Bokator
ល្បុក្កតោKhmer martial art with strikes, holds, ground fighting and weapons, on the UNESCO Representative List of intangible heritage since 2022.
Quick Facts
CambodiaCharacter & 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.
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About Bokator
Bokator, in full Kun Lbokator, is a Khmer martial art from Cambodia. In 2022 the UNESCO Committee inscribed it on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity as Kun Lbokator, traditional martial arts in Cambodia. The Committee's decision states that the art dates back to the first century, taken over from the nomination. We have not found a founder or year of origin in the sources.
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An article on the website of the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, taken over from the IntoCambodia portal, explains the name as the beating of a lion and says it is close-quarters fighting with bare hands, on the ground and with weapons, which the armies of the Angkor era reportedly used. According to the same article, practitioners train strikes with the knees, elbows, hands, feet and head, and short sticks are commonly used among the weapons. The 2017 national inventory of intangible heritage divides the system into twelve sets, of which eight are without weapons, two with a wooden staff and two with swords and spears. According to the same article, under the Khmer Rouge in 1975 to 1979 practitioners were killed, fled or hid their knowledge. Master San Kim Sean, who had learned bokator from the age of thirteen, left in 1979 through a Thai refugee camp for the United States. According to the Phnom Penh Post, he first returned to Cambodia in 1995 to look for hidden masters in the provinces. In September 2006, according to the same paper, the first national bokator championship was held under rules that San Kim Sean had created. Bokator appeared at the 2023 Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) in Phnom Penh. The UNESCO decision states that the art is sustained by masters and their students and that training and documentation are supported by the bokator federation founded in 2004.
History
The UNESCO Committee inscribed Kun Lbokator, traditional martial arts in Cambodia, on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2022 at its seventeenth session. According to an article on the Cambodian foreign ministry website, this happened on 29 November 2022 in Rabat, Morocco, and bokator was the sixth Cambodian inscription. The Committee's decision states that the art goes back to the first century. The Committee, however, recognised only two criteria as partially met, in one case because the nomination did not document the consent of the wider communities concerned.
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The ministry article, taken over from the IntoCambodia portal, states that bokator was reportedly the close-quarters fighting system of Angkor-era armies, and claims that the reliefs by the entrance pillars of the Bayon temple depict wrestlers and warriors attacking with elbows. Green does not mention bokator in the encyclopedia Martial Arts of the World. According to the AFP agency, the Khmer fighting style was first discouraged by the French colonisers and in the nineteen-seventies persecuted by the Khmer Rouge regime. The ministry article adds that after the Khmer Rouge the Vietnamese occupation banned domestic martial arts. According to the Phnom Penh Post of 2006, San Kim Sean began learning bokator at thirteen and trained until 1975. In 1979 he fled to a Thai refugee camp and from there to the United States, where he taught hapkido in Houston and later in Long Beach. He first returned to Cambodia in 1995 and looked in the provinces for masters who were hiding out of fear. According to the same paper of 2017, he founded the Cambodian Bokator Federation and the Cambodian Bokator Academy and published a book of about two hundred pages on bokator's history.
How it differs
The article on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs warns of a common mistake, that the name lbokator denotes all Khmer martial arts, although it is only one specific style. The 2017 national inventory of intangible heritage lists the element under the name Kbach Kun Khmer, that is Khmer martial arts, noting that it has various local names and the best known of them is Kun Bokator. The newspaper The Cambodia Daily, on the other hand, uses the similar name Kbach Kun Boran Khmer for Khmer ring kickboxing. English Wikipedia calls Kbach Kun Khmer Boran an umbrella term for all Khmer martial arts. The masters themselves also dispute which name is the umbrella one. According to the Phnom Penh Post of 2017, San Kim Sean claims that the umbrella term is Yuthakun Khorm, whereas You Sinet, the founder of the federation of that name, regards l'bokator as merely a technique of stick fighting. The ministry article adds that similar practices exist in neighbouring countries that once belonged to the Khmer Empire, for example muay thai in Thailand and muay lao in Laos.
