This article was downloaded by: [Murdoch University Library] On: 25 April 2012, At: 02:31 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Musicology Australia Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rmus20 Traditional and Modern Forms of Pencak Silat in Indonesia: The Suku Mamak in Riau Margaret Kartomi a a Monash University, School of Music—Conservatorium, Australia Available online: 29 Jun 2011 To cite this article: Margaret Kartomi (2011): Traditional and Modern Forms of Pencak Silat in Indonesia: The Suku Mamak in Riau, Musicology Australia, 33:1, 47-68 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08145857.2011.580716 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and- conditions This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
Transcript
This article was downloaded by: [Murdoch University Library]On: 25 April 2012, At: 02:31Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
Musicology AustraliaPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rmus20
Traditional and Modern Forms ofPencak Silat in Indonesia: The SukuMamak in RiauMargaret Kartomi aa Monash University, School of Music—Conservatorium, Australia
Available online: 29 Jun 2011
To cite this article: Margaret Kartomi (2011): Traditional and Modern Forms of Pencak Silat inIndonesia: The Suku Mamak in Riau, Musicology Australia, 33:1, 47-68
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08145857.2011.580716
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE
Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.
The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representationthat the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of anyinstructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primarysources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings,demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly orindirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
Traditional and Modern Forms of Pencak Silat inIndonesia: The Suku Mamak in Riau
MARGARET KARTOMI
Monash University, School of Music—Conservatorium, Australia
Pencak silat (‘the art of self defence’) is a contemporary umbrella term used in Indonesia and Malaysia and
other parts of Southeast Asia to designate the hundreds of traditional and modern martial art genres that are
performed either solo or as a duel, and with or without musical accompaniment. The two components of the
term designate the two parts of the one pencak silat genre: pencak, a performance art, and silat, a fighting and
self defence art, with the latter sometimes involving the use of weapons such as a sword or dagger. The forms
are associated with a range of local legends, religious concepts and philosophies, religions, and systems of
customary law (adat), and are components of traditional education. This article explores traditional and
modern forms of Pencak silat of the Suku Mamak in Riau, in which the collaborative roles of musicians,
musical instruments and other participants are analysed. The article argues that the modern state-
appropriated forms have developed in similar fashion throughout the Indonesian archipelago.
This article discusses the performance, cosmology and history of the art of self-defence(pencak silat [I, M]),1 which developed among many Malay groups in Indonesia and otherparts of Southeast Asia since approximately the last millennium.2 After focusing on thefight-dancing and music of one of its many forms, the article discusses the cosmologicalphilosophy behind its movements and techniques, analyses the collaborative processes in itstransmission and the production of a performance, this time focusing on the period, andpresents three theories of its origin. After describing a pencak silat event in the 1980s, thearticle returns to a discussion of the collaborative processes in the art’s transmission and theproduction of a performance after the Indonesian Revolution (1945–1949), when it wasappropriated by the state and broke into its three modern forms: a stage art (Pencak Silat
Seni, ‘artistic art of self defence’), a form of sport (Pencak Silat Olah Raga, ‘the sport of self-defence’), and a form of exercise for the masses Silat Perisai Diri, ‘self-shielding art’). Aswill become apparent, these modern, state-appropriated forms have developed in similarfashion throughout the Indonesian archipelago.3
1 I¼ Indonesian, M¼Malay, Minang.¼Minangkabau, Ar.¼Arabic. Non-English words without
attribution are Indonesian.
2 Traditional pencak silat is also practised in Malay-speaking areas of Malaysia, southern Thailand, and some
other parts of Southeast Asia. Maryono estimates that there are more than 800 schools and 260 styles of
pencak silat throughout Indonesia, and Wilson counted 20 named styles in West Java; see O’ong Maryono,
‘Pencak Silat in the Indonesian Archipelago’, Rapid Journal 4/2 (Book 12) (1999), 38–9; and Ian Douglas
Wilson, ‘The Politics of Inner Power: The Practice of Pencak Silat in West Java (PhD thesis, Murdoch
University, 2003), 39. Shamsuddin counted more than 150 variants in Malaysia; see Sheikh Shamsuddin, The
Malay Art of Self-defense: Silat Seni Gayong (Berkeley, Calif: North Atlantic Books, 2005).
3 Most of the data in this article were gleaned from guru silat (masters) whom I met in many ethnic groups
during my ethnomusicological field trips throughout Sumatra and other parts of Indonesia and Malaysia in
1972–2010, especially the Suku Mamak master, Pak Kuning Harum Bunga Tanjung. Others were a pair of
Minangkabau tiger-capturing shamans (pawang) and pencak silat masters, Bp Djabur Datuak Radjo Taduang
and Bp Halimar Datuak Radjo, whom I met in Solok in 1972, and the west-coast Minangkabau guru/
Musicology Australia
Vol. 33, No. 1, July 2011, 47–68
ISSN 0814-5857 print/ISSN 1949-453X online
� 2011 Musicological Society of Australia
DOI: 10.1080/08145857.2011.580716
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A great variety of forms of pencak silat developed in different areas of Indonesia in pre-colonial and post-sixteenth-century colonial Dutch times, very few of which have beendiscussed in the literature.4 Many Indonesians employ the compound term pencak silat todenote a performance that begins with a martial arts display and ends with an exciting fightbetween a pair, or pairs, of protagonists. After a display of the slow sparring movementswith artful stylistic embellishments (gerak bunga [M, I], gerak bungo [Minang.]) in thepencak part of a performance, they learn the techniques of open hand combat between apair, or pairs, of protagonists in the second and final part, called silat.
The performance described below was presented by members of Riau’s semi-nomadic,forest-dwelling Suku Mamak people whose ancestors had served as the designatedproviders of music, dance and pencak silat at the nearby palace of the former sultan ofIndragiri, near the present-day town of Rengat on the Indragiri River. While they arewandering in the forest it is, of course, impractical for them to carry musical instrumentsaround with them, so they perform a style of the art of self-defence in which music isoptional. For the palace, however, the Suku Mamak developed a relatively elaborateperformance style, which shares many movements, musical attributes, and cosmologicalconnotations with performances in other former Malay palaces in Sumatra, and it also hassome unique features deriving from the Suku Mamak’s forest environment. The followingsection describes a performance in the style they developed for the former palace.5
Part 1: A Traditional Pencak Silat Evening in a Suku Mamak Forest Village
Around 4:00 pm on 14 November 1984, a group of semi-nomadic Suku Mamak people werepreparing to hold a series of healing ceremonies for a female patient with swollen chin lymphnodes. The ritual events took place in a slightly sandy arena outside a Suku Mamak timberhome with plaited bamboo walls built on stilts in the shady, isolated forest village of TalangJerinjing, southwest of the town of Rengat on the Indragiri River in the province of Riau.
