silat Srivijaya

Interaction with the Srivijaya Kingdom (among others) is documented by the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, which is dated to around 900 A.D. It was written in a mix of Malay, Tagalog, and Javanese in their ancient forms. The ancient martial arts of West Java, Indonesia and the Southern Philippines have been influenced by the historic movement of peoples and transmission of cultures, including the early Srivijaya Warriors from Sumatra, the Arabs, Indians and Chinese.

The ancient blade/stick arts from the Srivjayan Warriors spread to the Southern Philippines and West Java, Indonesia along with the culture, spiritual and religious practices of Hinduism and Buddhism. The confluence and mixture of these ancient fighting methods combined with the indigenous fighting methods of the various areas developed into lethal forms of Silat throughout the Sundanese Lands of West Java, Indonesia and the Southern Philippines. The root of these fighting methods is a style termed "Pukulan" (To Hit). These styles or methods use fast, fluid, multiple strikes with empty hands, knife, stick, kerambit and sword. These movements can be translated to any weapon. One of the expressions in our system is "my body is my weapon".

These ancient fighting arts were kept hidden as much as possible in order to survive against attacks from foreign aggressors. In many places of the Philippines, the use of the blade was forbidden by the Spanish authorities. This caused the evolution of stick (baston) styles of fighting in place of the blade. Many deep cultural arts, including Silat, did not get passed on, or only partially. Very few were able to keep their arts hidden and were properly able to pass their complete art to the following generations, however, these traditional bladed arts are alive and well in their complete forms, and in Sundanese styles such as Cimande and Sera, both taught within the system of PCK Silat, under the umbrella of Silat Srivijaya.