Silat Affiliations & Buku Lima

Doc asked me the following questions:

"I was curious in regard to how people conceal or display their association with Silat in Malaysia. For instance, here in the USA, if someone joins "Smith's Tae Kwon Do", he or she may very well wear a t shirt about town with the school logo or have a bumpersticker on their car. Also , they may carry gym bags or other items around that might clue someone in that they have a martial arts background. And, as we all know, many people are quick to tell their friends and /or coworkers about their martial arts hobby. Are students over in Malaysia at all similar in this regard? Are they instructed to be more discrete? How does the government view such training? I assume that it is felt to be more than a peculiar sport over there. Do the instructors advertise in anyway or is it by word of mouth? How do prospective students find a school?

In regard to Pukulan Tujo Hari, are the Buku Lima used in pairs or solo? I guess I find it interesting that they would have "brass knuckles". Was this weapon introduced during the colonial period since the Europeans have this weapon? Structurally, is it different than what an American or European might have , aside from , perhaps , size? What degree of proficiency can be developed in 7 days? This sound like a fascinating system.

Doc"

Silat in Malaysia today has on several different approaches to publicity. There are about 1,000 systems registered with the government – about 300 or 400 “original” systems and the rest are rival and competing organizations with similar Silat syllabi (i.e. there are two major Silat Cekak groups – Silat Cekak Hanafi and Silat Cekak Malaysia). It’s thought that there are another 3,000 or so Silat groups that are “kampung” (village) systems that are too small to register.

Not many of the Silat systems have opened their systems to non-Muslims. The large systems that are “open” (e.g. Silat Lincah, Silat Gayong, Silat Gayong Fatani, etc.) do advertise, have T-Shirts, etc.

The systems that are closed don’t advertise, because they don’t want to be put in the position of turning away students based upon religion – a gray area in Malaysian civil rights law. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” – Malaysian-style.

The funny thing is that the number one system in Malaysia – by far – is Tae Kwon Do!

Here’s a picture of the Malaysian brass-knuckles a.k.a. buku-lima (“five books”):



The buku-lima tend to be used on only one hand, with the other hand free to strip off the buku-lima quickly if needed. Buku-lima is the weapon of choice of most of the Silat systems that originate from the Bugis people (Sulawesi), since they emphasize a sideways stance and a strong lead hand role.

Please note that the buku-lima is placed on top of the second row of knuckles (like a "leopard fist"), and the fist is cocked back so that the second row of knuckles falls in line with the forearm. The following two pictures show Silat Sendeng (also from the Bugis people) - their fists are cocked as if they have the buku-lima, even though they do not in the photos:




The weapon came from Sulawesi. Whether or not it has a European predecessor is something that I can’t answer yet. I plan on meeting soon with Dato’ Shahrum bin Yub, the former Director General of the Malaysian National Museum. He wrote the definitive book on small Malaysian weapons back in 1967. I just licensed the copyright to the book and hope to have it translated into English later this year (2005). I’ll see if I can get a better answer for you soon.

Take care.

Omar