Studying Silat in Indonesia

Discussion in 'Silat' started by GZA, Feb 8, 2007.

  1. GZA

    GZA New Member

    I've been offered a job in Makassar.

    does anyone know if i'll be able to train Silat while I'm living there?

    thanks
     
  2. Rebo Paing

    Rebo Paing Pigs and fishes ...

    The Bugis and Toraja people are from that area and were considered fierce warriors (especially the Bugis). So yes, there is silat there. Sorry that I can't be more specific!

    Try asking your question at http://www.kpsnusantara.com/ .

    They have an English section there as well.

    Salam,
    Krisno
     
  3. GZA

    GZA New Member

    many thanks
     
  4. Gajah Silat

    Gajah Silat Ayo berantam!

    The term Boogeyman originates from the Bugis whom the European spice traders greatly feared. Strange how such a term has entered into Western conciousness to mean a monster or psycho in a ski mask :eek:

    The Bugis traders/pirates/bajag/orang laut, are thought by some to have greatly influenced Silat. Both the Bugis and the Makassarese weapon of choice is the badik.

    A good & hilarious read is Nigel Barley's 'Not a Hazardous Sport'. An ethnography and comedy of errors in Torajaland, Sulawesi. Funny, honest & human, although nothing whatsoever to do with Silat :confused:

    BTW traditional Torajan houses are magnificent :)
     
  5. nasigoreng

    nasigoreng Valued Member

    Good Luck GZA,

    Makassar is a part of the country that is very devout muslim. Some silat instructors will teach non-muslims and others will not. Perisai Diri and Merpatih Putih are two big National silat organizations that usually have clubs on the university campuses and they don't descriminate like that . these clubs might be more oriented towards 'sport'silat (olah raga) instead of self-defense (bela diri) though.

    I'm assuming you don't speak bhs indonesia.. .that will be a big obstacle.

    If you're ever in Jakarta give me a buzz and we'll hangout.
     
  6. Kiai Carita

    Kiai Carita Banned Banned

    Makasar is a silat Centre

    Silat is very popular in Makasar. The president of the silat federation in the UK is from there. Contact Bapak Aidinal Alrashid through the UK silat federation and he will be able to show you the way around Makasar. He is actually from that area and regularly sends people to train there. A lot of boat silat there.

    Warm salaams,
    Bram.
     
  7. amirul_tekpi79

    amirul_tekpi79 Valued Member

    Pak Bram and Malaysia??

    Assalamu'alaikum and peace to all,

    Dear Pak Bram and fellow pesilat,

    It's been a while since my last post. Pak Bram, are you still in Indonesia??? When are you coming to Malaysia??? If you come here, i'll introduce you to the Northern Malaysian Gendang Silat culture.

    To Taker, (if you are reading this),

    Where in Kedah are you?? Do you know Shafri? He's Silat Cekak Hanafi's Kedah Treasurer. He's also my cousin.


    Peace
     
  8. Kiai Carita

    Kiai Carita Banned Banned

    Wa'alaikum Salaam !

    Wa'alaikum Salaam Adek Amirul!

    Nice to see you posting here again. I have been in Indonesia since the beginning of this year ... planting rice and looking after my forest-garden (kebun). I don't know whether I will be going to Malaysia. I was in Thailand in February for work which was interesting. Met some traditional Thai boxers and watched matches in a festival ... Did you know that they use a type of 'kembangan' or 'tari bunga' before they fight in the ring? I was interested in the trumpet that featured in the music and they told me that it originaly was from Jawa. So there you go, Muay Thai is was related to silat some time back. ... BTW if you are in Jawa this year drop me a note and we will meet up. I will be here till the end of the year, mostly in Yogyakarta and Madiun area.

    Sampai jumpa!
    KC
     
  9. Rebo Paing

    Rebo Paing Pigs and fishes ...

