The two people move backwards and forwards in an orderly manner. There arms extending and folding in turn. Suddenly one of the players reverses direction throwing his adversary and immediately raucus laughter fills the room.

The above scenario describes the training environment at the Paguron (School) of Maenpo Cikalong Pancerbumi, that happens each Friday night on the 3rd floor of the Hydro Building auditorium situated in Cililitan, East Jakarta. “These exercises are the basic foundation exercises in order to recognise and develop the concept of rasa or feel, says H Ceng Suryana, one of the leaders of the Paguron (School).

Rasa of feel is an important concept within the style of Cikalong silat, that generally sets it apart from other styles of silat. Rasa as a concept can be described as the art of adjusting the expression of our energy, while at the same time adapting our flow and rhythm, based upon the movements and actions of the opponent.

With rasa, a Cikalong pesilat not only emphasises speed and strength in a fight, but also relies on their trained physical sensitivity so that they may anticipate or read the intention of an attack and act accordingly by using the exact amount of energy needed to neutralise or divert the attack.

One of the requirements in order to train rasa, is the sticking hands sparring training or what is commonly referred to as ulin tempelen, and it is the aim of this training specifically that the student develops their intuition and inter-relationship between the adversary and themselves. “From a practical perspective, a Cikalong murid (student) must touch an opponent to understand rasa, said H. Ceng. The tempelan or sticky exercises with a partner are a core element when training in Cikalong. It is in the paired training, by touching, the placing and the friction between arms/hands of student and guru or other training partner that the student attains the benefit and a practical understanding of rasa and where knowledge is achieved. “It’s a central tenet in order to train our sensitivity in relation to the expression of energy of our opponent”, said H. Aziz Asy’arie.

It’s not surprising that amengan tempelan (the activity of sticky hands) was one of the favourite pastimes among the noblemen of the Cianjur area in the old days. By practicing touching or sticking hands they were able to develop the sensory acuity to see and read the intentions of their enemy/oponent without using the perception of vision. “The reaction of the pesilat in a fight becomes automatic”, he said.

Apart from that there is a perception in Cikalong that the exercise of amengan tempelan has the added benefit of initiating the flow of rasa and energy between teacher and pupil. In other words there is a direct physical transmission from the moment the student is in contact with the teacher. “The act of tempelan between teacher and pupil is called barokahan (barokah = gifted or bestowed) because the student is gifted with an abundance of energy”, said Ezra Purnama, a Cikalong practioner. It because of this unique concept that a Cikalong guru is only capable of training a select number of students at any one time. “Because of this requirement to nempel (to adhere to), each student has to come into contact one on one with their teacher”, he said.

In reality, the teachings of Cikalong is quite simple as it only has 10 jurus, which form the foundation movements of the system. These foundation movements expand in their application to an unlimited potential because all movement must be adjusted to the prevailing condition of the confrontation and opponent. “But to develop rasa, it is unavoidable that we still need to train tempelan“, he said.

It is through the process of training in tempelan , that a Cikalong pesilat will understand how to read and pervail as well as to utilise focused energy. Because of that, from within the environs of practical sparring there are expressions known as “empty energy” and “full energy” as well as “half energy”. “The concept of an aggressive response, strength on strength does not exist. With these three expressions afore-mentioned, a Cikalong adept learns to control the expression and flow of their own energy”, says H. Aziz. This is why in Cikalong the concept of blocking an attack is foreign. Instead, what exists is the “receiving” of an attack that then can be neutralised effectively with rasa. “The opponent too does not feel that they are being attacked and will surrender to our effort to incapacitate their aggression”, he said.

This journalist (from Tempo) eventually had the opportunity to try to hit H Aziz. To fast to realise what was happening, the attack of my right hand was swept to the side by his left with what felt as a soft energy that appeared to be in balance with the speed and strength of my attack. His counterattack happened with speed and a soft grace. Almost lazily, H. Aziz’ fingers caught and lifted my chin and slowly twisted my neck, with precision and apparently without effort, to the conclusion that I fell to the floor as if preparing to repose.

H. Aziz’ touch was precise and without apparent effort, but he was able to neutralise the opponents aggression and momentum to press the attack. “If our movements are sudden and rough, it will ellicit a similar reaction from our opponent” he said. “The more skilled a person becomes in Cikalong, the softer is the fall of the adversary”, said H. Aziz. This tenet is in accordance to the teachings of R. H. Ibrahim, the founder of Cikalong, who based his art on the teachings and philosophy of Sufi tradition. “As far as is possible, the opponent should not be injured”, he said.

Authored By: Amal Ihsan
Translated By: Krisno Pryosusilo