The ceremony was to include a lesson for novices and a performance led by a shaman(kumantan) who was also a guru silat, the late Pak Kuning Harum Bunga Tanjung (alias PakKuning). Two pairs of fighter-dancers (pesilat) and three musicians were preparing themselvesfor the performance while the hosts and elders were organizing the ceremony and makingofferings to the spirits, and some of the women were preparing the ensuing feast. Garneringthe power of a silat performance was seen as a way of treating the patient, as the beauty of thefight-dancing and music could attract the benign spirits of the ancestors and the naturalenvironment to come down and bless the patient and all those present.
Before the event, a group of 12 novices had gathered on the side of the arena and madetheir formal greetings to Pak Kuning, who was preparing to give them a lesson in the art of
shaman Pak M. Noerdin in Kampuang Salido, Painan Timur, Kecamatan Empat Surai in 1986. I was also
informed by Barendregt’s interviews with Mahaguru Darwis Sultan Sulaiman from Solok, West Sumatra; see
Bart Barendregt, ‘De beweging in Silat Minang, Randai en Tarian Pencak’ [‘Movement in Silat Minang,
Randai and Pencak Dancing’] (MA thesis, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, 1994; and Bart Barendregt, ‘Written by
the Hand of Allah; Pencak Silat of Minangkabau, West Sumatra’, Odeion: The Performing Arts World-wide 12
(1995), 131–44.
4 Probably the scholarly neglect of the art of self-defence is due to the fact that it lies on the cusp of music and
dance, and therefore requires of the researcher descriptive and analytical skills in both fields, which is challenging.
5 This account is based on my field notes and photographs of a daytime pencak silat performance in Talang
Jerinjing, Riau, in November 1984, plus my and Barendregt’s photographs of similar performances by
Minangkabau performers in Solok, Painan, and Johor, Malaysia.
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self-defence. First he spoke to the novices about the nature of pencak silat, explaining howthe techniques that he taught are actually the outer form of the ‘inner force’ (tenaga dalam),a Buddhist-Hindu concept that improves one’s moral and physical fitness and knowledgeof etiquette, and helps the fighter-dancers recognize danger and acquire the ability tosidestep a physical attack in a performance. Then he gave them some lessons in pencak
performance, correcting their stances and movements as they performed the routines. Bynow a number of men and boys had assembled around the outdoor arena for thisperformance event, and some women and children were watching them admiringly fromthe balcony of the home. For protection from the evil spirits Pak Kuning threw rice grainsover his host, the pesilat, musicians, elders, and members of the audience.
Pak Kuning then began the performance session by singing an evocation to the spirits,including spirits of the king and queen of the forest (raja macan)—the tiger patrons ofpencak silat. The pair of pesilat took centre-stage and began the pencak section of theperformance, opening with a local variant of the sembah (salutation) movement, with oneperformer raising his right hand and crooking his left hand on his hip. With averted gaze,the pair squatted on their feet and raised both hands to forehead level as they performed agraceful gesture of respect to the benign spirits and the audience. On crouched legs theystepped slowly around a clockwise circular formation (Figure 1), then around ananticlockwise circle. Then they crouched down on one leg and extended the other leg to thefront with both hands outstretched. All the while they performed the elegant, ornamentalstretching movements (gerak bunga) of the fingers, hands and arms that form the basis ofthe slow, controlled pencak section of the performance. They performed several of the shortsequences of movements (jurus) that they would also employ in the ensuing silat section.
Figure 1. A Pair of Suku Mamak Fighter-dancers Move Slowly around a Circle in the Initial Pencak Section
of a Performance.
Note: Photograph by H. Kartomi in Talang Jerinjing, Riau, 1984.
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During the sembah, the pair of pesilat began to collaborate with three instrumentalists. Theywere playing a pair of locally made, two-headed drums (gendang) and a gong (tetawak), whichwas an heirloom given them by the former palace. (On this occasion the ensemble dispensedwith the optional oboe [su’une], which has a coconut-leaf double reed, a wooden tube with alower flair, and six small front finger holes.) Locking their drums into place with their left legsfor ease in playing, the drummers played cyclic, interlocking rhythms on a pair of cylindrical,double-headed drums, with the larger ‘mother drum’ (gendang ibu; Figure 2) producing thepeningka (‘lead rhythm’) and the smaller gendang anak (‘child drum’), the penyelalu (‘continuingrhythm’).6 In their slow but rhythmically arresting opening flourish, the drummers followedthe fighter-dancers’ circling movements and the player of the 28-cm-diameter brass tetawak(Figure 3) struck its boss on every sixteenth beat then damped the sound by placing his lefthand on the rim, as in Transcription A. In slow tempo sections he beat it on every twenty-third beat as in Transcription B (or every sixteenth beat as in Transcription C), and in fastsections he beat it on every eighth beat as in Transcription D.
Then the silat fighting section began, featuring a succession of ‘lulls’ and ‘storms’ in theinteractions between the two fighter-dancers. First they assumed a basic stance calledberlabeh7 in which they lowered their bodies and rested their weight on their knees whileholding one hand in front of their chests, as in Figure 4. With the smoothly gliding steps(langkah) that are the mark of an accomplished fight-dancer, they performed some more
Figure 2. A Pair of Suku Mamak Gendang (Drum) Players Performing Interlocking Rhythms with Each Other
in a Silat Performance.
Note: Photograph by H. Kartomi in Talang Jerinjing, 1984.
6 The larger drum in the performance measured approximately 60 cm in length by 35 cm in diameter, and the
smaller drum approximately 45 cm in length and 30 cm in diameter.
7 The equivalent term in Minangkabau is balabeh (see Barendregt, ‘Written by the Hand of Allah’) and closely
resembles the Suku Mamak berlabeh stance.
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short sequences of movements (jurus), of which there are a total of around fourteen.8 Eachpesilat stepped smoothly and gracefully toward and away from his opponent, changing hiswhole body stance with each step, sometimes attacking unexpectedly and forcing hisopponent to devise a spontaneous response. Their offensives and basic rolling moves weresimple, their kicks were swift and firm, and their ornamental hand and arm movements(bunga) were elegantly executed.
