Pencak Silat originally coming from Southeast Asia countries : Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore, Philipine and Thailand. Pencak Silat consists of two words, “pencak” and “silat”. Pencak is basic movement of self defense while Silat means self defense actions from spiritualism. It is a full-body contact fighting including strikes, grappling and throwing in addition to weaponry. Attacking movements are designed to hit every part of the body.

Pencak Silat (Silat) is the generic term for genuine martial arts. from Indonesian and Malay archipelago. In the past, Silat was part of the education to form strong mental power of all young men and an integral part of a boy’s path to enter his adult years.

According to historian experts, Pencak Silat was first developed in Riau, a region of Sumatera island, Indonesia, during the reign of Sriwijaya kingdom in 8th century, then spreading to Malaka peninsula and Java island. This self defense technique then used by many kingdoms in Java island for combat skill like Singosari and Majapahit. Their solders had intensive training to master this skill in order to conquer their opponents. It is believed that Raden Wijaya, the founder of great Majapahit kingdom, used this kind of skill to beat Kediri troops and kicked out Mongolian army out of Java island, back to their country. During the 350 years of Dutch occupation in Indonesia many Silat Warriors fought the Dutch soldiers using this skill to liberate their land.

Originally, Pencak Silat also using weapons as primary tools. According to silat researcher Donald F. Draeger proof of self defense art could be found from ancient weapons from classic era and Bas-relief on Prambanan and Borobudur temple that shows gestures of the silat alert positions.

Meanwhile Shamsuddin explains that the development of silat was heavily influenced from China and India martial art. This occurred because since the beginning, Melayu culture had received big impacts from Chinese and Indians traders in the past.

The variety of weapons is the art of Pencak Silat skill. The most famous one is Keris (traditional Javanese big knife). This weapon has been used for centuries since ancient Javanese kingdoms existed. Also there is Rencong, some kind of sword from Sumatera. One interesting fact is, that a master of Pencak Silat could also use a piece of cloth as a deadly weapon. As a martial art, Pencak Silat is an effective action of self-defense using balanced emphasis on both upper and lower limbs techniques. The movements are punching, kicking and dropping with one objective target, to defeat the opponents.