Fewer of the younger generation are paying attention to this traditional style of silat.

The old man climbed the steps, occassionaly appearing a little off balance. His thin body bowed slightly forward when he stood, however as soon as the drums began to beat, he moved with suprising alacrity setting up his attack. While his opponent was much larger and younger, it didn’t appear to concern him in the slightest.

With quick and agile movements he attacked, flicking hands blurred sending his opponent sprawling. The crowd responded immediately and enthusiastically, with cheers and shouts of amazement, the ovation rising to a crescendo in the Arts Building of Cianjur last week.

The old man is Gan Ita Sasmita. At 84 years old, he is one of the elders of the Cikalong pencak silat style. Even though advanced in years his physique appears to transform, becoming limber and agile as soon as he begins to play ulinan (playing silat in pairs), says an elder from the Sabandar style, Memet M. Tohir.

Gan Ita was one of the presenters that evening of artistic events to greet the Silat 2007 Tour Group. The group consisited of the Community for the Friends of Silat (Jakarta) and guest, the President of The International Alliance of Silat, Eddie Nalapraya.

The aim of the silat tour is to research and reclaim the the cultural wealth of the traditional silat from Cianjur, said one of the community activists, Ki Sawung. Cianjur is well known for it’s cultural wealth of pencak silat.

According to Bupati Tjetjep Muchtar Soleh (Bupati is a government office administering to a geographic area. There are a number of Kabupaten’s in a province), pencak silat or maenpo as it’s known in Sundanese, is a cultural more that is inseperable from the daily life of the people of Cianjur. Some people also call it (maenpo) as amengan or ulinan, he said.

This cultural heritage as a whole had already existed for a long time in the past, even before Cianjur became one of the Sundanese cultural and learning centers in the days of yore.

The city, situated 2300 meters above sea level, was founded and built at the behest of Raden Aria Wiratanu Datar, the son of Raden Arya Wangsa Goparana, a descendant of the ruler of the kingdom of Talaga. (Raden translates as prince).

Aria Wiratanu Datar then founded an independant kingdom in Cianjur, meaning that it wasn’t a vassal state of Batavia (modern day Jakarta, which was then the administrative location for the Dutch colonialists), or of the kingdoms of Mataram, Banten and Cirebon.

Even the Dutch acknowledged the suzerainty of the kingdom of Cianjur. The proof is in the fact that the Governor General Cornelis Speelman invited the King of Cianjur as a guest at the hand over for the position of Governor General. Arya Wiratanu Datar passed away in 1691 and was laid to rest in Cikundul.

A descendant of Arya Wiratanu, Raden Djaja Perbata (also known as Haji Ibrahim), created a new style of silat after secluding himself in a cave in the village of Jilebut (Kampung Jilebut) by the banks of the river Cikundul Leutik in the province of Cikalong Kulon (South Cikalong).

Before he refined the moves of his silat, Haji Ibrahim had the opportunity to learn from a number of different people, foremost being Bang Kari and Bang Madi from Betawi. The style thus created then became known as Cikalong.

During that same era, there was another well known silat personality who also possessed a superior system. His name was Muhammad Kosim, an adventuring traveller from Pagaruyung in West Sumatera, he was at the time living in the village of Sabandar in Cianjur.

At the time, Haji Ibrahim harboured some suspicions that a number of his students were also receiving tuition from Mamak Kosim (Mamak meaning elder person in Sundanese), who then became known as Mamak Sabandar.

Eventually the two great pendekar met face to face. Each acknowledged the superior skills of the other, having been unable to defeat the other.

Because many of the second generation of the Cikalong style also saught the teaching of Mamak Sabandar, the Cikalong style automatically became influenced by the Sabandar style.

All of the Cikalong stylists were influenced by the katumanan (the underpinning formality), lampah (the movement and stepping) and tabeat (the carriage of character) of Sabandar, said Pepen Effendi an elder from Sabandar.

That is why the character of the styles in Cianjur can be determined by the their use of the principles created by the two main Guru’s of Cikalong, Madi and Kari and then in addition we have Sabandar.

Sabandar redirects the opponents energy using moves basic to the system, Madi is used to dam or obstruct the opponents energy using specifically trained methods, while Kari is used to incapacitate the opponent by focused attacks on known weak areas of the anatomy (point striking), said Pepen.

From a geographical perspective there are three main areas from which the style of maenpo Cianjur has spread. Cikalong is most often studied and developed in the Pasar Baru Cianjur area. Sabandar is much the style of preference in Bojong Herang, while Cikaret is the place where Kari flowered and has developed.

The style of Kari from Cikaret was further developed by Aa Oha and relative Aa Aman. Even though influenced by Cikalong and the five jurus of Sabandar, Cikaret emphasises on the main game of Kari, perpeuhan or striking.

Because of that, it is slightly diferent than the other softer styles. The jurus of Cikaret in fact looks very hard and fast, says Wak Dudun (an elder from Cikaret).

Up till now, the growth and practice of the three styles from Cianjur has been carefully maintained, each from within their own central areas. Even though such is the case, these days the elders of the styles are becoming increasingly anxious, because few of the younger generation are paying serious attention to this traditional style of silat.

While pencak silat is taught to children at primary school level, after they become adults many of them do not maintain the interest to continue studying pencak silat.

Which raises the question, when the day comes to pass that elders such as Gan Ita Sasmita are no longer with us, who will ensure/pick up the mantle to safe guard the perpetuation of the traditional cultural treasures of Cianjur?

Author: AMAL IHSAN
Translated by : Krisno Pryosusilo
Source : Silatindonesia.com and Koran Tempo
Picture : Nagapasa, Silatbogor