Indonesian, Malaysian born Silat teachers in the west

[Narrue]

Are there any Indonesian, Malaysian born Silat practitioners currently teaching in the west, particularly in the UK? Since there are so many Chinese, Japanese etc MA teachers in the west I wonder why there are so few Silat teachers who are native to the country’s these arts are practiced in. I know Orang Jawa (Tristan) and Kiai are, who else?

[sulaiman]

salaams all,
in the uk you have a few native born silat guru including my own Cikgu ariffin mahidin master of silat haqq melayu and ketua Khalifa of Gayong Uk.
Likewise in the states you have cikgu sam ketua khalifa of gayong america.
From my point of view, i would rather train with these cikgu because you have the advantage of being a second generation student of mahaguru as they both studied directly with the grandmaster.
You also have the advantage of learning the Malay silat culture and adab, rather than just silat techniques, which is in my controversial opinion essential to an deeper understanding of silat as seni melayu.
ciao from sunny spain
sulaiman :cool:

[Gajah Silat]

Selamat

Guru Jak Othman used to visit the UK regularly but hasn't for many years(as far as I know). My instructor was involved with some of the first UK Silat practitioners and trained with both Guru Jak & Guru Cigku mentioned by Sulaiman, among others. So I suppose I'm a 3rd generation UK student.

I am quite suprised that there are not more Malaysian teachers in the UK as there are a reasonable amount of Malays in the UK.

However, there are simply not that many Indonesians in the UK, which accounts for lack of Indonesian teachers.

My wife's family has their own system which goes back at least 4 generations but we don't know if this was only passed on to her Uncle who recently died. She suspects it would have been passed on to more than one Uncle (I think there were 14 children!), but this is something we will hopefully 'unearth' the next time we're in Jawa. It could be interesting :)

[Narrue]

Selamat

My wife's family has their own system which goes back at least 4 generations but we don't know if this was only passed on to her Uncle who recently died. She suspects it would have been passed on to more than one Uncle (I think there were 14 children!), but this is something we will hopefully 'unearth' the next time we're in Jawa. It could be interesting :)

Yes now your a member of the family you should demand they hand over the goods :D

[Gajah Silat]

My point exactly ;)

Thanks to the wonderful world of sms messaging, I now know there is definitely another uncle & a cousin who it was also passed down to & word is still out regarding others. :)

Should be there later in the year, cash willing, so we'll see.

It's actually very interesting stuff. Grandmother in law still vividly remembers the Japanese occupation in WW2 and her husband was heavily involved in a local resistance movement against the Japanese.

My wife remembers him as a very old man teaching to her uncles when she was a small girl.

I think the next visit will be very interesting indeed :)

[Garuda]

My teacher is from East Java and he lived quite a long time in the Netherlands. Since December 2005 he returned to Indonesia to enjoy his retirement. I consider myself lucky, that I was able to learn from him for almost 20 years. Now he maybe will come once a year to the Netherlands, so we can meet.

Garuda...

[Gajah Silat]

Or you could visit ;) Cheap flight with KLM :) Climb a volcano or two :D Ride around on a bebek :rolleyes:

I suppose for obvious reasons, there is a much larger Indonesian community in the Netherlands.

A few years ago, I remember checking out a government website that lists the numbers of immigrants to the UK from each country. There were only 109 visas granted to Indonesians that year. Not many!

This is possibly why in the early days of UK Silat, most teachers were Malay.

[Garuda]

Yes, that is correct. There are many Indonesian immigrants in the Netherlands (NL). I am also Indonesian, but my parents immigrated to NL.

However in Netherlands there are not a lot of teachers that are 100% Indonesian. Most of them are the so called Indo's (of mixed Dutch Indonesian descent) who were born in Indonesia and later moved to NL. In NL there are only a few 100% Indonesians that are teaching. So far to my knowledge the teachers of Merpati Putih, Mande Muda Mawar Suci and my teacher are Indonesian. There are however a lot of styles that have close ties with the Indonesian organisations like (Perisai Diri, Tapak Suci, Pajajaran, Panglipur, Setia Hati, Pauh, etc.).

Garuda...

[taoizt]

Hi Garuda, I'm from the Netherlands as well and am interested in Silat and Pukulan, who is your teacher if I may ask? :)

Greetings,
Taoizt

[Garuda]

My teacher took on a western name when he moved to NL (Dave Nelson), but his real name is Raden Panji Setiosoeprapto. He however is not in NL anymore, but moved back to Indonesia.

Garuda...

[itchyfeet]

Does anybody know much about Guru Ma Prem in the Netherlands? She's taught her family style of Wali Songo Silat but I don't know if she's still active anymore.

[Wali]

Does anybody know much about Guru Ma Prem in the Netherlands? She's taught her family style of Wali Songo Silat but I don't know if she's still active anymore.
She isn't teaching any more new students, and only teaches a few "closed door" ones.

He teachings are being transmitted via Steve Benitez in London, at EastWest Studios.

Cheers,
Wali