Perisai Diri
Indonesian silat founded in 1955 in Surabaya. It joined domestic lineages with Chinese Siauw Liem Sie and is taught in standard Indonesian.
Quick Facts
IndonesiaCharacter & Origin
Training
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 Perisai Diri
Perisai Diri, literally "shield of the self", is an Indonesian style of pencak silat. It was founded by Raden Mas Soebandiman Dirdjoatmodjo, born on 8 January 1913, who formally established the style under this name on 2 July 1955 in Surabaya with the help of Imam Ramelan. His own training was unusually broad. He learned silat from Hasan Basri in Jombang and Sayid Sahab in Solo, as well as from his own grandfather Ki Jogosurasmo and from Soegito in the Setia Saudara lineage. Decisive, however, were fourteen years with Yap Kie San in Banyumas, where he studied the Chinese Siauw Liem Sie lineage. It is precisely the joining of Javanese lineages with a Chinese foundation that gives Perisai Diri its shape. Three things set it apart from other Indonesian schools, none of them obvious in the 1950s. He wrote the syllabus in standard Indonesian rather than in Javanese or in oral tradition, making it accessible to students across the country. The school's motto is Pandai Bersilat Tanpa Cedera, "skilled at silat without injury". And its technical principle is satu detik dua gerak — one second, at least two movements. That principle is the core of the style. The point is not the speed of a single technique but that within the time an opponent needs for one movement, the practitioner performs two: defence and answer as one whole rather than as a sequence. Perisai Diri is among the largest Indonesian silat schools and has spread above all through schools and universities.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.