Pencak Silat body for international pencak silat is the International Pencak Silat Association or PERSILAT ("Persekutuan Pencak Silat Antara Bangsa"). Pencak silat is one of the sports included in the Southeast Asian Games and other region-wide competitions. Pencak silat first made its debut in 1987 Southeast Asian Games and 2018 Asian Games, both were held in Indonesia. "Silat" is a collective word for a class of indigenous martial arts from the geo-cultural area of Southeast Asia, more precisely in the Malay Archipelago, a region known locally as "Nusantara". The origin of the word "silat" is uncertain. The Malay term "silat" is linked
Silat been adopted worldwide in reference to professional competitive silat for sport, similar to the Chinese word wushu. Regional dialect names include "penca" (West Java), "dika" or "padik" (Thailand), "silek" (the Minangkabau pronunciation of silat), "main-po" or "maen po" (in the lower speech of Sundanese), and "gayong" or "gayung" (used in parts of Malaysia and Sumatra). The clear distinction between Indonesian and Peninsular silat is a relatively recent one based mainly on post-independence patriotic sentiments. The term silat Melayu ("Malay silat") was originally used in reference to Riau but is today commonly used for referring to systems created on the Southeast