    Likewise Bram :D

    Did you also know that given the right catalyst, human beings will uncover similar principles as it applies to the methods of self preservation? A man generally has a head, torso, 2 arms and 2 legs. The most effective ways of using this combination is finite.

    Of course you get some people who favour certain elements of that mix, but in the end there is a unifying principle, a point of origin.

    Salam,
    Krisno
     
  10. hottdogg

    hottdogg Valued Member

    GZA, find more info about silat badai. I read in www.pamorbadai.com that silat badai has root history in south sulawesi area.
     
  11. Wali

    Wali Valued Member

    As we have said for some time. We are going through a change where we will be teaching what will be known as 'Satria Fighting Arts', as oppossed to simply silat. This will take into account the other influences which are included in our system, and acknoledge the Veidic/Siamese/other roots to what we teach. Watch this space! ;)
     
  12. fire cobra

    fire cobra Valued Member

    Mixing muay thai and silat wali? :)
     
  13. slipthejab

    slipthejab Hark, a vagrant! Supporter

    Yeah that nice little instrument is what is commonly referred to in english as the Javanese clarinet. :D


    The MuayThai Orchestra.



    source: http://www.wmtc.nu/html/wmc03_mthist-msic.html

    Personally I'm a big fan of SE Asian tradtional music... and especially of Gamelan style music. There are many similarities between Gamelan and many of the types of traditional music of the Khmers and Thai's.

    One of these days I'll convince my local fight promoters to hire an Indonesian Gamelan ensemble to play at the Muay Thai fights. :D

    One of the nicest pieces of music I own is a Sundanese Gamelan album:

    Album title: Degung Sabilulungan
    Artist(s): Suara Prahiangan Group

    another good one is:

    Jegog (western Balinese Gamelan)
    Suar Agung
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Mar 25, 2007
  14. Gajah Silat

    Gajah Silat Ayo berantam!

    Asianly erudite as ever Slipster.

    I wonder why Ram Muay is easily accepted by MAists but kembangan is often treated with disdain :confused:

    Trumpets! I remember a unusual 'trumpet' among the mountain people of N Laos too. However, the first section connected with the main body at right angles. This was then held low with a spinning around trumpet dervish type dance. I remember twirling around myself holding a massive stone jug filled with water with my teeth :eek: However this was post lao lao :eek: ;)

    Of dances & combat. Certainly we must make a strong connection as many many cultures throughout the world encode combat within dance. Rythmn is essential for both. Many cultures have used dance to diguise movement and technique whilst oppressed. Many cultures use dance as ritualised combat.

    As I've got older, and as a musician, I have begun conceptualise attacks as 'beats'. I suppose the term beat speaks for itself. However, I don't mean this in the simple sense of lets say, bam bam bam, but more the interplay of rythmns and using it for an off beat. Kinda reminds me of the Arabesque use of quatertones....

    Umm, anyway I must have drank too much kopi today :eek:

    By the way KC (& the Sunshine Band :confused: ), I'll be in Jatim trading some silat bule for some silat kampung in a week or two. I'll drop you a PM :)
     
    Last edited: Mar 25, 2007
  15. Kiai Carita

    Kiai Carita Banned Banned

    Jawa Timur & EWS' Film

    Hi GS... I suppose you will be in Blitar area right? If you have time to get to the west side of Jatim, silakan mampir. I suppose you will be with Ibu GS and the little one too? Bring them too. I am in the Ngawi district just before you get into Jateng...just about in the middle between Ngawi and Sragen. In my village here there is some Cempaka Putih (Cimande), Kera Sakti (Banten + China) and many SH Terate (like a political party) ... it is rice harvest time now and in a few weeks will be planting season. People are very busy but we should be able to ask some guys to give a demonstration for a genuine bule pesilat from England.

    Wali... I heard Steve mentioning about teaching SE Fighting arts or something like that a few years back instead of strictly silat. I hope it goes well and smooth. BTW I am still waiting for the feature film you guys were making. When is it due to be released?

