Bando
The Burmese system of unarmed fighting, which begins by giving ground and answers only when the attack runs out. It is organised around some twelve animals.
Quick Facts
MyanmarCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
About Bando
Bando is the Burmese system of unarmed fighting, and its name is also used as an umbrella term for Burmese martial arts in general. Its founding principle is that one does not start — the practitioner first gives ground and receives the attack, and only then goes into the counter. This is not a moral stance but a tactic: the attacker is exposed at the moment his movement runs out, and that is where the answer comes. The system is organised by animals, of which some twelve are given — boar, bull, cobra, python, panther, tiger, eagle, viper, scorpion, deer and monkey. It is not imitation; each animal denotes a way of fighting, that is a distance, a kind of strike and a behaviour under pressure. The boar drives straight forward, the cobra attacks the upper level from close range, the deer evades and slips to the sides. The practitioner gradually learns to switch between them according to the opponent. Bando belongs to the same family as lethwei, Burmese bare-knuckle boxing, and banshay, Burmese weapon fighting; in Burma they are often trained together. Abroad it was carried chiefly by the Burma Bando Association and, in the United States, by the Gyi family. Two further parts of the same tradition belong with bando: banshay covers the weapons, that is sword, staff and spear, and naban is Burmese wrestling. In Burma all three are usually trained together as one whole; only in the West did they come apart.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.