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Musicology Australia
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Traditional and Modern Forms of Pencak Silat in Indonesia: The Suku Mamak in Riau
Margaret Kartomi
a a

Monash University, School of MusicConservatorium, 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

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Musicology Australia Vol. 33, No. 1, July 2011, 4768

Traditional and Modern Forms of Pencak Silat in Indonesia: The Suku Mamak in Riau
MARGARET KARTOMI
Monash University, School of MusicConservatorium, Australia

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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 ghting 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 stateappropriated 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 other parts of Southeast Asia since approximately the last millennium.2 After focusing on the ght-dancing and music of one of its many forms, the article discusses the cosmological philosophy behind its movements and techniques, analyses the collaborative processes in its transmission and the production of a performance, this time focusing on the period, and presents three theories of its origin. After describing a pencak silat event in the 1980s, the article returns to a discussion of the collaborative processes in the arts transmission and the production of a performance after the Indonesian Revolution (19451949), when it was appropriated 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 selfdefence), and a form of exercise for the masses Silat Perisai Diri, self-shielding art). As will become apparent, these modern, state-appropriated forms have developed in similar fashion throughout the Indonesian archipelago.3
1 I Indonesian, M Malay, Minang. Minangkabau, Ar. Arabic. 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 Oong Maryono, Pencak Silat in the Indonesian Archipelago, Rapid Journal 4/2 (Book 12) (1999), 389; 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 eld trips throughout Sumatra and other parts of Indonesia and Malaysia in 19722010, 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/ ISSN 0814-5857 print/ISSN 1949-453X online 2011 Musicological Society of Australia DOI: 10.1080/08145857.2011.580716 http://www.informaworld.com

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A great variety of forms of pencak silat developed in different areas of Indonesia in precolonial and post-sixteenth-century colonial Dutch times, very few of which have been discussed in the literature.4 Many Indonesians employ the compound term pencak silat to denote a performance that begins with a martial arts display and ends with an exciting ght between a pair, or pairs, of protagonists. After a display of the slow sparring movements with artful stylistic embellishments (gerak bunga [M, I], gerak bungo [Minang.]) in the pencak part of a performance, they learn the techniques of open hand combat between a pair, or pairs, of protagonists in the second and nal part, called silat. The performance described below was presented by members of Riaus semi-nomadic, forest-dwelling Suku Mamak people whose ancestors had served as the designated providers of music, dance and pencak silat at the nearby palace of the former sultan of Indragiri, near the present-day town of Rengat on the Indragiri River. While they are wandering in the forest it is, of course, impractical for them to carry musical instruments around with them, so they perform a style of the art of self-defence in which music is optional. For the palace, however, the Suku Mamak developed a relatively elaborate performance style, which shares many movements, musical attributes, and cosmological connotations with performances in other former Malay palaces in Sumatra, and it also has some unique features deriving from the Suku Mamaks forest environment. The following section 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 were preparing to hold a series of healing ceremonies for a female patient with swollen chin lymph nodes. The ritual events took place in a slightly sandy arena outside a Suku Mamak timber home with plaited bamboo walls built on stilts in the shady, isolated forest village of Talang Jerinjing, 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 Pak Kuning). Two pairs of ghter-dancers (pesilat) and three musicians were preparing themselves for the performance while the hosts and elders were organizing the ceremony and making offerings to the spirits, and some of the women were preparing the ensuing feast. Garnering the power of a silat performance was seen as a way of treating the patient, as the beauty of the ght-dancing and music could attract the benign spirits of the ancestors and the natural environment 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 made their 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 Barendregts 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), 13144. 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 elds, which is challenging. 5 This account is based on my eld notes and photographs of a daytime pencak silat performance in Talang Jerinjing, Riau, in November 1984, plus my and Barendregts 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 how the techniques that he taught are actually the outer form of the inner force (tenaga dalam), a Buddhist-Hindu concept that improves ones moral and physical tness and knowledge of etiquette, and helps the ghter-dancers recognize danger and acquire the ability to sidestep 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. By now a number of men and boys had assembled around the outdoor arena for this performance event, and some women and children were watching them admiringly from the balcony of the home. For protection from the evil spirits Pak Kuning threw rice grains over 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 of pencak silat. The pair of pesilat took centre-stage and began the pencak section of the performance, opening with a local variant of the sembah (salutation) movement, with one performer 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 a graceful gesture of respect to the benign spirits and the audience. On crouched legs they stepped slowly around a clockwise circular formation (Figure 1), then around an anticlockwise circle. Then they crouched down on one leg and extended the other leg to the front with both hands outstretched. All the while they performed the elegant, ornamental stretching movements (gerak bunga) of the ngers, hands and arms that form the basis of the slow, controlled pencak section of the performance. They performed several of the short sequences 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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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.

