The Mythical Origins of Pencak Silat
Saturday, 06 October 2012 20:38
by Guru Scott McQuaid
During my travels across Indonesia studying and researching the art of silat, I have come across many myths and legends of the origins of pencak silat. These are merely folklore stories but entertaining nonetheless, and like any myth, there may be some truth to the tale. So I have decided to share these stories with those interested in silat and the martial arts.
The history of the Indonesian fighting style known as pencak silat is not easy to track back due to the lack of written documentation. As in tradition information was handed down from guru to guru orally. In particular, it is very complicated to determine the geographical origin of where pencak silat begun and who pioneered its spreading.
The earliest documentation comes from Sumatra and most experts and pendekars (masters) will note wild animals as the inspirational source in the creation of the various pencak silat techniques and styles that exist today.
During the time of silat’s development the ferocity of wild animals threatened the life of prehistoric people as their natural enemy in the Indonesian archipelago. The humans studied the raw movements of these animals and utilized these moves into a structure of fighting that would have already contained the basics of kicking and punching. They copied the movements of natural predators such as tigers, eagles, snakes, crocodiles, scorpions and even monkeys. Gradually pencak silat systems were developed out of these observations such as the harimau (tiger) and garuda (eagle) silat styles. However nature’s environment and surroundings played an essential role in the development of each pencak silat system.
In the small island of Bawean on the north coast of Java, the dominant legend of the origin of pencak silat claims that monkeys were the pioneers of the movements.
The myth says that a woman named Rama Sukana went to the village river to do her washing. On the opposite side of the river a pair of monkeys were fighting. One of the monkeys repeatedly attacked the other one with a fallen tree branch, while the other monkey avoided its attacks by jumping and moving side to side. Rama Sukana watched the fight until it ended and then continued her work and went back to her home. Upon arriving late her hungry husband waiting for his dinner tried to beat her but she used the techniques she had just learned from the monkeys to avoid the husband's attack. Eventually her husband gave up and together they created a pencak silat fighting system; these techniques are known today as pencak Bawean.
Similar stories are also told in other Indonesian provinces. In West Java, the Cimande style is said to derive from the wife of Mba Kaher who learned her techniques from a tiger fighting with a monkey. In Sumatra, the myth narrates how silat techniques were conceptualized by observing the fight of a large bird described as an eagle against a tiger.
This story is retold over and over again with the animals and location changing but what is interesting to note is that all these myths give a prominent role to women as the initiators of pencak silat. This is a sharp contrast with today’s silat where men seem to dominate the classrooms. Women's dominance does not imply that mythology totally neglects men as can be seen from the following Javanese legend.
A young man watched flowers fall into a nearby river and the stream carried them towards the waterfalls. The man thought that the flowers would be completely shattered by the waterfalls but to his surprise this did not happen. Every time the flowers ended under a waterfall they soon reappeared pushed up by the upside down stream. From this experience, the young man was inspired to create attack and counter-attack movements.
All these myths concur that pencak silat was inspired by nature. Our ancestors spontaneously developed their self-defense techniques by observing natural phenomena that occurred in their daily life. With this new knowledge, tribal groups were able to contain the many dangers that surrounded them. In the following centuries, these instinctive movements evolved into a technical self-defense system.
The Sumatran Minangkabau tribe is one of the oldest and most influential tribes in pencak silat with almost all silat styles today having some trace of Minangkabau fighting arts contained within them.
The origins of the Minangkabu people come from a legend of a mythical mid-Asian empire Urhun Jani, situated near the present-day Gobi dessert. One day the emperor, Maharajo nan batanduek duo, decides to send away his three sons to find him the magical flower Sari Manjari. The sons are noted as being educated in local fighting techniques by an old and wise guru; they are well prepared for their journey. Their father also gives each of them a gift, which would reveal something about their future fate. However, in the midst of the wild ocean, the brothers come to fight over a crown, which was the gift belonging to the youngest brother. This crown, as they all knew, guaranteed the fortuned owner an eternal empire. But, in the tumultuous fight, the crown disappears into the sea of Langkopuri and the brothers each decide to go their own way.
The oldest one returns to Urhun and succeeds his father as the emperor. He is also said to have continued the local fighting school, from which in later times Japanese Sumo wrestling and Tibetan fighting techniques would emerge. The second son concludes his journey in Jani. There he creates his own combat school from which later Chinese arts and Muay Boren (Muay Thai boxing) would develop. The youngest son, Sangiang Patualo, keeps on wandering, in search of the lost crown. After years of hardship and adventures he strands with his ship and together with his people on top of the mountain Sidulang Ameh, the only part of Sumatra that was then above sea level. Sang Patualo decides to stay there, and together with his people he builds a settlement, Selo. He is later given the title of Datuk Maharajo Dirajo (king of kings). It is also this same Sangiang Patualo who created the first fighting school in the area. From this school eventually emerged the first silat called Silat Gunuang Marapi, referring to the name of the 2891m high volcano mountain that can be seen in West Sumatra from Minangkabau provinces such as Bukitinggi, Padang and Tanah Datar. However there is also another version of this myth that notes the first silat style being named as Silat Pariangan, the 'Mother' of all silat-styles.
The historical value of these myths needs to be seriously questioned from an anthropological point of view, but they are still worth some attention since they express people's explanations of a certain cultural phenomena. For the origin of a myth usually comes from some truth that is twisted and changed as it is passed on and retold through the ages.
This article is an exclusive publication for the Black Triangle Silat website, 2012.