 30,000 Indonesians have arrived (and I'd be willing to bet that a fair number of those were Dutch-Indos and Indochinese).
ReplyDeleteThere is no central governing board or set of standards here for Silat, which has both pros and cons. I don't think I'd be in a rush to repeat what is currently happening to a lot of the Silat in Indonesia, in its quest for a spot in the Olympics. I don't want to see Olah Raga, sport Silat, become the emphasis here. One blessing we have in the USA is that most of the oldtimers came here before the "standardization" push of Silat. Look at what's happened with the rise of Wushu in China. By the same token, underqualified teachers over there probably tend to get weeded out the hard way, via the school of hard knocks.
While I haven't done any kind of analysis, my suspicion would be that the largest percentage of this new crop of instructors come from 1) Dan Inosanto's lineage [Majapahit Silat and VDT Serak(TM)], 2)Pak Vic's lineage [VDT Serak(TM)], 3)the Mande Muda lineage, and 4)Uncle Bill's Kun Lun Pai. Inosanto's Majapahit is, admittedly, his own synthesis of various Silat styles, Mande Muda is basically the JKD of Indonesia, and Willem de Thouars has studied dozens of different styles. All are prolific, well-publicized styles and the numerous seminars they have all held over the years have, no doubt, produced numerous "weekend experts".
I think a number of styles found in the USA are fairly 'pure', including (but not limited to) Pendekar Sanders' Pukulan Cimande Pusaka (various Cimande substyles with some Cikalong influence), Eric Kruk's Baringin Sakti (an Indonesian synthesis of four Sumatran styles), and even Sean Stark's Combat Silat (primarily a blend of Sumatran Sterlak and Madurese Pamur, with some additional influence from other styles).
A lot of the Dutch-Indo's are practicing Pukulan styles (a sort of rough-and-tumble street fighter's interpretation of Silat). Willem de Thouars' style is a mix of Silat and Indochinese Kuntao, as was the late Willem Reeders'. Also, some Silat styles are simply 'renamed' Kuntao styles, as the Indonesian government outlawed Kuntao shortly after achieving independence from the Netherlands.
Well put. I had no idea there were so many Dutch-Indo's in the country.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to hear something positive about Sean Stark. I have some of his training material, and he seems to know what he's doing, but it's always so hard to tell what's authentic without deep studying.
I went looking for those figures recently, as I'd heard something about it several times over the years, and its quite pertinent to my writing project.
ReplyDeleteHe seems to have a pretty good reputation with a lot of the people I'm aware of. There are other instructors out there whose reputations are definitely more, uh, tarnished.
It also hadn't occurred to me that silat practitioners would change the name of their styles. (Slap to forehead.) It should have been obvious, since I have seen it in almost every other style out there.
ReplyDeleteSure. Jerry Jacobs is one obvious example. He left William Sanders' organization a year or two ago. Obviously, he can't call what he's doing Pencak Silat Pukulan Cimande Pusaka, so he has renamed what he's doing as Pukulan Cimande Kombanasi International. When Uncle Bill has licensed people as instructors, he's often given them a name for what they teach...Steve Gartin and Chas Clement's Malabar Kuntao Silat being a perfect example.
ReplyDeleteOh...if a person has sufficient knowledge of the de Thouars family arts, the "evolution" of those arts are visible in the practices of their students, and basically can serve to identify their lineage/history. And that may not be entirely accidental...lol.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Sanders' Cimande has undergone an evolutionary process, too, as he sought out more and more teachers over the years.
A similar phenomenon is found among those who were students of Morihei Uyeshiba, the founder of Aikido. Great differences exist between the late Gozo Shioda's expression of O-Sensei's art, and that of Koichi Tohei's or Mitsugi Saotome's.
I'm approaching my research on Yang Family Taijiquan along the same lines.
ReplyDelete(What Student X is teaching) - (Whatever else Student X has learned) = approximately what Yang Luchan was teaching at that time.
The version that I'm writing my books about is essentially a snapshot of what Yang Luchan was teaching at one point.
I'm beginning to get a pretty good picture of Yang Luchan the teacher. I can almost feel his frustration with his students forcing him to create yet another form because they just aren't getting something that would be obvious to him.
The pure styles in Silat won't be able to be traced since silat is dated from a long time ago. Even the pesilat (silat practitioners) in Malaysia also have the hard time in tracing our silat back to the Malacca Sultanate.
ReplyDeleteSome says that Silat Gayung is the original silat that has been used by Admiral Hang Tuah of the Malacca Sultanate... some says it is Silat lincah.
Most of them agree that the original silat that Admiral Hang Tuah was using was the 'Ibu Gayung', the mother of the modern silat gayung and silat lincah. I only know much about that since I'm practicing Silat Gayung Pattani which stresses on spiritual more rather than physical.
(shafrizal Azmi, Malaysia)
Oh, interesting. Most of what we have in the U.S.A. is from Dutch immigrants, so it can be hard to tell what is genuinely Indonesian.
ReplyDelete