During the sembah, the pair of pesilat began to collaborate with three instrumentalists. They were playing a pair of locally made, two-headed drums (gendang) and a gong (tetawak), which was an heirloom given them by the former palace. (On this occasion the ensemble dispensed with the optional oboe [suune], which has a coconut-leaf double reed, a wooden tube with a lower air, and six small front nger holes.) Locking their drums into place with their left legs for 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 the peningka (lead rhythm) and the smaller gendang anak (child drum), the penyelalu (continuing rhythm).6 In their slow but rhythmically arresting opening ourish, the drummers followed the ghter-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 left hand on the rim, as in Transcription A. In slow tempo sections he beat it on every twentythird beat as in Transcription B (or every sixteenth beat as in Transcription C), and in fast sections he beat it on every eighth beat as in Transcription D. Then the silat ghting section began, featuring a succession of lulls and storms in the interactions between the two ghter-dancers. First they assumed a basic stance called berlabeh7 in which they lowered their bodies and rested their weight on their knees while holding one hand in front of their chests, as in Figure 4. With the smoothly gliding steps (langkah) that are the mark of an accomplished ght-dancer, they performed some more
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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Figure 3. A Suku Mamak Musician Playing the Gong in a Silat Performance. Note: Photograph by H. Kartomi in Talang Jerinjing, 1984.

short sequences of movements (jurus), of which there are a total of around fourteen.8 Each pesilat stepped smoothly and gracefully toward and away from his opponent, changing his whole body stance with each step, sometimes attacking unexpectedly and forcing his opponent to devise a spontaneous response. Their offensives and basic rolling moves were simple, their kicks were swift and rm, and their ornamental hand and arm movements (bunga) were elegantly executed. The drummers depicted the lulls with interlocking, regular-rhythmic passages as they prepared for the sudden storms that burst out at lightning speed. As the pesilat began to attack 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 an anticlockwise circle formation, raised both hands, and one of them prepared to attack, as in Figure 5. The other ght-dancer warded off the attack and counter-attacked by hitting, kicking, then throwing his opponent, sometimes locking him into a xed position, or parrying, and
8 Pak Kuning, personal communication, 1984.

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side-stepping.9 The drummers played passages of continuously interlocking rhythms that matched the growing tension between the pair as each tried to outwit and physically overcome the other. One pesilat attacked from the berlabeh position, punching his st
9 This method resembles the Minangkabau silat teaching method discussed in Barendregt, Written by the Hand of Allah, 1201.

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toward his opponent, who resisted it by raising his left palm at right angles.10 Then one tripped the other up, making him fall to the ground, but he responded by kicking his opponent in the groin, which forced him to somersault away. Sometimes the musicians simply played louder and more furiously to match the mounting tension occasioned by the pesilats attacks and counter-attacks, but at other times they deliberately tried to confuse the combatants, mainly to make an episode more exciting for the audience and to assert themselves as collaborators. Sometimes they sonically distracted one pesilat while warning the other in order to avoid an attack that he could see coming. The combatants needed to use all their ingenuity to improvise solutions to problems as they arose, usually by performing a surprise move, such as back-ipping, 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 to present more surprises, as in Transcription D. One protagonist then further increased the level of tension by brandishing a keris (short Malay dagger) before his opponent, who then produced and brandished his weapon, deftly manoeuvring his opponent into a compromising position under his keris.11 As the excitement built up to fever pitch, the men and women in the audience spurred the pesilat on by calling out admiring or amusing comments. There was a lull in the proceedings as the pesilat reverted to a calm circling formation in a clockwise then an anticlockwise direction, accompanied by soft, interlocking drumming (Transcription C). Then one man would suddenly attack again and the other would counter-attack, with the musicians varying the musical rhythms, tempo and dynamic levels to match. As Pak Kuning explained,12 each pesilat aimed to attack and win some skirmishes, but not all of them, for etiquette requires that each ght-dancer maintain good relations with his opponent. Moreover, the pair is expected to perform so well that the benign spirits will ance to help heal a patient, they are be attracted to attend, and if the artists perform at a se required to contribute to the healing process by providing the right spiritual atmosphere through their music and dance. The pesilat are expected to provide an interesting performance by continually building up and resolving the level of the artistic tension, and to impress 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 and defence of ones family and sultan at all levels of Malay society.13 In mainland Sumatra most of the people lived at subsistence level, either as nomads in the forests, as semi-nomadssuch as the Suku Mamak discussed abovewho divided their time between collecting products in the forests and slash-and-burn agriculture on the edge of the forest, or as sedentary farmers living in villages near their kings or chieftains palace. To this day, the small population of nomads and semi-nomads prefer to live in relative isolation in the forest so as to evade contact with government or commercial groups who may interfere with their lives, or who in earlier times would capture them as slaves. They prefer to live close to nature where they feel free to venerate the spirits that inhabit the rocks, trees, animals and other natural phenomena as well as the spirits of their ancestors. Until the demise of the traditional Malay sultans in the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, the rst two groups provided their rulers with products that they collected in the forest in return for bartered goods such as salt, and the rulers used or sold the products in the lucrative trade circuits to which they belonged, while the third group provided 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 on the local nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples. Besides collecting valuable forest products they supplied them with ritual specialists whose shamanic chants, prayers and ritual pencak silat and other performances helped solve problems such as healing a sick patient, capturing
11 12 13 14 Weapons used in other areas include a rencong (short Acehnese dagger), sword, knife, sickle, or machete. Personal communication, 1984. Sultans are Muslim and kings are Hindu/Buddhist. Leonard Y. Andaya, Leaves of the Same Tree: Trade and Ethnicity in the Straits of Melaka (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2008), 4981.

