08 May 2008

Indonesian Pencak Silat demonstration to attract thousands of Australian students

Brisbane (ANTARA News) - As many as 2,089 Australian students from 31 elementry and high schools in Victoria State teaching the Indonesian language will watch a demonstration of the Indonesian martial arts (Pencak Silat).

To be held at the Auditorium of Melbourne City on Friday, the delegation of around 20 martial arts players led by the president of inter-country martial arts association (PERSILAT), Edy M Nalapraya, will be watched by 66 teachers from 31 schools, a spokesman for the Indonesian Consulate General in Melbourn, Hahar Gultom, told ANTARA News on Wednesday.

The demonstration by Indonesian martial arts players at the town hall of Melbourne will be highlighted with an angklung (musical instrument made of bamboo) musical show. The music show will be performed by an angklung team from the Bandung Islamic University, he said.

In addition to the Pencak Silat show to the students and their teachers, a PERSILAT team will show their martial arts skills to the Australian public at the same place on Friday afternoon.

"We have set a target of over one thousand martial arts enthusiasts to attend the demonstration," he said. Gultom said his side received assistance from various Indonesian public orgaizations in the dissemination of information on a planned demonstration on Friday.

"We have also disseminated the information to all martial arts groups in Melbourne and its surrounding areas through Blitz magazine," he said.

Sourced from http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2008/5/8/indonesian-pencak-silat-demonstration-to-attract-thousands-of-australian-students/

3 comments:

amirulhusnitekpi said...

assalamua'laikum

i was one of the silat performers there two nights ago. sadly, only around 100 to 200 people came to see the Pencak Silat performances.

overall, good effort by the light house foundation and the indonesian authorities including Persilat. also, great performances by all participants.

myself was among the 5 pesilat from Adelaide who performed Pentas and Jurus Tunggal. great experience!!

the most memorable experience for me though is when i had the time to talk casually with two great Pendekar from Indonesia, Pak Lazuardi Malin Marajo, the Guru Gadang of Silek Kumango from Batusangkar, West Sumatra and Pak Hj. Abdul Azis, the Pendekar of Maenpo Cikalong from Cianjur, West Java.

They shared the histories and martial characteristics of their respective styles. Alhamdulillah.

Peace

Mohd Nadzrin Wahab said...

Salam hormat Amirul,

First off, congratulations for being part of something meaningful. I wish I could have been there to support you, I'm sure all of us feel the same.

It's sad to hear only 10% of the expected crowd actually turned up, but hey, if this was Malaysia, it might have been expected, but this is Australia, so 200 is, in my view actually a good turnout for the first time.

Would you do us the honour of describing the event and your meeting with these honourable pendekar in greater detail? I'm sure everyone here will appreciate it.

Keep up the good work men freund! A masters degree and still time for silat! That's commendable man!

Salam persilatan,

amirulhusnitekpi said...

assalamua'laikum

Wish i could do a Masters in Silat! oh well...moving along..

The event was held at Melbourne city hall (nice hall...it has huge organ pipes like those in Phantom of the Opera). It started with an angklung performance by the Bandung Islamic University. Then a pesilat puteri from Singapura did a jurus tunggal (full version). Then she was joined by her partner in a Ganda performance. After that a solo performance by David, a Melbourne pesilat under Pak Les Irawan.

Then came the silat performance by the Adelaide group. Our coach is Abg Ajak. Myself and four others (Ain-Abg Ajak's daughter, Ezzy, Topek and Arif) started with a tari, then jurus tunggal tangan kosong, followed by a rally of pentas, all empty-handed (we had planned to play with weapons i.e. parang, pisau and simbat, but had to change at the very last minute).

Then was the performance from the Silek Kumango team headed by Guru Gadang (Guru Besar) Pak Lazuardi Malin Marajo. He was magnificent. His movements were graceful and strong at the same time. He defended attacks with empty hands and with the sarong/cindai.

Finally was the performance by the Silat team from West Jawa and Madura. It comprises of Pak Hj. Abdul Azis (pendekar of Maenpo Cikalong Pancer Bumi, Cianjur, Tanah Pasundan), a pendekar from Silat Panglipur (Garut, Tanah Pasundan), two pesilat from Ciung Wanara Domas and two pesilat from Silat Pamur Madura (you can see their performance at youtube).

I got the chance to talk with both Pak Lazuardi and Pak Azis the next morning. We talked about the connection between Islam and silat. According to them, both Silek Kumango and Cikalong uses the concept of teaching the enemy, not destroying them.

okay, i think that's all for now.

Wassalaam