Malay Pendekar

Who is pendekar? Pendekar is a master teacher of silat, Malay martial art. He is the most interesting and respected personality of the combative art. The word pendekar actually stems from the Minangkabau expression mean ‘pandai akal’ or ‘clever mind’. Pandai Akal can be seen when the Pendekar cleverly executes his counterattacks against his opponents.

He is well respected and honored by the members of the training-house and the society. A master is considered to be a true teacher for his sincere efforts in educating and guiding the society. Those efforts are based on the spirit to serve the society with a noble purpose; to develop humanity both physically and spiritually in order to achieve an ideally noble society.

Pendekar also is a practitioner who achieves a profound level of fighting skills, and who demonstrates clear religious and ethical purpose. Historically, there were also hulubalang, meaning champion fighters serving the sultan or members of the Malay royal family.

The pendekar is aside from his great technical skills, a spiritualist around whom many legends have been constructed. Among his claimed supernatural powers are those of mental telepathy, mind reading, mystic healing, and foreseen the future.

Though long periods of concentrated study, some masters reportedly are able to withstand a sword thrust on the neck, to touch and disable, and even “kill at a distance.”

The combative invulnerability of the pendekar is also an unexplainable property of his mystic status. There are only a few genuine pendekar today.
Malay Pendekar