What is Pentjak Silat Kuntao Matjan?

An Eclectic Tradition

Kuntao Matjan is a hybrid art combining Southern Chinese Tiger-Style Kung Fu with Indonesian Pencak Silat (old spelling Pentjak Silat). In Indonesia and Malaysia they say 'Silat is a living art; new systems are born and old systems die'. The middle years of the last century was a intensive period of growth and synthesis in silat with a great many new systems being established, many of which blended indigenous arts with those of the long established and very integrated ethnic Chinese communities in the region. During that period Dutch Indonesian, or 'Indo', master Paatje (lit. 'uncle) Carel Faulhaber shaped his own combination of Fujian Province Tiger-Boxing and Pencak Silat.

Like many Indonesian arts, Kuntao Matjan is geared toward the smaller, lighter fighter emphasising maneouverability, evasion and tactical sophistication rather than aggression and direct power. And, also typical of the Indonesian tradition, it is a well-rounded system with a balanced, broad range of hand techniques, kicks and sweeps, throws, joint-manipulation and grappling. Training combines solo drills similar to Japanese or Chinese forms termed jurus and kembang with intensive partner training including model self-defence solutions (buah bela diri), choreographed sparring drills (jalan kalaki), a range of sensitivity exercises plus slow and full-speed, highly structured free sparring drills.

At advanced levels students learn defence against, and the use of, traditional Indonesian weapons including knife (pisau), bush knife (golok), steel truncheon (cabang or siku-siku, similar to the Okinawan sai), sword (pedang) and a range of short- and medium-length sticks and the three-prong rake (cangkol) Throughout the training one studies meditation and qi gong exercises that combine Chinese medicinal theory with eclectic Javanese spiritualism and Indonesian therapeutic massage (peceh-urut).