Pencak Silat Mande Muda
A family pencak silat school from Bandung created, by its own account, by Uyuh Suwanda. It combines several styles, including Cimande.
Quick Facts
IndonesiaCharacter & 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 Pencak Silat Mande Muda
According to the school, Pencak Silat Mande Muda is the family pencak silat school of the Suwanda family from Bandung in West Java. All the information we found comes from the school (a 2009 blog by Rita Suwanda) and from the popular website Mojok.co from 2023. In specialist sources such as Draeger, Chambers and Green, we found nothing about the school. Draeger and Chambers describe a separate style, Tjimande. We therefore draw only on what the school says about itself, and we state this for every piece of information.
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The school states that Guru Besar Uyuh Suwanda created Mande Muda in Bandung in 1951. According to the school, the word Mande comes from Cimande, which Uyuh regarded as the original silat system of West Java, and Muda means young or new. According to the school, Uyuh studied seventeen styles of pencak silat and added Cimande when he married Mimi Rukmini from the village of Cimande. Together they taught the family and friends a shared system, which he called Mande Muda. Mojok.co, by contrast, writes that it was founded on Uyuh's initiative together with his wife. The school's home page says that Mande Muda combines techniques and principles from twenty-eight styles, so the numbers differ. According to Mojok.co, Uyuh Suwanda died in 1989 and leadership passed to his son Herman Suwanda, who left for the USA with his wife in 1980 and died in a car accident in Germany on 21 March 2000. Rita Suwanda describes herself in the school's text as the third daughter of Uyuh Suwanda, chosen by the family as the third leader of Pencak Silat Mande Muda International. We have not been able to document the founder or the year of origin in an independent source.
History
The school states that Uyuh Suwanda studied seventeen styles of pencak silat and added Cimande when he married Mimi Rukmini from the village of Cimande. It claims that Mande Muda is the Suwanda family martial art. On its home page it says that it combines techniques and principles from twenty-eight styles from West Java and other parts of Indonesia, while on Uyuh's page it speaks of seventeen styles plus Cimande, or eighteen. Mojok.co writes that Mande Muda arose from Uyuh's initiative in 1951 in Bandung together with his wife Mimi Suwanda, and that the movements are a combination of belasan gaya of pencak silat. Mojok does not give the number of styles.
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According to the school, Herman Suwanda was the second leader of Mande Muda and the eldest son of the family. From 1965 he also studied with pendekars of other schools, from 1974 he taught in Indonesia and from 1980 in the USA. According to Mojok, Uyuh Suwanda died in 1989 and Herman took over the leadership. Herman died in a car accident in Germany on 21 March 2000 while developing Mande Muda in Europe. Rita Suwanda presents herself in the school's text as the third daughter of Uyuh Suwanda, chosen by the family as the third leader of Pencak Silat Mande Muda International, and Mojok states that she studied Mande Muda from the age of fourteen. In the quotation given with Rita, however, she calls herself the eldest child, so the texts disagree.
How it differs
The school states that the word Mande comes from Cimande, which Uyuh Suwanda regarded as the original silat system of West Java, and Muda means young or new. Draeger (1972) describes a separate style, Tjimande, from West Java as a system of arms and hands with a deep stance, closing in on the enemy and a focus on weapons (staff, the forked truncheon tjabang, short and long knife, the heavy chopper golok), which arose before the twentieth century in the Sukabumi area. We do not find Mande Muda in it.
Training
The school gives the main principle of Mande Muda: keep developing and training and wait, to give the best response to an attack, a technique that deters the attacker from attacking again. This is the school's claim about itself.
Today
Mojok.co states that Mande Muda International has spread to Germany, France, Spain and the Netherlands, focuses on expansion abroad more than on Indonesia, and has its teacher and centre in the USA. The school writes instead that it is growing in Indonesia, the USA and Europe. On Herman Suwanda's page the school says he wanted to fulfil his father's dream and build a pencak silat school, and Mojok names the Akademi Padepokan Silat Suwanda in Kampungdago in Lembang and an annual camp in Indonesia. Rita Suwanda says she competed in IPSI federation competitions and became active in it after her father.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Mande Muda?
The school states that Uyuh Suwanda created it in Bandung in 1951, and Mojok.co writes that he founded it together with his wife. We have not found an independent source.
What does the name Mande Muda mean?
According to the school, Mande comes from Cimande and Muda means young or new.
How many styles does Mande Muda combine?
On its home page the school states twenty-eight styles, and on the page about the founder seventeen styles plus Cimande. The numbers differ and we cannot verify them independently.
Is Mande Muda the same as Cimande?
No. Draeger (1972) describes Tjimande as a separate style from West Java, and we do not find Mande Muda in it. The school states that Uyuh added Cimande to his system after marrying Mimi Rukmini from the village of Cimande.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.