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tigers and other wild animals, winning battles, or vanquishing a rival in love.15 Several Riau-Malay kings appointed special groups of nomads or semi-nomads to serve as their trusted musicians who maintained and played the royal nobat ensembles, the kings most powerful heirlooms and symbols of sovereignty. Their shamans made liberal use of music, ances and at the royal and commoner rituals on dance and self-defence displays in their se the occasion of a wedding, funeral, or other rites of passage.16 The sultans of Indragiri designated the ancestors of the above-mentioned Suku Mamak group as their ofcial providers of the performing arts, who were entrusted with the task of making, maintaining and 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 holds that it developed as part of the generation and spread of the Old Malay culture, language, and indigenous religion from the time of Sumatras Buddhist-Hindu kingdom of Sriwijaya (seventh to eleventh centuries CE). Another holds that it is even older, for its established terms and rationale are closely associated with Southeast Sumatrans ancient indigenous religious 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 possess consciousness, have subjective characteristics, and are interconnected in the one reality. Several pencak silat movements are named after the movements of animals, which is not surprising 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 and deceased humans, feel pleasure and pain, and contain spirits; and it behoves humans to revere and maintain relations with the spirits of nature and the ancestors. These beliefs are still dominant among groups of people who prefer to live relatively isolated lives wandering in the forests, such as the Suku Mamak discussed above, or as nomads living in houseboats at sea (Suku Laut [Sea Tribes]); and vestiges of them also still remain in the consciousness of the adherents of world religions in the rest of Sumatra, including the Muslim majority and Christian minority. Adherents of this theory also hold that some Hindu and Buddhist celestial beings (e.g. the Hindu god Siva, known as Batara Guru) were added to the pantheon of venerated indigenous spirits from the time of Sriwijaya. Over the centuries, Sumatras kingdoms came into contact not only with adherents of Buddhism and Hinduism but also Islam (from the early to late second millennium) and a few came into contact at different periods with Confucianism or Christianity. Thus in many 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 Muslim saints or spirits have been added to the invocations, cosmology and pedagogy of pencak silat. Most of the nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples escaped efforts made to convert them, yet some of the terms used in their ritual languages indicate that they too have had

