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 Sunda" or "silat Bandung". In the Sundanese language they are generically referred to as "penca" (dialect form of pencak), "ameng", "ulin" or "maen po" (from the word "main" meaning "play"). Ameng is the more respectful term, while ulin and maen po are of lower speech levels. Sunda systems are easily identified by the prefix "ci" (spelled "tji" by the Dutch). Pronounced "chi", it comes from the Sundanese word "cai" meaning river water, alluding to the fact that they were originally developed in river-basin areas. The deep, wide stance and resulting gait attests to this, owing to the practice of carefully