The drummers depicted the lulls with interlocking, regular-rhythmic passages as theyprepared for the sudden ‘storms’ that burst out at lightning speed. As the pesilat began toattack each other, the musicians played fast, explosively loud, jagged drum rhythms,reverting to a soft interlocking section as the attacks subsided.
The pair of pesilat then warily approached each other in a clockwise and then ananticlockwise circle formation, raised both hands, and one of them prepared to attack, as inFigure 5.
The other fight-dancer warded off the attack and counter-attacked by hitting, kicking,then throwing his opponent, sometimes locking him into a fixed position, or parrying, and
Figure 3. A Suku Mamak Musician Playing the Gong in a Silat Performance.
Note: Photograph by H. Kartomi in Talang Jerinjing, 1984.
8 Pak Kuning, personal communication, 1984.
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side-stepping.9 The drummers played passages of continuously interlocking rhythms thatmatched the growing tension between the pair as each tried to outwit and physicallyovercome the other. One pesilat attacked from the berlabeh position, punching his fist
9 This method resembles the Minangkabau silat teaching method discussed in Barendregt, ‘Written by the
Hand of Allah’, 120–1.
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toward his opponent, who resisted it by raising his left palm at right angles.10 Then onetripped the other up, making him fall to the ground, but he responded by kicking hisopponent in the groin, which forced him to somersault away. Sometimes the musicianssimply played louder and more furiously to match the mounting tension occasioned by thepesilat’s attacks and counter-attacks, but at other times they deliberately tried to confuse thecombatants, mainly to make an episode more exciting for the audience and to assertthemselves as collaborators. Sometimes they sonically distracted one pesilat while warningthe other in order to avoid an attack that he could see coming. The combatants needed touse all their ingenuity to improvise solutions to problems as they arose, usually byperforming a surprise move, such as back-flipping, or somersaulting away. The drummers
10 In different areas, the basic berlabeh stance varies; for example, the balabeh alang babega in Minangkabau,
which resembles the hovering of a preying eagle (alang, elang) (Barendregt, ‘Written by the Hand of Allah’,
121).
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Figure 4. The Berlabeh/Balabeh Posture Performed by Pak Darwis Sultan Sulaiman.
Note: Photograph by Barendregt in Solok (no date), reproduced with permission from Barendregt, ‘Written
by the Hand of Allah’, 122.
Figure 5. A Pair of Pesilat Move around in a Circle before One Suddenly Attacks.
Note: Photograph by H. Kartomi in Kampuang Salido, Painan Timur, West Sumatra, 1984.
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marked such moves as these by sharp jagged rhythms that spurred the combatants on topresent more surprises, as in Transcription D.
One protagonist then further increased the level of tension by brandishing a keris (shortMalay dagger) before his opponent, who then produced and brandished his weapon, deftlymanoeuvring his opponent into a compromising position under his keris.11 As theexcitement built up to fever pitch, the men and women in the audience spurred the pesilaton by calling out admiring or amusing comments. There was a lull in the proceedings asthe pesilat reverted to a calm circling formation in a clockwise then an anticlockwisedirection, accompanied by soft, interlocking drumming (Transcription C). Then one manwould suddenly attack again and the other would counter-attack, with the musiciansvarying the musical rhythms, tempo and dynamic levels to match.
As Pak Kuning explained,12 each pesilat aimed to attack and win some skirmishes, butnot all of them, for etiquette requires that each fight-dancer maintain good relations withhis opponent. Moreover, the pair is expected to perform so well that the benign spirits willbe attracted to attend, and if the artists perform at a seance to help heal a patient, they arerequired to contribute to the healing process by providing the right spiritual atmospherethrough their music and dance. The pesilat are expected to provide an interestingperformance by continually building up and resolving the level of the artistic tension, and toimpress the onlookers with an exciting, structurally balanced artistic event.
Pencak Silat in Society: The Semi-nomadic Suku Mamak
Over centuries past, various styles of pencak silat were taught and practised for self-survival anddefence of one’s family and sultan at all levels of Malay society.13 In mainland Sumatra mostof the people lived at subsistence level, either as nomads in the forests, as semi-nomads—suchas the Suku Mamak discussed above—who divided their time between collecting products inthe forests and slash-and-burn agriculture on the edge of the forest, or as sedentary farmersliving in villages near their king’s or chieftain’s palace. To this day, the small population ofnomads and semi-nomads prefer to live in relative isolation in the forest so as to evade contactwith government or commercial groups who may interfere with their lives, or who in earliertimes would capture them as slaves. They prefer to live close to nature where they feel free tovenerate the spirits that inhabit the rocks, trees, animals and other natural phenomena as wellas the spirits of their ancestors. Until the demise of the traditional Malay sultans in theeighteenth to twentieth centuries, the first two groups provided their rulers with products thatthey collected in the forest in return for bartered goods such as salt, and the rulers used or soldthe products in the lucrative trade circuits to which they belonged, while the third groupprovided staple foods and other basic goods and services.14
Not only at Indragiri but also at other riverine palaces in Riau in the colonial era(approximately seventeenth to mid-twentieth centuries), the kings placed a special value onthe local nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples. Besides collecting valuable forest productsthey supplied them with ritual specialists whose shamanic chants, prayers and ritual pencaksilat and other performances helped solve problems such as healing a sick patient, capturing
11 Weapons used in other areas include a rencong (short Acehnese dagger), sword, knife, sickle, or machete.
12 Personal communication, 1984.
13 Sultans are Muslim and kings are Hindu/Buddhist.
14 Leonard Y. Andaya, Leaves of the Same Tree: Trade and Ethnicity in the Straits of Melaka (Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 2008), 49–81.