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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 abovementioned Suku Mamak, but the sultan at Siak on the Siak river had a close relationship with the seminomadic 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 their ancestors engaged in barter. A third theory holds that pencak silat is indirectly related to the hand and armed combat used in petty wars, in which magic charms and songs expressing reverence for the spirits are all-important. As the belletristic Malay literature and oral traditions (hikayat) indicate, the inhabitants of Sumatra were frequently involved in ghting local wars over the past millennium 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, aristocratic rivalry 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 art of self-defence, including the preliminary spiritual and physical exercises, the artistic movements and formations, the sparring techniques against an opponent, and the cosmological associations that were attributed to the art and all other aspects of living. The rulers rewarded the most procient ghters by making them generals (panglima) and admirals (laksamana), and using the ordinary ghters in the army and navy forces when necessary to protect the kingdom and its trading activities. All the theories portray pencak silat as an exclusively male art. The Malay hikayat tell of the 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 need male heroes to protect them and their children against marauders and criminals. Thus, the traditional art of self-defence is taught by male master teachers (guru besar silat, or guru silat) to male novice pupils. They absorb the cosmological meaning and terms of the art and imitate the masters 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 the Old Malay language in southeast Sumatra during the rst millennium CE. As the archaeological evidence shows, the cradle of the Old Malay language and culture was located in the lower reaches of the Musi River in the Buddhist-Hindu kingdom of Sriwijaya (approximately seventh to thirteenth centuries CE), with its capital in or near present-day Palembang until the eleventh century, and thenceforth near Jambi, the centre of the Malayu kingdom on the Batang Hari River,19 whence it spread north to Riau and other areas of Sumatra and the Malay peninsula. As the Old Malay language spread, it subdivided into its many lingual varieties around coastal Sumatra, the coasts of many other Indonesian islands, peninsular Malaya, Thailand, and other parts of Southeast Asia. From time immemorial, all young Malay boys have been required to learn pencak silat as a tool of traditional education in philosophy and religion and for self-defence in a historically warring environment. Malay oral epics dating back to the sixteenth century emphasize the need for Malay boys to learn the martial art of pencak silat (e.g. the Sejarah Melayu [Malay Annals]).20 The art also spread throughout Riau, the coastal areas of Sumatra, and even in the lingually non-Malay Batak Mandailing area that neighbours Minangkabau, as we shall see below. It also became an essential symbol of male Malay identity 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 regard themselves as a separate ethnic group.21 Many traditional silat master teachers (guru besar silat [M, I]) possess the mystical powers of a shaman as well as advanced practical self-defence skills and pedagogical ability. They teach their trainee ghter-dancers that pencak silat is not just a martial art but also a philosophy that is based on their ancestors Buddhist and Hindu beliefs and veneration of the spirits of nature. They transmit certain secretive combat techniques that are based on deep observation of animal behaviour and the elements of naturere, air, water, and earth, as in the case of the irama serama angin (magic wind rhythm) performed by both Suku Mamak and Mandailing musicians.22 Barendregt has hypothesized that the early development of silat education in West Sumatra was bound up with the belief in tiger spirits. The raja macan, king of tigers, was the patron of all silat students . . . Some Minangkabau regard the tiger as the founding father of some silat styles.23 I also found evidence in support of this view in several parts of Riau, West and North Sumatra, above all among the Suku Mamak nomads in mainland Riau, who are in frequent contact with the tiger. Suku Mamak pesilat say that they continue to model their ghting-art movements on those of wild animals, especially the king and queen of the forest, the tiger. The aforementioned silat master (guru besar) Pak Kuning, who was venerated for his mystical tiger knowledge (ilmu macan), informed me that he had befriended a succession of tigers in the forest, and that he had learnt several stances and movements while observing them playfully pouncing and cornering 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 as gerak serangan macan (the tiger attacks) and the slow, stealthy long steps of a tiger (langkah panjang macan). He also taught his followers the white bird (burung putih) and descending python (ular sawa barendam) movements and told them about the powerful steps that the ancestors learned from elephant knowledge (ilmu gajah) and observation. He said that a pesilats main aim is to anticipate, evade and sidestep his opponents attack by performing agile hand and foot movements, tumbling, striking, kicking, and blocking. So as not to give away their secrets, his followers avoid looking directly at their opponent, averting their gaze to the ground or the arena as they perform. The government sees the Suku Mamak as belum beragama (not yet subscribing to a religion) because their indigenous religious beliefs are based on nature and ancestral spirit veneration, not on the ve world religions that are recognized by the government (i.e. Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism/Confucianism and Hinduism). The Suharto regime (19651998) recognized only ve religions, and this policy has not changed at the time of writing.24 Since that time, when Minangkabau Su brotherhoods began to be formed, Minangkabau masters adapted pencak silat to their new beliefs,25 while retaining vestiges of the old religion. Like the Suku Mamak, when the Minangkabau guru silat teach the philosophy of the art, they emphasize the indigenous belief in the need to venerate
21 Andaya, Leaves of the Same Tree, 823. 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 ve established religions, it classied 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-Buddhist concept),26 but unlike the Suku Mamak they also emphasize the importance of a Suoriented education and acquisition of the esoteric knowledge of the litany (ilmu tassawuf, Ar.), and their mantra address the Prophet Muhammad and other Muslim prophets. Both groups teach that pencak silat is an important means of promoting good social behaviour and etiquette, and both practise similar basic procedures, movements and use of musical instruments, but they practise distinctive forms of the art. Collaboration in and Transmission of Traditional Performances As exemplied in the performance described above, a traditional pencak silat performance requires collaboration at ve levels: between the master and the trainee or lead ghterdancers, the pair(s) of ghter-dancers themselves, the pesilat and the musicians, the artists and the ceremonial event organizers, and the whole group of presenters with the audience (see Figure 6). At the rst level of collaboration, a respected guru besar silat master passes on the techniques of attack and defence to his pesilat novices or followers, making sure that they understand the importance of the moral philosophy that comes with the skills, and