    Salaam persilatan.
    KC
     
  16. Wali

    Wali Valued Member

    Hi Kiai,

    The movie is still going ahead. We are in negotiations with varios parties, and it's all looking very good. Silat is coming 'en force' to the Big screen...

    Regards,
    Wali
     
  17. Kiai Carita

    Kiai Carita Banned Banned

    Salaams to Steve and the gang...

    Hi Wali... seems that you are up late as it is morning here at GMT + 7! Is the movie the Dark Eden mentioned on the EWS site? Judging from what I have seen you guys doing I'm sure the silat will be a real spectacle! Good luck and salaams to Steve, Alvin, Angel, Johnny and Laarni too. If there is anything I can do to help from here just ask.

    Wali, do you know two guys called Delroy and Rob who used to study with Steve? Delroy works in the theatres in the West End and Rob I think is a personal trainer and lives somewhere near Queen's Park - they used to often drop in to Camden and chat about silat and keris and kebatinan and I would like to get in touch but I lost their emails.

    Slipthejab, thank you for the lesson on Thai music. Very interesting to me, as it appears to put the time of the cross-fertilization between the martial arts way back to the Syailendra times of the 1st Mataram, around the years 700 - 900 in the Christian era, around the time of the construction of Borobudur. In the later times - like the Majapahit era, it seems that the Jawa influence in Thailand was more in the South where the people speak Jawi and use keris - though it sounds more like Malay that Jawanese to the modern ear. By the way would you know how and when the Thais began to use boxer xhorts, gloves and a roped square ring?

    Cheers,
    KC
     
  18. Narrue

    Narrue Valued Member

    Oral tradition and Music in many cultures can be traced back thousands of years. Its quite interesting when you travel to the other side of the world only to find that some songs and oral tradition are identical, how can that be? An interesting example is ancient Vedic Indian folk songs and ancient Irish folk songs, they are often found to be the same yet India and Ireland are geographically so far apart!

    The Irish music critic, Fanny Feehan, in a paper entitled "Suggested Links Between Eastern and Celtic Music" (1981) states:


    ...In the area of vocal ornamentation East and West come close. I once played a Claddagh recording of Maire Aine (Ni Dhonnacha) singing `Barr an tSleibhe' for an Indian Professor of Music who refused to believe, until I showed her the sleeve of the record, that it was an Irish song. She claimed, and demonstrated by singing to me, that the song bore a strange resemblence to an Indian (North) raga about a young girl being lured toward a mountain. The Professor was interested in the mode, the pitching of the voice, and certain notes which were characteristic of both the raga and `Barr na tSleibhe'...
    One of the most ancient forms of Celtic music, which still survives in a few areas in western Ireland, is the marbhnai, or "death song", also called keening. (caoine). These songs are sung by women, and have been compared with the raga style of India, which it is similarly improvised around three or four notes. Historian Bryan McMahon plays an interesting game with every Indian guest who visits a certain hotel in County Kerry, Ireland. He hums certain Irish folk music and then asks them to complete it however they like. He says that, almost every time, they will sing it like they already know the song. McMahon believes that, for him, it is an indication that Indians and Irishmen have a common past of some kind.
    http://www.ancientquest.com
     
    Last edited: Mar 26, 2007
  19. slipthejab

    slipthejab Hark, a vagrant! Supporter

    Nice post man.
     
  20. Gajah Silat

    Gajah Silat Ayo berantam!

    Hehe, this thread's gone off at a tangent :)

    Here's an article for Narrue.
    Article by Neil MacGregor Campbell
    Paganism - A Comparative Exploration into Pagan and Indian Religion, Myth and Culture

    http://www.geocities.com/indianpaganism/celticvedic.html

    And of course there's the fact that Romany Gypsies are thought to have originated in Rajasthan, many settled in Ireland ;)

    Mind you I've never heard anything resembling a gamelan used in Celtic music :confused:
     

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