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tigers and other wild animals, winning battles, or vanquishing a rival in love.15 SeveralRiau-Malay kings appointed special groups of nomads or semi-nomads to serve as theirtrusted musicians who maintained and played the royal nobat ensembles, the kings’ mostpowerful heirlooms and symbols of sovereignty. Their shamans made liberal use of music,dance and self-defence displays in their seances and at the royal and commoner rituals onthe occasion of a wedding, funeral, or other rites of passage.16 The sultans of Indragiridesignated the ancestors of the above-mentioned Suku Mamak group as their officialproviders of the performing arts, who were entrusted with the task of making, maintainingand playing the nobat drum ensemble and teaching and performing the martial arts.17
Traditional Malay Pencak Silat: Its Origins and Cosmology
What are the origins of Malay pencak silat? There are at least three theories.18 One holdsthat it developed as part of the generation and spread of the Old Malay culture, language,and indigenous religion from the time of Sumatra’s Buddhist-Hindu kingdom of Sriwijaya(seventh to eleventh centuries CE). Another holds that it is even older, for its establishedterms and rationale are closely associated with Southeast Sumatrans’ ancient indigenousreligious beliefs, which are based on the idea that not only people but also animals, trees,mountains, the sun, moon, stars, and other phenomena of the natural universe possessconsciousness, have subjective characteristics, and are interconnected in the one reality.Several pencak silat movements are named after the movements of animals, which is notsurprising as the people believe that, like humans, tigers and chimpanzees have a culture,and birds have a language of communication. All natural phenomena, including live anddeceased humans, feel pleasure and pain, and contain spirits; and it behoves humans torevere and maintain relations with the spirits of nature and the ancestors. These beliefs arestill dominant among groups of people who prefer to live relatively isolated lives wanderingin the forests, such as the Suku Mamak discussed above, or as nomads living in houseboatsat sea (Suku Laut [‘Sea Tribes’]); and vestiges of them also still remain in the consciousnessof the adherents of world religions in the rest of Sumatra, including the Muslim majorityand Christian minority. Adherents of this theory also hold that some Hindu and Buddhistcelestial beings (e.g. the Hindu god Siva, known as Batara Guru) were added to thepantheon of venerated indigenous spirits from the time of Sriwijaya.
Over the centuries, Sumatra’s kingdoms came into contact not only with adherents ofBuddhism and Hinduism but also Islam (from the early to late second millennium) and afew came into contact at different periods with Confucianism or Christianity. Thus inmany areas of Sumatra, Muslim terms and phrases such as Bismillah al-rahman al-rahim
(‘In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Compassionate’) and references to Muslimsaints or spirits have been added to the invocations, cosmology and pedagogy of pencaksilat. Most of the nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples escaped efforts made to convertthem, yet some of the terms used in their ritual languages indicate that they too have had
15 Pak Kuning, personal communication, 1984.
16 In Riau, not only did the sultan at Rengat on the Indragiri river have a special relationship with the above-
mentioned Suku Mamak, but the sultan at Siak on the Siak river had a close relationship with the semi-
nomadic Sakai people, and the sultan at Pelalawan on the Kampar river with the semi-nomadic Petalangan
people.
17 Encik Oemar Syarif, personal communication, 1982.
18 The theories were explained to me by some pencak silat masters, including the above-mentioned Pak Kuning.
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contact with members of the Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim kingdoms with whom theirancestors engaged in barter.
A third theory holds that pencak silat is indirectly related to the hand and armed combatused in petty wars, in which magic charms and songs expressing reverence for the spirits areall-important. As the belletristic Malay literature and oral traditions (hikayat) indicate, theinhabitants of Sumatra were frequently involved in fighting local wars over the pastmillennium and a half, albeit mostly between small numbers of combatants on each side.They fought wars over land rights, external threats, matters of royal prestige, aristocraticrivalry in love, and possession of pusaka (heirlooms, including certain musical instruments)and other magically potent objects. All Malay boys were therefore expected to learn the artof self-defence, including the preliminary spiritual and physical exercises, the artisticmovements and formations, the sparring techniques against an opponent, and thecosmological associations that were attributed to the art and all other aspects of living. Therulers rewarded the most proficient fighters by making them generals (panglima) andadmirals (laksamana), and using the ordinary fighters in the army and navy forces whennecessary to protect the kingdom and its trading activities.
All the theories portray pencak silat as an exclusively male art. The Malay hikayat tell ofthe military and amorous exploits of many male heroes and occasionally refer to heroines,but they mostly portray their female characters as helpless beauties and mothers who needmale heroes to protect them and their children against marauders and criminals. Thus, thetraditional art of self-defence is taught by male master teachers (guru besar silat, or gurusilat) to male novice pupils. They absorb the cosmological meaning and terms of the art andimitate the master’s movements en masse.
The Spread of Malay Culture, Tiger Movements, and Pencak Silat
Pencak silat is one of the Malay customs associated with the birth or development of theOld Malay language in southeast Sumatra during the first millennium CE. As thearchaeological evidence shows, the cradle of the Old Malay language and culture waslocated in the lower reaches of the Musi River in the Buddhist-Hindu kingdom ofSriwijaya (approximately seventh to thirteenth centuries CE), with its capital in or nearpresent-day Palembang until the eleventh century, and thenceforth near Jambi, the centreof the Malayu kingdom on the Batang Hari River,19 whence it spread north to Riau andother areas of Sumatra and the Malay peninsula. As the Old Malay language spread, itsubdivided into its many lingual varieties around coastal Sumatra, the coasts of many otherIndonesian islands, peninsular Malaya, Thailand, and other parts of Southeast Asia.
From time immemorial, all young Malay boys have been required to learn pencak silat asa tool of traditional education in philosophy and religion and for self-defence in ahistorically warring environment. Malay oral epics dating back to the sixteenth centuryemphasize the need for Malay boys to learn the martial art of pencak silat (e.g. the SejarahMelayu [‘Malay Annals’]).20 The art also spread throughout Riau, the coastal areas ofSumatra, and even in the lingually non-Malay Batak Mandailing area that neighboursMinangkabau, as we shall see below. It also became an essential symbol of male Malayidentity in Minangkabau where the people speak a variety of Malay, although the language
19 Andaya, Leaves of the Same Tree, 11.
20 C.C. Brown (trans.), Sejarah Melayu or Malay Annals (Kuala Lumpur: OUP, 1970), 83.
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underwent substantial adaptation from the fourteenth century, and the people regardthemselves as a separate ethnic group.21
Many traditional silat master teachers (guru besar silat [M, I]) possess the mysticalpowers of a shaman as well as advanced practical self-defence skills and pedagogical ability.They teach their trainee fighter-dancers that pencak silat is not just a martial art but also aphilosophy that is based on their ancestors’ Buddhist and Hindu beliefs and veneration ofthe spirits of nature. They transmit certain secretive combat techniques that are based ondeep observation of animal behaviour and the elements of nature—fire, air, water, andearth, as in the case of the irama serama angin (‘magic wind rhythm’) performed by bothSuku Mamak and Mandailing musicians.22
Barendregt has hypothesized that the early development of silat education in WestSumatra was ‘bound up with the belief in tiger spirits. The raja macan, king of tigers, wasthe patron of all silat students . . . Some Minangkabau regard the tiger as the foundingfather of some silat styles’.23 I also found evidence in support of this view in several parts ofRiau, West and North Sumatra, above all among the Suku Mamak nomads in mainlandRiau, who are in frequent contact with the tiger.