he collaborates with his pesilat followers as organizer and director of rehearsals and philosophical introductions to performances (Figure 6a). At the second level, the pair(s) of pesilat ghter-dancers become adversarial collaborators to produce an excellent performance. Through experience they learn to foreshadow, recognize, and sidestep a dangerous attack (silat). They apply a variety of methods for dealing with unpredictable situations, usually launching an attack as the best form of defence, anticipating an attack from the opponent, and creatively improvising a method of escape 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 any accompanying musicians, who minimally comprise a pair of drummers, plus optional players of melodic instruments such as an oboe, ute, bowed string instrument, gongchime, or colotomic instruments, for example, a gong or two.27 The most commonly used melodic instrument is the oboe, which contributes to the excitement by adding a melodic build up to the drum climaxes at strategic moments. The collaboration between the pesilat and the musicians is intense; they follow their opponents every move musically. Although the lead drummer usually decides when to begin and end a performance and marks it with a rhythmic signal, he needs closely to follow and match the pesilat pairs movements musically. The pair of drummers frequently increase the tension by playing interlocking passages in strict quadruple metre and building up to a fast, loud climax, but they interrupt the ow 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, 11728. Their philosophical discourse and terminology derives from Su-oriented sects (tariqat [Ar.], tarekat [I, M]) that inuenced 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 (lsafat Tuhan dalam diri kita [Gods philosophy in us]) (Barendregt, Written by the Hand of Allah, 11719). 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 their build-ups of tension and release by changing the dynamic level and tempo. Both the pesilat and the musicians collaborate to produce an adventurous, improvisatory performance, but each knows his place in the hierarchy. The pesilat always lead the musicians. The second drummer (penyelalu, follower) takes his cues from the lead drummer (the peningka),28 and the rst drummer takes the lead over any other instrumentalists present. Most pesilat nd that music magnies the excitement of the combat for both the performers and the audience. However, some pesilat prefer to perform their mock-combat without any music, which they nd distracting as they try to concentrate on the dangers of the ght. At the fourth level, the master guru besar and his pesilat followers collaborate with the elders and hosts in presenting performances to the guests and audience at a healing ceremony, orin Muslim areasa 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, 17 August). Usually the elders of a community lead the village organization of men and women who provide the basic resources for silat education, practice and performance activity. They also serve to maintain the social consensus that pencak silat is a valuable pursuit for all young men. Finally the guru and the team of pesilat and musicians collaborate to entertain their audience at a performance. The pesilat pair, or pairs, begin and end each episode by performing locally varied sembah (an elegant salutation) of respect to each other and members of their audience, seen and unseen. The musicians also aim to entertain the audience by surreptitiously intervening in the ghting by beating out a sharp drum sound or rhythm at a crucial moment in order to confuse or distract one or the other of the ghters and even to issue warnings of an impending attack. Their motive is not to support their preferred winner but to increase the challenge to the ghters and to make the ups and downs of their display more entertaining for the onlookers. Part 2: Major Changes in the Collaborative Processes of Pencak Silats Transmission and Performance Style since the 1940s During and after World War II, a series of major changes occurred in the function, practice and meaning of the art, and as a consequence in the collaborative processes involved in its inter-generational transmission and performance styles. Following their invasion of the Dutch East Indies in 1942, the Japanese ordered the occupied Indonesian people to subscribe to the Japanese wartime slogan Asia for Asians (as opposed to Asia for the Dutch) and to show pride in their ancient culture and arts. Thus, professional pencak silat artists 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 Reunication, in Metaphor: A Musical Dimension, ed. Jamie C. Kassler (Sydney: Currency Press, 1991), 1357. 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 Pacic 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 peoples 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 in 1943. When primary and secondary schools were reopened after the invasion, however, the new curriculum only emphasized Japanese physical education (including military training and taiso gymnastics), not pencak silat.30 After Sukarno declared Indonesias Independence in 1945, a new collaborative stakeholder began to become involved, the Indonesian government. From 1948, when the rst national pencak silat body was founded in Bandung, the government subjected the art to major changes for political purposes and nation-building. Eventually international pencak silat organizations were established that focused on the sporting aspects and paid only limited attention to the genres traditional philosophy, pedagogy and forms. Silat teaching for civil defence was ofcially encouraged at the rst national Sporting Games held in Surakarta. During Suhartos New Order regime (19651998), military and government ofcials developed the bureaucratic structures of the Indonesian Pencak Silat Association (IPSI) through which the teaching method was thoroughly standardized.31 However, it did not achieve its aim of including the art of self defence in the national curriculum.32 Under the auspices of IPSI, the art was split in three directions, involving different models of collaboration. One emphasized the genre as a performing art (Pencak Silat Seni) with competitions 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 yet another as a mass physical exercise (Silat Perisai Diri [lit. silat to shield oneself]). On the whole, the rst and last models retained musical accompaniment in their performances, but the secondthe sporting modelsometimes dispensed with music entirely as it was converted from its status as an art form into a sport. In the rst modern model, Pencak Silat Seni, three levels of collaboration occur, with government-organized competitions and festivals replacing the traditionally organized village celebrations, as in Figure 6a. The rst level of collaboration operates between a recognized master/guru besar and the pairs of student pesilat in art institutions such as the Sekolah Seni Indonesia (formerly the Akademi Seni Karawitan Indonesia Arts Academy) in Padang Panjang, West Sumatra. However, the participants are much less mystically and religiously 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 adversarial yet artistic collaboration between the pair of pencak artists, the collaboration being less improvisatory and more choreographed than in the traditional styles. Thirdly the collaboration operates between the pair of artists and the musicians, who tend, however, to perform xed popular numbers and to improvise very little, if at all. From 2000, some Pencak Silat Tradisi (traditional pencak silat) festivals were organized in which performances without any music at all were showcased and the competitive appeal dispensed with altogether.33

