Pencak Silat in the Indonesian Archipelago

The sentence above was often repeated by my late husband, O'ong Maryono (1953-2013), to express his concern that pencak silat is not valued enough in Indonesia, even in the Malay world at large. As a pencak silat figure who dedicated his life to pencak silat both as a sportsman and as a scholar, he was disappointed that in place of origin of this typical Malay martial art, written information about it is lacking and many do not know and/or do not appreciate pencak silat. Meanwhile, O'ong believed that pencak silat is actually unique in combining sports movements and martial arts moves with elements of art, as well as breathing techniques and spiritual knowledge. Another interesting thing, as he once wrote, is that "paradoxically, the unified rules of pencak silat actually consist of a very varied core, depending on which basic movements and techniques are prioritized in combining them". This diversity is manifested in hundreds of schools of thought, styles and movements with various meanings, tastes and aesthetic forms. This wealth of differences-which actually should be considered an integral part as well as a reflection of Indonesia's own pluralist culture-needs to be cared for, preserved, and developed so that pencak silat can keep up with the times and, “merentang waktu" or figuratively stretch over time. If not, time will actually erase it, and by losing this unique local wisdom, the spirit of the culture and the nation will also disappear. Inspired by O'ong's concern following his death I got the idea to commemorate him and his vision with a fund that would support documentation, research and publication of pencak silat. On 20 March 2014, at his first death anniversary the O'ong Maryono Pencak Silat Award was launched at Padepokan Pencak Silat in Jakarta. This lead two years later to teaming up with the Yayasan Pustaka Indonesia to publish the Pencak Silat Library Series to facilitate the publication of technical manuals as well as socio-cultural books on the theme of pencak silat.