Suku Mamak pesilat say that they continue to model their fighting-art movements on thoseof wild animals, especially the king and queen of the forest, the tiger. The aforementioned silatmaster (guru besar) Pak Kuning, who was venerated for his mystical ‘tiger knowledge’ (ilmumacan), informed me that he had befriended a succession of tigers in the forest, and that hehad learnt several stances and movements while observing them playfully pouncing andcornering their prey. From the slow, stealthy ‘long steps of a tiger’ (langkah panjang macan)and ‘the tiger attacks movement’ (gerak serangan macan) he developed silat movements such asgerak serangan macan (‘the tiger attacks’) and the slow, stealthy ‘long steps of a tiger’ (langkahpanjang macan). He also taught his followers the ‘white bird’ (burung putih) and ‘descendingpython’ (ular sawa barendam) movements and told them about the powerful steps that theancestors learned from ‘elephant knowledge’ (ilmu gajah) and observation. He said that apesilat’s main aim is to anticipate, evade and sidestep his opponent’s attack by performing agilehand and foot movements, tumbling, striking, kicking, and blocking. So as not to give awaytheir secrets, his followers avoid looking directly at their opponent, averting their gaze to theground or the arena as they perform.
The government sees the Suku Mamak as belum beragama (‘not yet subscribing to areligion’) because their indigenous religious beliefs are based on nature and ancestral spiritveneration, not on the five world religions that are recognized by the government (i.e.Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism/Confucianism and Hinduism). The Suhartoregime (1965–1998) recognized only five religions, and this policy has not changed at thetime of writing.24 Since that time, when Minangkabau Sufi brotherhoods began to beformed, Minangkabau masters adapted pencak silat to their new beliefs,25 while retainingvestiges of the old religion. Like the Suku Mamak, when the Minangkabau guru silat teachthe philosophy of the art, they emphasize the indigenous belief in the need to venerate
21 Andaya, Leaves of the Same Tree, 82–3.
22 For a recording of the Serama Datu (‘magic shaman’) rhythm, see item 7, side B of Margaret Kartomi, The
Mandailing People of North Sumatra, Musicaphone Baerenreiter BM 30 SL 2568 (LP record with musical
transcriptions, analyses and commentary, 1983).
23 Barendregt, ‘Written by the Hand of Allah’, 117.
24 When the government in the Suharto era insisted that all Indonesians must belong to one of five established
religions, it classified the religions of each ethno-linguistic group.
25 Barendregt, ‘Written by the Hand of Allah’, 118.
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Nature and the ancestors in order to gain inner strength (tenaga dalam, a Hindu-Buddhistconcept),26 but unlike the Suku Mamak they also emphasize the importance of a Sufi-oriented education and acquisition of the esoteric knowledge of the litany (ilmu tassawuf,Ar.), and their mantra address the Prophet Muhammad and other Muslim prophets. Bothgroups teach that pencak silat is an important means of promoting good social behaviourand etiquette, and both practise similar basic procedures, movements and use of musicalinstruments, but they practise distinctive forms of the art.
Collaboration in and Transmission of Traditional Performances
As exemplified in the performance described above, a traditional pencak silat performancerequires collaboration at five levels: between the master and the trainee or lead fighter-dancers, the pair(s) of fighter-dancers themselves, the pesilat and the musicians, the artistsand the ceremonial event organizers, and the whole group of presenters with the audience(see Figure 6).
At the first level of collaboration, a respected guru besar silat master passes on thetechniques of attack and defence to his pesilat novices or followers, making sure that theyunderstand the importance of the moral philosophy that comes with the skills, and hecollaborates with his pesilat followers as organizer and director of rehearsals andphilosophical introductions to performances (Figure 6a).
At the second level, the pair(s) of pesilat fighter-dancers become adversarial collaboratorsto produce an excellent performance. Through experience they learn to foreshadow,recognize, and sidestep a dangerous attack (silat). They apply a variety of methods fordealing with unpredictable situations, usually launching an attack as the best form ofdefence, anticipating an attack from the opponent, and creatively improvising a method ofescape from danger, such as when punched (Figure 7) or tripped up (Figure 8).
At the third level, the collaboration occurs between the pair(s) of pesilat and anyaccompanying musicians, who minimally comprise a pair of drummers, plus optionalplayers of melodic instruments such as an oboe, flute, bowed string instrument, gong-chime, or colotomic instruments, for example, a gong or two.27 The most commonly usedmelodic instrument is the oboe, which contributes to the excitement by adding a melodicbuild up to the drum climaxes at strategic moments. The collaboration between the pesilatand the musicians is intense; they follow their opponent’s every move musically. Althoughthe lead drummer usually decides when to begin and end a performance and marks it with arhythmic signal, he needs closely to follow and match the pesilat pairs’ movementsmusically. The pair of drummers frequently increase the tension by playing interlockingpassages in strict quadruple metre and building up to a fast, loud climax, but they interruptthe flow to mark the unpredictable high points in the action by producing a sharp, loud
26 Ibid., 117. The concepts of inner strength and divine self associated with pencak silat in the Solok area of
Minangkabau are discussed in Barendregt, ‘Written by the Hand of Allah’, 117–28. Their philosophical
discourse and terminology derives from Sufi-oriented sects (tariqat [Ar.], tarekat [I, M]) that influenced the
art from the sixteenth century when the Minangkabau began to accept Islam. For example, they refer to the
‘seven divine philosophies of man, i.e., sight, hearing, speech, knowledge, physical strength, vital strength and
will (filsafat Tuhan dalam diri kita [‘‘God’s philosophy in us’’])’ (Barendregt, ‘Written by the Hand of Allah’,
117–19).
27 In some Suku Mamak pencak performances, a pair of hanging gongs are played in colotomic (punctuating)
fashion every eight or four beats (as in Transcription C), and in fast silat scenes they serve as a tempo-keeper,
played on every second beat.
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Figure 6. Models of Collaboration in the Presentation of Traditional Pencak Silat Performances.
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Figure 7. A Pesilat Attacks with a Punch, Whereupon his Opponent Resists by Raising his Left Arm.
