Indonesian martial arts to those practised by the Tionghoa community of the Indonesian archipelago. Kuntao has a long history in the region dating back to ancient times. Such has been the influence between kuntao and pencak silat that the terms are used interchangeably in some regions. Every Chinese community in Indonesia either has or historically had some style of kuntao, but they were not taught openly until the latter half of the 20th century. Northern and southern Chinese martial arts are represented in kuntao, both from the external and internal schools. Some systems were directly imported from China and underwent little or no
Indonesian martial arts resulted in the development of native edged weapons such as the parang, klewang, mandau, badik, kujang, golok and kris. Chinese straight swords arrived early, and ancient Javanese curved swords show Indian derivation. Contact with India and the forming of ancient kingdoms lead to the transition from tribalism to the golden age that was Indonesia's Dharmic civilization. Pencak silat developed in this era, spreading quickly from Sumatra into nearly the whole of the archipelago. In comparison to the country's tribal fighting systems, pencak silat shows decidedly more influence from the Asian mainland, specifically China and the Indian subcontinent. Pencak silat tied