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30 31 32 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). Mark, Intellectual Life and the Media, 323. Lee Wilson, Jurus, Jazz Riffs and the Constitution of a National Martial Art in Indonesia, Body and Society 15/3 (2009), 956 and 1078. Ibid., 35. This development has been described by Uwe Paetzold in an unpublished paper delivered at the International Council for Traditional Music conference in Shefeld in 2005.

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In the modern sport model called Pencak Silat Olah Raga (Figure 6c), the collaborations also occur at three levels: between the silat sport trainers, the athlete practitioners, and the sport organizations at the regional, national, and international levels. Although IPSI included performing arts-style pencak in its pedagogical activities, sporting competitions took precedence. As a result, many new moves were introduced including high kicking techniques . . . or landing punches and kicks to designated areas of their opponents body, the aim being to develop ones strength and ghting skills and above all to win in a competition.34 This, along with the fact that music was excluded from the sport, was a major departure from traditional pencak silat. From the 1970s, international pencak silat organizations were formed that aimed to spread an interest in pencak silats physical properties and techniques internationally, and to present their athletes at international Games. The internationalization of the sport accelerated in 1980, when the main international pencak silat organization, PERSILAT (Persekutuan Pencak Silat Antarabangsa), was founded. Comprising 39 member nations in Asia, Australasia, Europe, and North America in 2009, it aims to promote pencak silat outside its source region of Southeast Asia.35 Since its internationalization, scores of pencak silat organizations have been operating in most countries of Asia, Australasia, North America and a few other countries in Europe and beyond. Since 1982 silat athletes have competed in the biennial Pencak Silat World Championships, and from 1987 in the Southeast Asian Games. Athletes also participate in the Pencak Silat European Championships, the Pencak Silat Asia-Pacic 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 tiger and her two cubs are caught on lm.36 In the sporting arena, Pencak Silat Olah Raga internationalized its activities in such a way as to allow individuals of either gender to take part, using the same collaborative model as in male performances shown in Figure 6c. However, male and female ghter-dancers normally perform separately, following the segregated gender practices of many other performing arts in urban areas of Indonesias increasingly modernist or orthodox Muslim society. Female participation in this traditionally male art grew signicantly from the 1990s, as shown in some Internet videoclips.37 One clip shows a pair of female pesilat using jurusan that suit the female body, avoiding attacks on the breasts, and wearing a traditionalstyle costume that protects and covers the body.38 After opening their Sundanese-style pencak section with a low sembah and a wide spatial orientation, their silat section featured several rounds of low-grounded, open-hand combat at a fast pace, with formations moving to the back, front and both sides of the arena, and featuring the avoidance techniques of rolling on the oor 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 a set of truncated conical Sundanese drums, closely followed the frequent changes of tempo from slow to very fast, and drum claps to mark the main hits and kicks. As in Suku Mamak
34 Wilson, Jurus, Jazz Riffs, 1067. 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?vDKKDp5X0zDY4. 38 The women wear a high-necked, long-sleeved, black trouser suit with a loose cut and a colourful sarong to knee length, leaving hands, face and feet bare.