Note: Photograph by H. Kartomi: Muar, Melaka, Malaysia, 1975.
Figure 8. After Being Tripped Up and Falling to the Ground, a Pesilat Kicks his Opponent in the Groin and
Makes him Somersault Away.
Note: Photograph by H. Kartomi: Muar, Melaka, Malaysia, 1975.
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drum clap when a pesilat hits or kicks his opponent (see Figure 8), and they match theirbuild-ups of tension and release by changing the dynamic level and tempo. Both the pesilatand the musicians collaborate to produce an adventurous, improvisatory performance, buteach knows his place in the hierarchy. The pesilat always lead the musicians. The seconddrummer (penyelalu, ‘follower’) takes his cues from the lead drummer (the peningka),28 andthe first drummer takes the lead over any other instrumentalists present. Most pesilat findthat music magnifies the excitement of the combat for both the performers and theaudience. However, some pesilat prefer to perform their mock-combat without any music,which they find distracting as they try to concentrate on the dangers of the fight.
At the fourth level, the master guru besar and his pesilat followers collaborate with theelders and hosts in presenting performances to the guests and audience at a healingceremony, or—in Muslim areas—a wedding, circumcision, other life event celebration,holy day celebration such as Idul Fitri (the festival celebrating the end of the fasting month,Ramadan), or a national holiday celebration (e.g. Indonesian Independence Day, 17August). Usually the elders of a community lead the village organization of men andwomen who provide the basic resources for silat education, practice and performanceactivity. They also serve to maintain the social consensus that pencak silat is a valuablepursuit for all young men.
Finally the guru and the team of pesilat and musicians collaborate to entertain theiraudience at a performance. The pesilat pair, or pairs, begin and end each episode byperforming locally varied sembah (an elegant salutation) of respect to each other andmembers of their audience, seen and unseen. The musicians also aim to entertain theaudience by surreptitiously intervening in the fighting by beating out a sharp drum soundor rhythm at a crucial moment in order to confuse or distract one or the other of thefighters and even to issue warnings of an impending attack. Their motive is not to supporttheir preferred winner but to increase the challenge to the fighters and to make the ups anddowns of their display more entertaining for the onlookers.
Part 2: Major Changes in the Collaborative Processes of Pencak Silat’s Transmissionand Performance Style since the 1940s
During and after World War II, a series of major changes occurred in the function, practiceand meaning of the art, and as a consequence in the collaborative processes involved in itsinter-generational transmission and performance styles. Following their invasion of theDutch East Indies in 1942, the Japanese ordered the occupied Indonesian people tosubscribe to the Japanese wartime slogan ‘Asia for Asians’ (as opposed to Asia for theDutch) and to show pride in their ancient culture and arts. Thus, professional pencak silatartists performed in public shows along with items of traditional dance, music and drama.29
The Japanese also offered pencak silat as part of combat training to youths in the Fatherland
28 For a detailed, comparative music-technical discussion of the fusion of penyelalu and peningka drum rhythms
among the Malay Petalangan people in Riau, see Ashley Turner, ‘Belian as a Symbol of Cosmic
Reunification’, in Metaphor: A Musical Dimension, ed. Jamie C. Kassler (Sydney: Currency Press, 1991),
135–7.
29 For example, pencak silat exercises were included in a sandiwara drama presentation that was written and
directed by Japanese artists, as reported in Asia Raya, 1 March 1945; see Ethan Mark, ‘Intellectual Life and
the Media’, in The Encyclopedia of Indonesia in the Pacific War, ed. W.B. Horton and D. Kwarta (Leiden: Brill,
2010), 374. ‘From the start of the occupation, the Japanese paid great attention to cultural means to change
people’s minds and win their hearts’ (Mark, ‘Intellectual Life and the Media’, 389). ‘Education was
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Voluntary Defence Force (PETA, Tentara Sukarela Pembela Tanah Air) established in1943. When primary and secondary schools were reopened after the invasion, however, thenew curriculum only emphasized Japanese physical education (including military trainingand taiso gymnastics), not pencak silat.30
After Sukarno declared Indonesia’s Independence in 1945, a new collaborativestakeholder began to become involved, the Indonesian government. From 1948, whenthe first national pencak silat body was founded in Bandung, the government subjected theart to major changes for political purposes and nation-building. Eventually internationalpencak silat organizations were established that focused on the sporting aspects and paidonly limited attention to the genre’s traditional philosophy, pedagogy and forms. Silatteaching for ‘civil defence’ was officially encouraged at the first national Sporting Gamesheld in Surakarta.
During Suharto’s New Order regime (1965–1998), military and government officialsdeveloped the bureaucratic structures of the Indonesian Pencak Silat Association (IPSI)through which the teaching method was thoroughly standardized.31 However, it did notachieve its aim of including the art of self defence in the national curriculum.32 Under theauspices of IPSI, the art was split in three directions, involving different models ofcollaboration. One emphasized the genre as a performing art (Pencak Silat Seni) withcompetitions and festivals of arts organized for its pinnacle artists, another as a sport(Pencak Silat Olah Raga) with formal games organized for its pinnacle performers, and yetanother as a mass physical exercise (Silat Perisai Diri [lit. ‘silat to shield oneself’]). On thewhole, the first and last models retained musical accompaniment in their performances, butthe second—the sporting model—sometimes dispensed with music entirely as it wasconverted from its status as an art form into a sport.
In the first modern model, Pencak Silat Seni, three levels of collaboration occur, withgovernment-organized competitions and festivals replacing the traditionally organizedvillage celebrations, as in Figure 6a. The first level of collaboration operates between arecognized master/guru besar and the pairs of student pesilat in art institutions such as theSekolah Seni Indonesia (formerly the Akademi Seni Karawitan Indonesia Arts Academy)in Padang Panjang, West Sumatra. However, the participants are much less mystically andreligiously inclined than when taught in traditional style in the villages, and the guru besar
silat may serve mainly as a dance trainer and choreographer. Secondly there is an adversarialyet artistic collaboration between the pair of pencak artists, the collaboration being lessimprovisatory and more choreographed than in the traditional styles. Thirdly thecollaboration operates between the pair of artists and the musicians, who tend, however, toperform fixed popular numbers and to improvise very little, if at all. From 2000, somePencak Silat Tradisi (traditional pencak silat) festivals were organized in which performanceswithout any music at all were showcased and the competitive appeal dispensed withaltogether.33
considered as one of the most important means of indoctrinating people as members of the Greater East Asia
Co-Prosperity Sphere’ (Mark, ‘Intellectual Life and the Media’, 320).
