Silat Cimande
One of the three main Sundanese styles of pencak silat from West Java. It relies on arm and hand work, a deep stance and a circular evasion.
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 Silat Cimande
Silat Cimande is a Sundanese style of pencak silat from West Java. Sources also write it Tjimande, and the Indonesian Wikipedia gives the name maenpo Cimande too. Research from 1977 to 1978, cited by Heryana 2018, ranks it among the three main aliran of West Javanese silat, with Cikalong and Timbangan.
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The founder is considered to be Abah Kahir, whose name is written variously, for example Khaer, Kair or Kaher. We have not found the year of origin documented. The Bogor district office places the beginnings in the sixteenth to seventeenth century, while Draeger 1972 writes only that the style arose before the twentieth century. We have not found the dates repeated on school websites and in blogs in expert sources. Technically, according to Draeger, it is mainly a system of arms and hands. The practitioner stands in a deep wide stance, keeps the elbows close to the body and works with circular hand movements. Kicks are low and mostly straight front kicks. Draeger writes that the arm strike has so much force that it breaks a coconut. Great emphasis is also placed on the study of weapons, from the staff to the parang and golok knives. According to Heryana, spiritual teaching is given after the jurus or together with them, in the form of a student's vow. Today Cimande is taught in Bogor and its surroundings, and in September 2025 a championship with 246 competitors was held in Caringin. In 2022 the ministry of education and culture declared Penca Aliran Cimande an intangible cultural heritage of West Java.
History
Draeger 1972 writes that Tjimande is centered in the Tjiawi area but developed before the twentieth century in the nearby Sukabumi region of Tjisarua. As founder he names Kair, who according to him was no longer alive, and his excellent student Atma, then a roughly sixty-year-old tea plantation worker. Chambers, Draeger and Alexander 1970 write that the style developed in the wet lowlands and today is limited almost exclusively to the Sundanese in West Java.
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The Bogor district office in 2025 quoted the bupati Rudy Susmanto, according to whom Cimande is one of the oldest silat styles in Indonesia, attested from the sixteenth to seventeenth century, and arose in Bogor district. This is a claim by a politician at a ceremonial occasion, which we have not confirmed in expert sources. The Indonesian Wikipedia states that all Cimande maenpo communities agree on the founder Abah Khaer and that his name is written in various ways, for example Kaher, Kahir, Kair or Kaer. Three different stories circulate about the founder as a person. According to the first, he was a merchant from Bogor and learned silat from his wife, who watched a fight between a tiger and monkeys. According to the second, he was a maenpo master from the village of Badui, according to the third a student of Abah Buyut and a horse trader. The blog Detroit Kali Silat adds a Banten version, according to which he was expelled from Badui because he killed challengers in duels. The dates 1760 and 1825, that is the start of his teaching career and his death, repeat on school websites and in blogs and come from the magazine Gema Pencak Silat. We have not found them in expert sources, so we do not consider them documented.
How it differs
Draeger 1972 writes that the main Tji styles in the mountains of West Java between Bogor and Bandung have less frontal contact with the opponent than most other Javanese styles, and the key method is circular evasion. From Cikalong, according to him, Tjimande differs in that it may use the fist and blocks with an unsupported arm, whereas Cikalong prefers the open hand and supports the blocking arm from underneath with the free hand. According to Suwita, the founder of the Cimande Tengah school in Banten, quoted by the website Good News From Indonesia, Cimande divides into three branches: Cimande Hilir in Karawang, Cimande Tengah in Banten and Cimande Girang in Bogor. According to him all branches have 33 bare-hand jurus. This is a claim of a single master. Cimande also appears in the sources as a possible origin of arts outside Java. Depdikbud 1985 states that the Balinese perkumpulan Bhakti Negara and Kertha Wisesa, judging by basic movements and informants, descend from the aliran Cikaret and Cimande. About Kertha Wisesa it writes that its origin is an aliran from Cimande in West Java and that the main figure who developed it in Bali was Pak Raka Gunung. Elements of Cimande are, according to the report, still clearly visible in these associations and some older representatives master the Cimande jurus completely.
Technique
Draeger 1972 describes Tjimande as mainly a system of the arms and hands, but one that can also use the legs and feet with great force. Kicks are limited to low targets and are mostly straight front kicks. The practitioner keeps the elbows close to the body, hands open or in a fist, and makes circular hand movements as he advances. The stance is usually a deep crouch with legs spread wide, knees bent and trunk upright. Heryana 2018 gives the wide stance and open hand as features of aliran Cimande.