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and other traditional practices, the musicians produced sharp drum sounds to distract one pesilat as the other attacked, or to confuse or frighten one or both ghters. In the third modern modelthe standardized mass exercises called Silat Perisai Diri (self-shielding silat)the pencak silat trainers or instructors (who are sometimes minimally trained) collaborate with large numbers of government employees or school children whom they 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 music by absent musicians or to no music at all, the all-important collaboration between pesilat and musicians in traditional performances was of course entirely lacking, although technicians were usually employed to play back the pre-recorded music. Under Suhartos New Order, government policy aimed to keep its employees and schoolchildren t (and politically compliant40) by having the instructors, who were no longer guided by the arts philosophical and religious traditions, teach them to perform the easier movements at early morning ceremonies. Since Suhartos fall, the practice has become much less widespread throughout Indonesia. At present the traditional forms of the art are taught in less and less communities as the cities and towns expand and take over the ever-diminishing rural areas. Efforts to revive the traditional pedagogical method are rarely successful given the lack of funding and the pressures to teach large classes efciently. The losses are greatest among the nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples. From the late 1970s, many Suku Mamak and other nomadic groups retired further and further into the forests, with their habitat under constant threat from extensive illegal logging. The depletion of the forests forced many to move to the outskirts of towns, where a traditional form of pencak silat was preserved in Talang Jerinjing but fell into disuse elsewhere. Conclusion This article has described a traditional silat performance by a people who in 1984 were still dividing their time between a nomadic lifestyle for most of the year and a sedentary existencegrowing garden products on the edge of the forestfor the rest of the year. Their performance style features movements based on their ancestors observations of the movements and strategies of wild animals: tigers, crocodiles, snakes, elephants, birds, and so forth, with which they needed to learn to live and even befriend as far as possible, but also to treat self-defensively in case they marauded against them. While in the forest they displayed advanced combat techniques in their pencak silat performances but they often dispensed with the music because of the impracticality of carrying heavy instruments around with them. In the Talang Jerinjing performance described above, however, the role of music is important, inuenced as it is by their Malay confreres in the Indragiri palace, where mutual interaction between the ghter-dancers and musicians creates a special tension and complexity. The art of self-defence occurs in many variant forms in virtually all Malay ethno-lingual groups in Sumatra and many other parts of Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia and Malaysia. 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 ghter-dancers (pesilat) at a traditional celebration or pencak silat competition. The performance usually comprises two parts: a slow sparring display with artful, embellishing movements (gerak bunga [M, I], gerak bungo [Minang.]), followed by exciting episodes of open-hand combat between a pair, or pairs, of pesilat, who sometimes use weapons such as a keris (dagger) or a knife. The rst part is usually called pencak and the last 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 ght-dancing section.42 Malaysians, on the other hand, tend to use the term silat seni (artistic silat) for the dance display and silat or silat gayong (st or weapon strike silat) for the ghting section. If the pesilat choose to perform in silence or cannot nd any musicians to accompany them, the level of excitement generated among the performers and audience may be relatively subdued. If musicians are present, however, they accompany the sparring of the ghter-dancers by improvising and anticipating, or reinforcing, the usual range of surprise moves between the standard routines, although occasionally they take the initiative and spur the pesilat on as they spar. In some cases the drummers may even intervene in the pesilats actions as they respond musically to their attacks and counterattacks. The musicians often play only a pair of double-headed drums (gendang), to which they may add a 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 with the expansion of the Malay language in Sumatra and beyond during the rst millennium CE. Arguably, the Suku Mamak peoplewho live nomadic or semi-nomadic lives in small isolated settlements in the forestpreserve one of the oldest forms of the art in the Malayspeaking world, while the settled Minangkabau people have developed techniques and forms that exemplify the addition of layers of Su Muslim meaning that is several centuries old. Thus, many ethno-linguistic groups in Malay-speaking areas of Southeast Asia have developed their forms of the art. However, the key everywhere to its successful practice and transmission lies in the collaboration between the master teacher-mystic, his pairs of pesilat followers, the musicians, the elders and religious leaders who provide the resources and organize the performances, andnot leastthe members of the audience. All work together toward the common goal of producing and enjoying a performance that is satisfying on communal, spiritual and artistic levels. Only with such community collaboration can novices acquire the philosophical understanding, knowledge of movement routines, elegance of movement, ghting skills, and the ability to improvise responses to an opponent and signals from musicians. Only then can they coordinate all the factors that contribute to the ideal ethical, religious way of life of a silat adept. The many traditional forms 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 of the forest can no longer maintain a living, with the result that fewer areas practise the traditional forms of the art.

