HISTORY
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Pentjak-Silat is the national martial art of the Indonesian archipelago. Indonesia is made up of over 13,000
islands, and is the world’s large archipelago. For over 500,000 years the island of Indonesia has been
populated with people. Indonesians are a divers people developing many different languages, cultures, and
silat styles. There are about 250 different languages are spoken, and 200 different silat styles that are
practiced. There are many different tjiminde styles alone. The origins of combat in Indonesia are believed to
date back as far as 6th century A.D. on Riouw. The Riouw combat style is today called Silat Melayu. The silat
was a very crude combat system from 6th century A.D. to the 14th century. However, by the 16th century
came around the Riouw had a very complete, and effective combat system. The system went out, and was
taught to the Menangkabau Kingdom at Priangan. Then it was then carried to the Srividjaya Empire at
Palembang. The sultans and their court officials were taught this system of silat, but common peasants
were not aloud to learn or practice the systems techniques. By 1520 the empire of Indonesia fell.
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Indonesia was controlled by the Portuguese in 1511, and then by the Dutch in 1596 until the last of the, “The
Great Wars” World War II. The Germans invade Holland, and the Japanese took control of Indonesian
islands. Indonesian rebels fought for their country’s independents. In 1945, the Japanese was
unsuccessful to maintain control over Indonesia. The Dutch Military returned to try to re-take Indonesia. The
Indonesians use their art of silat, and other weapons to defend off the larger Dutch soldiers. In 1949
Indonesia declared it independents. Indonesia wanted to rid itself of all the Dutch influence. The
Indonesians made changes to their national language, and spellings. The Dutch way of spelling is
“Poekoelan” and “Tjimindie”, and now it’s spelled “Pukulan” and “Tjimande or Cimande”.
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The Term Pukulan is mainly an East Java term, in the West Java the term is Pentjak, and in the midlands it
is called Silat. Pukulan mean, “To hit, strike, or collide”, and looks very similar to Chinese Gung Fu. Some of
the Pukulan styles are, Serak (Decoy), Petjut (Whip Style), Suchi Hati (Big-Heart Style), Klipap (Thunder
Style), and Kuntao (Chinese Style). Some of the animals style of Pukulan are, Si Matjan (Tiger Style), and Tiji
Monjet (Ape Style). Pukulan is a system of weapons as well. Some of the Pukulan weapons taught are,
Staff, Knife, Straight Baton (single and double), and Siku-Siku (Small Fork). Most of the weapon that is done
by the Indonesians is very similar to Kali (Filipino Martial Arts).
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THE MALAY FIGHTING ARTS SILAT LINEAGE
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