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Chambers, Draeger and Alexander 1970 add that Tjimande stances are less upright than in other Javanese styles and movements are made carefully, as if the fighter wanted to avoid wet and slippery spots on the ground. He deflects the opponent's attack by clever parrying with hands and arms, neutralizes it with another covering movement and almost simultaneously counterattacks. Draeger describes that in a clash the practitioner stamps the rear foot into the ground and with skillful hand movements leads the attack in a harmless direction. According to Draeger, arm strikes concentrate force not in the edge of the hand like Japanese karate, but in the wrist. A translation of an essay from the magazine Gema Pencak Silat, published by the Cimande community website, distinguishes in the Kelid set the strikes tonjok (fist), teke (finger joints), tewekan (flat thrust with fingertips), kedutan (palm), guaran (outer or inner side of the hand) and singgulan (wrist). This is information from a community website about itself.
Training
Draeger 1972 states that Tjimande places great emphasis on the study of weapons. He names the staff, the forked truncheon tjabang, a short knife, the long knife parang, the heavy chopping knife golok and a small throwing knife. According to him the basic tactic assumes at least three opponents approaching the practitioner, and as skill grows five, eight and even twelve opponents are handled effectively.
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According to a translation of an essay from the magazine Gema Pencak Silat on the website cimande.com, the core set Kelid Cimande has 33 jurus. It begins with tonjok bareng, tonjok saubelah and kelid selup and ends with pakala alit and pakala gede. The jurus Kelid is usually practiced in pairs while seated, two practitioners face each other with one leg stretched out and the other bent and perform strikes and defenses while seated, to develop a sense of the choice of stance and movement in standing. The jurus Pepedangan is practiced with bamboo instead of a golok. The jurus Tepak Selancar is a demonstration form accompanied by pencak music, in which two large drums indung, two smaller kulantir, a trumpet and a small gong kempul or bende play. Draeger writes of all West Javanese styles with the prefix Tji that mental discipline is high and physical abilities are increased by regular fasting, from which a release of inner strength is expected. In some training sessions the winner is whoever gets a touch on the torso of the training partner.
Ranks and progression
We have not found a system of grades, belts or sashes in the sources. Documented is rather the admission of a student. Heryana 2018 writes that in aliran Cimande and Cikalong spiritual teaching is given after the jurus or together with them, as talek, a student's vow or oath. He does not regard the doctrine itself, patalekan, as a source of movements, and says both schools can be learned without it. According to a translation of an essay from the magazine Gema Pencak Silat on cimande.com, a candidate must undergo a traditional seven-day fast before training. Then the oath Patalekan Cimande with 14 points is read, while the Indonesian Wikipedia gives 13. Points include faithfulness to God, respect for parents, teacher and government, a ban on gambling, theft, lying, drunkenness and drugs, and a promise that Cimande is not taught for show, but for safety on earth and in heaven. Explaining the oath, the teacher holds the student's hands as a symbol of acceptance, says the prayer tawasul and drips water mixed with betel infusion into his eyes. The ceremony is called keceran and is meant to sharpen sight. This is a community website's account of itself, which we have not confirmed in expert sources.
Today
The Bogor district office states that on 6 September 2025 a Cimande festival and championship was held at the Padepokan Silat Cimande in the village of Caringin. It was attended by 246 competitors from more than ten schools from the area from Bogor to Sukabumi, and they competed in nine original categories, among them tunggal, rampak, adu bincurang and traditional kelid. According to IDX Channel news of 13 December 2022, the ministry of education, culture and research in 2022 declared nineteen cultural products of West Java intangible cultural heritage, among them Penca Aliran Cimande. The certificates were received on 9 December 2022 in Jakarta by governor Ridwan Kamil. We have not verified the number in the heritage register.
Did you know
Draeger 1972 writes that the arm strike in Tjimande is devastating and the practitioner develops in it enough force to break coconuts. The Indonesian Wikipedia and the website Good News From Indonesia state that the Betawi hero Si Pitung studied under Eyang Khaer or emerged from this school. We assume this is a folk tale, because Pitung is a figure from the end of the nineteenth century and school websites place the founder in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. We have not found proof. A student of IAIN Syekh Nurjati states in a qualifying thesis that the name Tjimande means Air Suci, that is holy water. This is the opinion of the author of the thesis, which we have not found in expert sources.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Silat Cimande?
The founder is considered to be Abah Kahir, whose name is also written Khaer, Kair or Kaher. Draeger 1972 names him as Kair, and according to the Indonesian Wikipedia all Cimande maenpo communities agree on him. Three different stories circulate about his origins.
When did Silat Cimande arise?
We have not found the year of origin documented. The Bogor district office gives the sixteenth to seventeenth century, Draeger 1972 writes only of a time before the twentieth century. The date 1760 appears on school websites and in blogs, and we have not found it in expert sources.
How does Cimande differ from Cikalong?
According to Draeger 1972, Tjimande may use the fist and blocks with an unsupported arm. Cikalong prefers the open hand and supports the blocking arm from underneath with the free hand.
How does a person get into Cimande training?
Heryana 2018 states that spiritual teaching takes the form of the student's vow talek and is given after the teaching of the jurus or together with it. The community website cimande.com also describes a seven-day fast and an oath with 14 points. We have not confirmed this part from expert sources.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.