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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, k (Minang.). Pencak also has locally variant names, such as penca in West Java, pancak or the local variant sile 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 was required between different sets of stakeholders. The practitioners were divided into two groupsthose who gravitated towards silat as a performing art (Pencak Silat Seni), and those who valued it as a sporting activity (Pencak Silat Olah Raga)developments that led to 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 the followers), the musicians (if present), the art competition or festival organizers (no longer the elders), and the members of the audience, including live observers and owners of recorded performances. These developments represent radical changes away from the traditional practice and pedagogy. They de-emphasize the pesilats ability to improvise creative solutions to unexpected dangerous situations, the mystical or religious and ethical benets of performance, but they encourage adaptation to new kinds of live performance situations and on the media, and sometimes limit variability in order to present a unied style believed to represent an ethno-linguistic groups identity. The modern sporting varieties of the art of self-defence have doubtless contributed to Indonesias reputation as a sporting nation. However, in abolishing the arts musical component and drastically reducing its cultural meaning, including its dance and musical aspects, it has in fact changed pencak silat so radically that for some traditionalists it can no longer qualify as an aesthetically pleasing art of self-defence that delights the eye and ear with its elegantly ornamented dance and musical elements, for it ignores the deep cultural meaning and environmental links of its progenitor, the art of self-defencepencak silatof the 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 ghter-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 eld trip and took the photographs (apart from Barendregts photograph, Figure 4) presented in this article.

References
Chambers, Quinten and Draeger, Donn. Javanese Silat, The Fighting Art of Perisai Diri (Tokyo: Kokasha, 1978). Farrer Douglas, Deathscapes of the Malay Martial Arts, Social Analysis 50/1 (2006) (Accessed 28 October 2007), 5http://socioblogsg.les.wordpress.com/2007/01/farrer_wp_174.pdf4. Kartomi, Margaret. Tiger-capturing Music in Minangkabau, West Sumatra, Sumatra Research Bulletin II/1 (1972), 2441. Kartomi, Margaret. Dualism in Unity: The Ceremonial Music of the Mandailing Raja Tradition, Asian Music XII/2 (1981), 74108. Kartomi, Margaret. The Royal Nobat Ensemble of Indragiri in Riau, Sumatra, in Colonial and Pre-Colonial Times, The Galpin Society Journal 50 (1997), 315.

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Kirstin, Pauka. Umbuik Mudo and the Magic Flute: A Randai Dance-Drama, Asian Theater Journal 20/2 (2003), 11346. Oong Maryono, Pencak Silat Merentang Waktu, Yogyakarta, 1998 (Accessed 23 March 2010), 5http://www.keindonesia.com/2009/03/origin-of-pencak-silat-as-told-by-myths.html4. Oong Maryono, Internationalization of Pencak Silat, Rapid Journal, 7/3 (Book 25) (2003) (Accessed 26 March 2010), 5www.kpsnusantara.com4. Paetzold, Uwe U. The Music in Pencak Silat Tournaments is Gone. De-Vitalization of a Performance Culture? Paper presented at the 38th World Conference of the International Council of Traditional Music, University of Shefeld, 5 August 2005.

Author Biography

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Margaret Kartomi is Professor of Music at Monash University. Her most recent book, Musical Journeys in Sumatra, is forthcoming with the University of Illinois Press. Email: Margaret.kartomi@monash.edu.au