Indonesian martial arts Indonesian martial arts Indonesian martial arts refers to the variety of fighting systems native to or developed in the archipelago of Indonesia, both the age-old traditional arts, and the more recently developed hybrid combatives. In the Indonesian language the term "bela-diri" (lit. self-defense) is used to mean martial art, and in essence the Indonesian fighting arts are meant as one's defence against perceived threat and assault. Other than physical training, they often include spiritual aspects to cultivate inner strength, inner peace and higher psychological ends. Today, Indonesian fighting styles are synonymous with pencak silat. Indeed, the term was coined as
Pencak Silat leader and allied himself with the arriving Mongol army. With their help Raden Wijaya was able to defeat the Kediri forces. With his silat-trained warriors, Raden Wijaya then turned on the Mongols so that they fled back to China. The village he founded became the Majapahit empire. This was the first empire to unite all of Indonesia's major islands, and pencak silat reached its technical zenith during this period. In Majapahit, pencak silat became the specialised property of the nobility and its advanced secrets were hidden from commoners. The lucrative spice trade eventually brought colonists from Europe, first the Portuguese