Perguruan Silat Mustika Kwitang (''Mustika Kwitang Silat School''), or simply called Kwitang silat, is a Betawinese pencak silat style ( Betawi: ''maen pukulan''). It was originally developed in the Kwitang village, which is now part of the

Senen Senen is a long-established urban district of Jakarta, Indonesia that has kept many tourist attractions such as two museums, the National Library of Indonesia and Gelanggang Remaja Senen, a quite narrow alley with old Chinese and similar style ...

subdistrict in

Central Jakarta Central Jakarta ( id, Jakarta Pusat) is one of the five administrative cities () which form the Special Capital Region of Jakarta. It had 902,973 inhabitants according to the 2010 censusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 1,056,896 at the 2 ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. This style is a hybrid martial arts, developed by combining the local

silat is the collective term for a class of indigenous martial arts from the Nusantara and surrounding geocultural areas of Southeast Asia. It is traditionally practised in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Southern Thailand, Southern Philip ...

with the Chinese-influenced

kuntao Kuntao or kuntau (wiktionary:拳, 拳wiktionary:道, 道, Pe̍h-ōe-jī: kûn-thâu, Tagalog language, Tagalog: kuntaw) is a Min Nan, Hokkien term for the martial arts of the Chinese community of Southeast Asia, specifically the Malay Archipelag ...

. The Mustika Kwitang Silat School was founded in 1945 by H. Muhammad Djaelani (Mad Djaelani), who previously studied the martial arts from his own family.

Etymology

The name ''Kwitang'' is probably as a modification of Tjung Tang Kiam's name (a kuntao practitioner); or derived from the name ''Gnuidang'' (part of the village where the Chinese settled), which is the Hokkien Amoy spelling for

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

in China.

History

There are many versions on the formation of this martial arts in the Kwitang Village. In the mid of the 19th century, the village was inhabited by Betawinese,

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

and

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

peoples. Most versions agreed that the kuntao martial arts was taught by a Chinese tobacco trader, kuntao practitioner, and medicine man named Tjung Tang Kiam.An alternative names mentioned were Kwee Tang Kiam and Kwik Tang Kiam. Tang Kiam, according to researcher G.J.Nawi, was an assistant and a student of Kam Siok, a Tit Khun martial art master from

Hokkien The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages in ...

(southern China) who visited

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

in 1840. Tang Kiam's well known kuntao expertise might have provoked the Betawi silat masters in the area to challenge him in a duel. As the stories go, Mad Djaelani's grandfather succeeded in defeating Tang Kiam, who then taught him the kuntao martial art. It was told that Djaelani's grandfather mastered the Pangeran Papak silat and the '' kebatinan'' (inner power forming). The combined silat-kuntao style was then taught internally to his family, and called the Kwitang silat. During the

Indonesian revolution The Indonesian National Revolution, or the Indonesian War of Independence, was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between the Republic of Indonesia and the Dutch Empire and an internal social revolution during postwar and postcoloni ...

struggle (1945-1949), Mad Djaelani founded the Mustika Kwitang Silat School, and taught his grandson H. Muhammad Zakaria. Djaelani passed away in 1969, and Zakaria continued as the principal guru of the school. Zakaria had the chance to demonstrate his martial arts in front of the Shotokan master

Masatoshi Nakayama was an internationally famous Japanese master of Shotokan karate.DF_56_of_80">("S_...,_who_were_known_as_kenjutsu_instructors,_from_the_Nagano_Prefecture.html" ;"title="kenjutsu.html" ;"title="DF 56 of 80/nowiki>">DF 56 of 80">("S ..., who were k ...

and the martial arts author Donn F. Draeger, when they visited Indonesia in the '60's. Draeger then included a review of the Kwitang silat in his famous book, ''Weapons and Fighting Arts of Indonesia''. In 1973, the school joined the Persatuan Pencak Silat Putra Betawi (''Association of Betawi Martial Arts Schools''). The association became one of the 9 "Historic Associations" that supported to the Ikatan Pencak Silat Indonesia (''Indonesian Pencak Silat Association''), and since then began sending silat athletes regularly to the

National Sports Week The National Sports Week ( id, Pekan Olahraga Nasional, abbreviated as PON) is a multi-sport event held every four years in Indonesia. The participants of this event are the athletes from all provinces of Indonesia. It is organized by the National ...

competition. The Kwitang silat style currently has spread in various places in Indonesia and abroad.

Forms

Generally known Kwitang silat characteristics are medium

horse stance The horse stance (sometimes called horse riding stance) is a common posture in Asian martial arts and takes its name from the position assumed when riding a horse. It is called ''mǎbù'' (馬步) in Chinese, in Japanese, and ''juchum seogi'' ( ...

, attractive and energetic movements, and quick and powerful blows. Blocking of enemy attacks tends to be done by pitting the strength of the hands.

Basic barehanded forms

Below are the names of the basic barehanded forms of Kwitang silat: # Sideways punch # Straight punch towards the abdomen and block the punch towards the abdomen # Straight punch towards the face and block towards the face # Sideways punch and block the kick (''Lok Bee'') # Catch the opponent's punch and respond with sideways punch # Catch the opponent's punch and respond with elbow and punch # Sideways punch and ward block and elbow # Catch the opponent's punch and break it

Core barehanded forms

Below are the names of the core barehanded forms of Kwitang silat, taught after mastering the basic forms: # Shoot (continuous punches) # ''Piong'' # Wave 1 # Wave 2 # Wave 3 # Wave 4 # Wave 5 # Wave 6 # Swimming Dragon

Weapon forms

Below are the names of the weapon forms of Kwitang silat, taught after mastering the basic and core forms: # 2 Knives (''2 Pisau'') # Machete (''Golok'') # Staff (''Toya'') # Spear (''Koleam'') # Trident (''Taichu'')

References

{{reflist Silat Indonesian martial arts