Bokator
ល្បុក្កតោA Cambodian fighting system broader than ring kun khmer: it includes ground fighting, locks, throws and weapons — short sticks, the bamboo staff and the krama scarf.
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.
Catalogs & Databases for Bokator
About Bokator
Bokator, in Khmer kun lbokator, is a Cambodian fighting system that differs from ring kun khmer in its breadth. Where kun khmer is boxing with elbow and knee under rules, bokator includes ground fighting, locks, throws and weapons — short sticks, the bamboo staff and the krama scarf. The name is usually glossed as pounding a lion. The syllabus works with a set of animal styles, each with its own stances and way of attacking, and with a large number of techniques named after situations rather than body parts. Grading has a form of its own. The practitioner wears a krama, the traditional checked scarf, around the waist, its colour marking the grade, and higher grades add sangvar day, cords tied around the head and arms. Under the Khmer Rouge bokator all but died out — the masters either perished or stopped practising. Its revival began after 2000 and is associated above all with San Kim Sean, who returned from exile and set about tracking down surviving teachers. In 2022 UNESCO inscribed kun lbokator on the list of intangible cultural heritage. It is practised today in Cambodia and in the diaspora, and belongs to Cambodian cultural identity as much as to sport.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.