Technique
The 2017 national inventory of intangible heritage states that bokator is fought with hands, elbows, knees, feet, sticks or swords. According to the inventory, the system has twelve sets divided into three parts. Sets one to eight are without weapons, nine and ten with a wooden staff, eleven and twelve with swords and spears. The article on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website lists strikes with the knees, elbows, hands, feet and head, shin kicks, joint locks and ground fighting, and short sticks as the usual weapon. In 2006 the Phnom Penh Post listed animal styles, among them the monkey king, lion, elephant, crocodile, duck, crab, horse, bird and dragon, and an apsara style. According to the AFP agency, the style uses, besides strikes and kicks, elbows and knees, joint locks and holds.
Training
The UNESCO Committee's decision states that the bearers are masters, assistant teachers, apprentices and other advocates, and that the art is transmitted in training schools, clubs, at tournaments and in formal education. According to UNESCO, the masters, some of whom are believed to have healing and protective power, teach apprentices their duties toward vulnerable communities, nature, justice and peace. The article on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that every training session begins with a prayer to Brahma and that bokator is practised together with dance, music, natural healing, sacred objects, tattooing and weapons. A student must first master strikes and defence with bare hands and feet, and weapons come only afterwards. Fighters wear a folded krama scarf around the waist and blue and red silk cords sangvar day on the head and arms, which were once believed to be enchanted and today are mostly ceremonial.
Ranks and progression
According to the Phnom Penh Post of 2006, the colour of the krama scarf shows a fighter's level, white lowest and black highest. We have not found the intermediate levels in the sources. The ministry article states that masters train at least five years, assistant teachers are gifted apprentices chosen among themselves, and apprentices are schoolchildren or villagers near the training schools.
Competition
According to the article on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the first national bokator competition was held from 26 to 29 September 2006 at the Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh, and masters with teams from nine provinces came to it. The Phnom Penh Post called it the first bokator competition under rules created by San Kim Sean and reported 307 participants. According to the AFP agency, at the 2023 Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) in Phnom Penh kun bokator was on the programme with bouts and with demonstration rounds with sticks and large blades. The bouts are accompanied by live music with traditional pipes and drums, and fighters wear gilded shorts, armbands and a headband. The Laotian Times wrote about the first Southeast Asian championship in kun bokator in April 2023, which was preparation for the Games and in which athletes from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and the Philippines competed.
Today
The UNESCO Committee's decision states that the viability of the art is ensured by masters who train individuals, and that training and documentation are supported by the bokator federation founded in 2004. Bokator was entered on the national inventory of intangible heritage in 2017. The Committee called on Cambodia to introduce measures for practitioners' safety and health. The article on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website gives about seven thousand practitioners and twelve grand masters, among them San Kim Sean, and community schools in thirteen provinces, including Kampot, Takeo and Siem Reap. According to it, compatriots in the United States, Europe and Australia also practise bokator. In 2017 the Phnom Penh Post wrote that San Kim Sean runs the country's first bokator academy in Siem Reap.
Did you know
According to the article on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, bokator appeared in the 2017 Cambodian action film Jailbreak and is part of the musical dance chhay yam and lkhon bassac theatre. The national inventory of intangible heritage states that Khmer martial arts are also known from bassac theatre plays and from the masked dance khol. San Kim Sean said in the documentary Surviving Bokator, quoted by the AFP agency, that he nearly died three times.
Frequently asked questions
Is bokator on the UNESCO list?
Yes. The UNESCO Committee inscribed Kun Lbokator, traditional martial arts in Cambodia, on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2022.
What does the word bokator mean?
An article on the website of the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs explains the name Kun Lbokator as the beating of a lion, from bok, to beat, and tor, lion.
Who revived bokator after the Khmer Rouge?
The Phnom Penh Post writes that master San Kim Sean first returned from exile in the USA in 1995 and looked for hidden masters, and that the first national bokator championship in 2006 was held under rules he created.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.