Malay Martial Art - Silat

Silat is a collective word for indigenous martial arts of the Malay Archipelago and Malay Peninsula of Southeast Asia. Originally developed in what are now Indonesia, peninsular Malaysia, southern Thailand and Singapore, it was also traditionally practiced in Brunei, the Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam.

There are hundreds of different styles but they tend to focus either on strikes, joint manipulation, bladed weapons, throws, animal-based techniques, or some combination thereof. Silat is one of the sports included in the Southeast Asian Games and other region-wide competitions. Training halls are overseen by separate national organizations in each of the main countries the art is practiced. These are Ikatan Pesilat Indonesia (IPSI) from Indonesia, Persekutuan Silat Kebangsaan Malaysia (PESAKA) from Malaysia, Persekutuan Silat Brunei Darussalam (PERSIB) from Brunei and Persekutuan Silat Singapura (PERSISI) from Singapore.

Malay Language

Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. Malay is the official language of Malaysia (Malaysian) and Brunei. Another standardized version of Malay, Indonesian, is the official language of Indonesia. Malay is also one of four official languages of Singapore. It is spoken natively by 40 million people across the Malacca Strait, including the coasts of the Malay Peninsula of Malaysia and southern Thailand, Riau province, the eastern coast of Sumatra, and the Riau Islands in Indonesia, and has been established as a native language of part of western coastal Sarawak in Borneo.

In Malaysia, the standard language is called Bahasa Malaysia "Malaysian language". In Singapore, Brunei, southern Thailand, and the southern Philippines it is called Bahasa Melayu "Malay language", and in Indonesia it has undergone series of standardizations and modifications to form what is now called as Bahasa Indonesia "Indonesian language", and furthermore designated as Bahasa Nasional "National Language" and Bahasa Persatuan/Pemersatu "Unifying Language/Lingua Franca". However, in areas of central to southern Sumatra (mainly Riau) where the language is indigenous, Indonesians keep referring it to as Bahasa Melayu and designated it as one of its regional languages