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Filipino Martial Arts History: A Short Version
The
Philippines is an island nation in the Western Pacific Ocean nestled
between China, Malaysia and Indonesia. The people of almost 70 million
consists mainly of Malay stock with a dialect of over 70.
The fighting arts of the Philippines has always been an integral part of
their culture and racially diversified society. These arts include empty
hand, sticks, projectiles and bladed weapon techniques. The most important
weapon is the bladed, wavy kris which comes in different size and shape
and is similar to ones found in Indonesia and Malaysia. The naturallly
graceful and harmoniously circular movements used in the Philippine fighting
arts is also charecteristic of methods found on the Asian mainland.
Primitive Negritos coming from Central Asia by land were the first settlers
bringing with them their reflex bows and arrows and later adopting to the
long bows. Around 200 b.c. the Malays from Southeast Asia came to the Philippines
bringing with them the long knife which has sinced took on many different
forms as well as names. They were also expert fighters with the daggers,
swords, spears, as well as the bows and arrows of both design. Later from
the beginning of the christian era to the thirteenth century came a second
migration of Malays brought other bladed weapons. A third migration of
Malays began in the foueteenth to the middle of the fithteenth century.
These peoples are the ancestors of the present day Muslim Filipinos of
Mindanao and Sulu. It was the Muslim Filipinos who were the only ones that were not subjecated by the Spaniards and the Americans due
the heavy resistance put up by them. They favored the bladed weapons but were also skilled with sticks, bows
and arrows as well as projectile weapons.
In the ninth century extensive trade relations with China T'ang dynasty
martial arts skills. The Sung and Ming dynasty soon followed and
large Chinese colonies were established in coastal areas. In the fithteenth
century the Malaccan Empire was established and Mohammedanism began to
spread to the southern Philippines.
The Chinese and Indo-Chines fought resisted but were pushed back. When
the Spaniards came to the northern Philippines in 1570 they found Muslim
Filipinos settled in communities with Chines and Indo-Chinese. As a result
of these racial mixtures the fighting arts were even more efficient
than before.
In the 16th and 17th century Spanish colonization was marred by revolts.
The fighting skills of the natives were highly developed by these time
and were respected by the Spanish. While most of the Philippines were colonize
by the the Spaniards the Moros of Mindanao were not and it is they
that must be credited with the greatest experimentation, systematization,
and martial use of the bladed weapon. And as systematization developed,
it was necessary to preserve the systems in some form which would permit
daily practice without actually engaging in serious combat with an enemy,
and so native dance rhythms supplied the form. Ancient native rhythmic
movements employing bladed weapons were abundant which today can be seen
in ritual dancing like the Sinulog which consist of fast tempo movements
of parry and counter thrust. The Binabayani, a dance from Zambales,
requires two groups of men mocking a fierce battle using the bolo which
is a heavy bladed long knife. In the Sulu Archipelego a dance called silat
uses a kris which is bladed wavy knife.
Bladed weapons abound in the Sulu Archipelego.
Each weapon is not used by an organized system of fighting but rather it
is used to suit ones taste and requirements. Some of these bladed weapons
include: the gunong, kalis, barong, laring, gayang, banjal, punal, pira,
utak, panabas, bangkon, banjal, lahot, kampilan, kris. Pre Spanish
Filipinos ad tribal organized training methds in the use of their weapons.
The bladed weapon was the core wepons; the kris, bolo and balaraw
being the standard types. Using the Tagalog term of kalis which implies
a large bladed weapon, the term became shortened to kali. Kali became
a term to signify different systems that made use of knives. And it was
at the bothoan, an ancient school, which the students learned their
fighting skills along with their academic skills.
Kaliwas forced underground by the Spanish and developed secretly within the
tribes. But unbeknowns to the Spanish the stage mock battles performed
by the natives were actually part of Kali movements. Empty hand combat
was also developed but were secondary to bladed weapons systems. Most bear
resemblance to foreign methods. In the Sulu area an effective art called
Kun
tao is practiced extensively. Dumog which developed in the northernmost
parts of the islands is a grappling type of combat. Opponents encircle
each others waist and attempt to unbalance and throw one another to the
ground.
At present the best known and the most systematic fighting art in the Philippines
is arnis de mano. It has the longest historical development from
the kali system and is designed to train the students to defend against
armed as well unarmed attacks. Arnis for short has been known by many different
native names. For example, the Tagalogs calls it pananandata, Ilocanos
calls it
kabaroan, the Pangasinan calls it kalirongan, in
the Visayas they call it
kaliradman or pagaradman, the Pampaneguenos
sinawali,
the Ibanags pagkalikali.
The name Arnis de mano is a misleading Spanish name. The word which
means "harnes of the hand" is said to come from the word arnes,
referring to the decorative trappings or "harness" of the moro-moro actors,
and "de mano" meaning hands. The movements of the hands used to move the
trappings around by the actors impressed the Spanish conquistadores. But
unknown to them these motions were actually kali fighting skills hidden
in dance form. The word "arnes" became corrupted and became arnis.
With the word a Spanish expression and techniques described in Spanish
many is led to a popular misconception that arnis is combat form brought
by the Spanish invaders brought to the Philippines.
Arnispractitioner employs short range, medium range and short range in their
use of attacks, blocks and counters and uses feints to defeat their attackers.
A variety of skills needs to be developed before the student or trainee
becomes proficient. The training of these skills are similar to those
developed during the kali days: striking, parrying, offense and defense
with a blade/stick weapon, the use of the leg-hip fulcrum to break
the opponent's balance and throw him, and using the stick/blade or free
hand to disarm an assailant.
To complement the weapons training many modern instructors have integrated
other Filipino arts specifically the kicking arts into their repertoire.
Arts such as panuntukman, which is like a kick boxing style, sikaran
which is a hand and foot art, pananjakman which are kicks aimed
low. As well their is dumog as mentioned earlier which is a grappling
art. So while many people(martial artist) equate the Filipino arts as "stick
fighting", if one digs deeper it is more than that. It's a whole complete
form of self defense applicable to modern times.