Pencak Silat Harimau Minangkabau
The tiger silat of the Minangkabau of West Sumatra; fighting from a deep crouch and from the ground, with the kerambit knife.
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IndonesiaCharacter & Origin
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About Pencak Silat Harimau Minangkabau
Silek Harimau, in Indonesian silat harimau or tiger silat, is a fighting tradition of the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra. It grows out of the older local school silek tuo and takes the tiger's name from the way it moves: the practitioner works from a deep crouch and often directly from the ground, travelling on palms and feet, attacking with kicks and scissoring leg holds from below and pulling the opponent down by the ankle or the knee. Fighting at ground level is not a last resort in this style but the starting position. The curved knife kerambit, which comes from the Minangkabau region itself, completes the syllabus. Teaching was historically tied to the surau, the village prayer house where boys slept and studied; silek belonged to the preparation for merantau, the traditional departure of a young man from his home village to make a living, since a traveller had to be able to defend himself. The Minangkabau are a matrilineal society in which property and lineage pass through the female line, so martial training was attached to male groups outside the house. This is a folk tradition with no documented founder and no year of origin; its spread beyond Sumatra in the twentieth century owed much to master Edwel Datuk Rajo Gampo Alam and his school in Jakarta.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.