30 Mark, ‘Intellectual Life and the Media’, 323.
31 Lee Wilson, ‘Jurus, Jazz Riffs and the Constitution of a National Martial Art in Indonesia’, Body and Society
15/3 (2009), 95–6 and 107–8.
32 Ibid., 3–5.
33 This development has been described by Uwe Paetzold in an unpublished paper delivered at the International
Council for Traditional Music conference in Sheffield in 2005.
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In the modern sport model called Pencak Silat Olah Raga (Figure 6c), the collaborationsalso occur at three levels: between the silat sport trainers, the athlete practitioners, and thesport organizations at the regional, national, and international levels. Although IPSI includedperforming arts-style pencak in its pedagogical activities, sporting competitions tookprecedence. As a result, many new moves were introduced including ‘high kickingtechniques . . . or landing punches and kicks to designated areas of their opponent’s body’,the aim being to develop one’s strength and fighting skills and above all to win in acompetition.34 This, along with the fact that music was excluded from the sport, was a majordeparture from traditional pencak silat. From the 1970s, international pencak silat organizationswere formed that aimed to spread an interest in pencak silat’s physical properties andtechniques internationally, and to present their athletes at international Games.
The internationalization of the sport accelerated in 1980, when the main internationalpencak silat organization, PERSILAT (Persekutuan Pencak Silat Antarabangsa), wasfounded. Comprising 39 member nations in Asia, Australasia, Europe, and North Americain 2009, it aims to promote pencak silat outside its source region of Southeast Asia.35 Sinceits internationalization, scores of pencak silat organizations have been operating in mostcountries of Asia, Australasia, North America and a few other countries in Europe andbeyond. Since 1982 silat athletes have competed in the biennial Pencak Silat WorldChampionships, and from 1987 in the Southeast Asian Games. Athletes also participate inthe Pencak Silat European Championships, the Pencak Silat Asia-Pacific Championships,and the Open Championships. In early 2010, a well-known silat master, Bp Waheed,toured the United States, where he taught silat tuo (old silat), silat Minangkabau and silat
harimau (tiger silat), as recorded on the website, where movements of a wild Sumatran tigerand her two cubs are caught on film.36
In the sporting arena, Pencak Silat Olah Raga internationalized its activities in such away as to allow individuals of either gender to take part, using the same collaborative modelas in male performances shown in Figure 6c. However, male and female fighter-dancersnormally perform separately, following the segregated gender practices of many otherperforming arts in urban areas of Indonesia’s increasingly modernist or orthodox Muslimsociety. Female participation in this traditionally male art grew significantly from the1990s, as shown in some Internet videoclips.37 One clip shows a pair of female pesilat usingjurusan that suit the female body, avoiding attacks on the breasts, and wearing a traditional-style costume that protects and covers the body.38 After opening their Sundanese-stylepencak section with a low sembah and a wide spatial orientation, their silat section featuredseveral rounds of low-grounded, open-hand combat at a fast pace, with formations movingto the back, front and both sides of the arena, and featuring the avoidance techniques ofrolling on the floor and kicking. Music was retained in this example of Pencak Silat Olah
Raga, played on a Sundanese oboe (tarompet) in the local pentatonic salendro tonality and aset of truncated conical Sundanese drums, closely followed the frequent changes of tempofrom slow to very fast, and drum claps to mark the main hits and kicks. As in Suku Mamak
34 Wilson, ‘Jurus, Jazz Riffs’, 106–7.
35 Persilat, (Accessed 1 March 2010) 5www.persilat.org4.
36 International Silat Federation of America & Indonesia, (Accessed 28 March 2010) 5www.
internationalsilatfederation.com4.
37 Pencak Silat (women) from Indonesia, (Accessed 2 April 2010) 5http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v¼DKKDp5X0zDY4.
38 The women wear a high-necked, long-sleeved, black trouser suit with a loose cut and a colourful sarong to
and other traditional practices, the musicians produced sharp drum sounds to distract onepesilat as the other attacked, or to confuse or frighten one or both fighters.
In the third modern model—the standardized mass exercises called Silat Perisai Diri
(‘self-shielding silat’)—the pencak silat trainers or instructors (who are sometimes minimallytrained) collaborate with large numbers of government employees or school children whomthey teach and supervise in regular early morning exercise sessions held in a square or yard(Figure 6d).39 As the sequences of silat exercises were performed either to recorded musicby absent musicians or to no music at all, the all-important collaboration between pesilat
and musicians in traditional performances was of course entirely lacking, althoughtechnicians were usually employed to play back the pre-recorded music. Under Suharto’sNew Order, government policy aimed to keep its employees and schoolchildren fit (andpolitically compliant40) by having the instructors, who were no longer guided by the art’sphilosophical and religious traditions, teach them to perform the easier movements at earlymorning ceremonies. Since Suharto’s fall, the practice has become much less widespreadthroughout Indonesia.
At present the traditional forms of the art are taught in less and less communities as thecities and towns expand and take over the ever-diminishing rural areas. Efforts to revive thetraditional pedagogical method are rarely successful given the lack of funding andthe pressures to teach large classes efficiently. The losses are greatest among the nomadicand semi-nomadic peoples. From the late 1970s, many Suku Mamak and other nomadicgroups retired further and further into the forests, with their habitat under constant threatfrom extensive illegal logging. The depletion of the forests forced many to move to theoutskirts of towns, where a traditional form of pencak silat was preserved in Talang Jerinjingbut fell into disuse elsewhere.
Conclusion
This article has described a traditional silat performance by a people who in 1984 were stilldividing their time between a nomadic lifestyle for most of the year and a sedentaryexistence—growing garden products on the edge of the forest—for the rest of the year.Their performance style features movements based on their ancestors’ observations of themovements and strategies of wild animals: tigers, crocodiles, snakes, elephants, birds, andso forth, with which they needed to learn to live and even befriend as far as possible, butalso to treat self-defensively in case they marauded against them. While in the forest theydisplayed advanced combat techniques in their pencak silat performances but they oftendispensed with the music because of the impracticality of carrying heavy instrumentsaround with them. In the Talang Jerinjing performance described above, however, the roleof music is important, influenced as it is by their Malay confreres in the Indragiri palace,where mutual interaction between the fighter-dancers and musicians creates a specialtension and complexity.
