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Filipino Martial Arts History: A Short Version

Philippine map     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.weapons of moroland 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.