Today I am going to speak a little about what one of my passion beside cryptocurrency. My other passion is in Indonesian Martial Arts or we call it Pencak Silat or Silat in short.
Silat is a devastating martial arts that comes from South East Asia region. If Japan has Karate, Korea has Tae Kwon Do then for us in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and some parts of SEA have Silat as our native martial arts.
In Indonesia alone there are more than 300 registered styles of Silat (and thousands more that are not registered). This art has been used in defending families and the country against invaders in the pasts. The diversity of styles existed because of the environment of where the style came from. Some style came from the mountains while the other came from the sea shores, etc.
Silat in the World
In the past, silat was unknown because they were best kept secrets. However, slowly many masters have opened up in teaching the art to the people outside S.E.A therefore the art can survive and flourish. And that is happening right now, there are many foreigners from Western countries come to learn Silat and there are many movies that utilize Silat in their fighting scene (e.g The Accountant, The Raid, Black Panther, etc)
My Silat
Why I like Silat? It is because I grew up with it. My father is a master in Silat and all my life I saw him trained and teach the art. And almost all of my uncles and aunts learnt Silat too!
But my greatest influence of Silat came from my father. He teaches West Sumatran style of Silat that we call it Silek Tuo (literally meaning Old Silat) and we call our school BULUH TUA. The art was created for elderly and women where they typically have a disadvantage in strength and endurance. However, by training Buluh Tua in a longer period will result a healthier, and stronger mind, body, and soul.Buluh Tua means "Old Bamboo" in English. Old bamboo is very strong yet flexible. It is also one of most utilised plants in daily life especially for Minangkabau people. Buluh Tua is also an abbreviation from "Budi Luhur Tujuan Utama" or "Ultimate Virtue". Thus the goal of practicing Buluh Tua is to become a virtuous person and can give many benefits to the society.The movements of Buluh Tua are simple and direct. There are no useless movements and it is designed to bait an attack, not initiate it.
My Journey
Right now I am teaching Buluh Tua for public. My aim teaching Buluh Tua is to promote Silek as a cultural enrichment for other people and providing a service to help them prepared in the art of self defense.
I have been teaching in the UK, Italy, and Germany with many more countries will be available soon. If you are interested to learn, please feel free to contact me from my facebook page: