So after reading our artical on the Silat Lincah ceremony in Penag, many of you have asked ‘other than jumping through fire hoops and glass, what is silat all about?’ This month i will give you some of the historyand present silat status of my main style ‘seni silat lincah’
Lincah is a Malaysian style that can be traced back to the fifteeth century Warrior Hanh Jebat. Along with his silat brothers Hang Tuah, Hang Lekir, Hang Lekiu and HangKasturi, Jebat became bodyguard to the powerful Sultan of Meleka after a heroic battle where the Sultan’s current body guard fled. The subsequent story of Hanh Jebat and Hang Tuah is one of the most important in Malay folklore. For now it is sufficient to say that Hang Jebat was an extremely talented Silat practitioner, especially with the Keris (a wavy bladed dagger)
Our style has the moto ‘Semengat Jebat’ which means to follow ‘the spirit of Jebat’ and takes its tenets from him. These are Loyalty, Honour, Humility, Dignity, Respect, Brotherhood, and Friendship. Silat Lincah people live these tenets. they don’t just say them, they live them. this was more than evident while we were in Malaysia, as all the instructors and student took time and care above all the call of duty to look after us, because we were ‘Lincah’ and therefore part of the same brotherhood. This made me understand why years ago my Guru Glenn Lobo said to me that even if Lincah was the worst martial arts available (which I’m sure its not by the way!) he would still practice it.. This is because of the genuine camaraderie and respect of its people– things that we have all heard about in Martial Arts, but sadly don’t always find. Over the last two decades in the west, we have seen the tenets of systems lost in people’s egos. Originally the style was called Silat ‘ tarah’. This means ‘to sever’. For recent history of the art and its development we must look at the life of our Maha Guru Dato’ Haji Omar Din. As a young boy Maha Guru developed polio. Various doctors were consulted but none could help his worsening state of health. However, he had continually heard stories about a group of Silat teachers who were also spiritual healers on Pulau Besar, an island of the coast of Melaka. Maha Guru’s parents were against him visiting the island but he was an independent minded young man and eventually, aged 17, he made the trip. At first he thought he would be unable to train in anything physical. in fact he had no original intention of learning a Martial Art, he only wanted to become healthy. However, his treatment became a mixture of the physical Silat Tarah training and the ‘Batin’, which is eventually the time came when the then ageing Maha Guru wished to name his successor. All the senior students were called together and asked to show their faith in the Maha Guru by accepting the challenge. they would be buried alive (what a grading test!). Only one students accepted. Upon being dug up after nine nine hours (and no worse for the experience!) Haji Omar Din was named as the Maha Guru.
Shortly after this the style needed to be officially registered in Malaysia and authorities judged that ‘Tarah’ was to agressive a name. Accordingly the name was changed to ‘Lincah’ which translates as ‘fast/aggressive’. Maha guru’s own Batin was by now extremely strong and fast developed a reputation for being able to performed amazing feats.
However, there are two sides to Silat Batin. There is the use for positive reasons and that for negative reason ie. black magic. If you are looking for black magic, look elsewhere, you won’t find it from me , or anyone in Silat Lincah. Lincah practices the positive side of batin and uses it for protection and healing. so as to not be misunderstood in this, Maha Guru travelled to Mecca, centre of the Islamic world, to have his Batin methods checked and authorized by the heads of the Muslim faith (Malaysia being a Muslim country).
But what about the present day? Maha Guru has taken Silat Lincah from a village style to the biggest style in Malaysia with over 700,000 members. At Lincah ceremonies Maha Guru continues to demonstrate the power of his Batin by protecting students against various blows and strikes. As you may have read in my last artical Silat Lincah grading ceremonies attract huge crowds and are even featured on national tv news! The highest grade is that of ‘Selendang Hitmam’ and Maha Guru has only awarded this to 22 people. I am proud to say that our chief instructor for Europe , Glenn Lobo, is one of them.