The art of self-defence occurs in many variant forms in virtually all Malay ethno-lingualgroups in Sumatra and many other parts of Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia andMalaysia. A master-teacher of the art (guru besar silat or guru silat) usually presides over a
39 Silat Perisai Diri was founded by R.M. Soebandiman Dirdjoatmodjo in 1955 in Surabaya. Branches of
Keluarga Silat Perisai Diri (‘The Silat Self Defence Family’) were subsequently established in several
countries.
40 As argued by Paetzold (2005).
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performance by a pair of fighter-dancers (pesilat) at a traditional celebration or pencak silatcompetition. The performance usually comprises two parts: a slow sparring display withartful, embellishing movements (gerak bunga [M, I], gerak bungo [Minang.]), followed byexciting episodes of open-hand combat between a pair, or pairs, of pesilat, who sometimesuse weapons such as a keris (dagger) or a knife. The first part is usually called pencak and thelast part silat (M, I) or equivalent local terms,41 with the compound term pencak silat
denoting the combination of the martial dance display and the fight-dancing section.42
Malaysians, on the other hand, tend to use the term silat seni (‘artistic silat’) for the dancedisplay and silat or silat gayong (‘fist or weapon strike silat’) for the fighting section.
If the pesilat choose to perform in silence or cannot find any musicians to accompanythem, the level of excitement generated among the performers and audience may berelatively subdued. If musicians are present, however, they accompany the sparring of thefighter-dancers by improvising and anticipating, or reinforcing, the usual range of surprisemoves between the standard routines, although occasionally they take the initiative andspur the pesilat on as they spar. In some cases the drummers may even intervene in thepesilat’s actions as they respond musically to their attacks and counterattacks. Themusicians often play only a pair of double-headed drums (gendang), to which they may adda melodic instrument (usually an oboe, a sarunai [M]) and optional gong[s]).
A prototype of pencak silat probably developed into its many variants and spread withthe expansion of the Malay language in Sumatra and beyond during the first millenniumCE. Arguably, the Suku Mamak people—who live nomadic or semi-nomadic lives in smallisolated settlements in the forest—preserve one of the oldest forms of the art in the Malay-speaking world, while the settled Minangkabau people have developed techniques andforms that exemplify the addition of layers of Sufi Muslim meaning that is several centuriesold. Thus, many ethno-linguistic groups in Malay-speaking areas of Southeast Asia havedeveloped their forms of the art.
However, the key everywhere to its successful practice and transmission lies in thecollaboration between the master teacher-mystic, his pairs of pesilat followers,the musicians, the elders and religious leaders who provide the resources and organizethe performances, and—not least—the members of the audience. All work togethertoward the common goal of producing and enjoying a performance that is satisfying oncommunal, spiritual and artistic levels. Only with such community collaboration cannovices acquire the philosophical understanding, knowledge of movement routines,elegance of movement, fighting skills, and the ability to improvise responses to anopponent and signals from musicians. Only then can they coordinate all the factors thatcontribute to the ideal ethical, religious way of life of a silat adept. The many traditionalforms of pencak silat that were still strong until the 1980s are still practised in forest lands,but so many areas have been logged that many groups who once lived in or on the edges ofthe forest can no longer maintain a living, with the result that fewer areas practise thetraditional forms of the art.
41 In verbal practice, however, the distinction between pencak as a preliminary artistic display and silat as a
combat-oriented art is not always clearly made, for in some areas a two-part performance is simply called silat,
or the local variant silek (Minang.). Pencak also has locally variant names, such as penca in West Java, pancak
bungo or kembang silat (‘embellished pencak’ [Minang.]), or moncak or poncak in Batak Mandailing and Batak
Angkola in Sumatra.
42 The usage of the term pencak silat was not standardized until the IPSI was founded in 1948.
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Since governments intervened from around 1948, a new kind of collaboration wasrequired between different sets of stakeholders. The practitioners were divided into twogroups—those who gravitated towards silat as a performing art (Pencak Silat Seni), andthose who valued it as a sporting activity (Pencak Silat Olah Raga)—developments that ledto art competitions and festivals on the one hand and competitive games on the other.‘Artistic’ Pencak Silat performances resulted from collaboration between the trainer/choreographer(s) (no longer the master-mystic), the pairs of pesilat students (no longer thefollowers), the musicians (if present), the art competition or festival organizers (no longerthe elders), and the members of the audience, including live observers and owners ofrecorded performances. These developments represent radical changes away from thetraditional practice and pedagogy. They de-emphasize the pesilat’s ability to improvisecreative solutions to unexpected dangerous situations, the mystical or religious and ethicalbenefits of performance, but they encourage adaptation to new kinds of live performancesituations and on the media, and sometimes limit variability in order to present a unifiedstyle believed to represent an ethno-linguistic group’s identity.
The modern sporting varieties of the art of self-defence have doubtless contributed toIndonesia’s reputation as a sporting nation. However, in abolishing the art’s musicalcomponent and drastically reducing its cultural meaning, including its dance and musicalaspects, it has in fact changed pencak silat so radically that for some traditionalists it can nolonger qualify as an aesthetically pleasing art of self-defence that delights the eye and earwith its elegantly ornamented dance and musical elements, for it ignores the deep culturalmeaning and environmental links of its progenitor, the art of self-defence—pencak silat—ofthe Malay world.
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank the descendants of the Indragiri royal family whom H. Kartomi and I met in Rengat in 1984,
especially Tengku Hamat (son-in-law of the last Sultan, Mahmud Indragiri) and Encik Oemar Syarif (the Datuk
Temenggung [Minister]), for informing us about the style of pencak silat performed in the former palace, and for
introducing us to their loyal Suku Mamak artist supporters who spend part of each year in the Talang Jerinjing
hamlet on the edge of the nearby forest in Kecamatan Rengat. I am particularly grateful to the Suku Mamak pencak
silat master and shaman (kumantan), Pak Kuning Harum Bunga Tanjung, and his fighter-dancers and musicians
who explained and allowed us to record their pencak silat performance in Talang Jerinjing, and who prefer to
remain nameless. My research was partly funded by the Australian Research Council and the School of Music—
Conservatorium at Monash University and was assisted by the Indonesian Department of Education and Culture
in Pakan Baru, Riau. The preparation of this article was ably assisted by Bronia Kornhauser. My husband, Mas
Kartomi, was my helpful companion on our field trip and took the photographs (apart from Barendregt’s
photograph, Figure 4) presented in this article.
References
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