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ABOUT PENTJAK SILAT
Short trailer from the Indonesian Fighting Arts Festival (a pencak silat seni beladiri festival)
which was held on the 24th of June 2006 in The Netherlands.
 Pentjak Silat means, literally, the formal movements
or choreography (Pentjak) of fighting (Silat). It is a catch-all
term for the indigenous martial arts of Indonesia. There are regional
specialties such as the kicking and ground-fighting of Sumatran
Harimau stylists or the hand-work of Bali and Java. The Indonesian
government has its sanctioned organization IPSI which is dedicated
to creating an athletic sport out of the brutally practical combatives
of Pentjak Silat. This form of the art, Silat Olah Raga, was part
of the most recent Southeast Asian Games. The word Silat is also
used in Malaysia and in the Muslim Southern Philippines. Although
the words Pentjak and Silat may be used by themselves there is
a saying about them which underscores the interdependent nature
of the formal and practical aspects of the art. "Pentjak without
Silat is meaningless. Silat without Pentjak is worthless."
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