his is a story I expected to hear several years ago, with all the hype that went on about Minangkabau silat. it was never written, so I felt that it was about time that it was given an airing in the Martial Arts texts.

The Minangkabau people are from West Sumatra. For centuries now the whole area has paid testimony to the Minangkabau the “victorious Buffalo”, by adopting the pointed style of head dress and architecture characteristic of the area.

About 600 years ago the king of Java sent a messenger to the people of West Sumatra informing them of his intention to invade the island. they were invited to surrender, or be killed.

The people of Sumatra were unwilling to capitulate to this act of aggression, yet did not want to fight. the King of Java had an awesome army, and would surely have defeated the Sumatrans. the elders got together to plan a course of action.

There were many ideas put forward as to the best way to defeat the Javanese king, and eventually one was chosen. the messenger from the Javanese king was told to submit this proposal to his king. Rather than face a war which would bring wholesale destruction on both sides, they proposed that instead of the peoples fighting, that the fight should be contested between two buffalo. Should the buffalo of the Javanese king be victorious, then the Sumatran peoples would submit to the rule of the Javanese King, and should it lose, then the Javanese king would withdraw from Sumatra and never again lay claim to it’s land.

The Javanese king agreed.

He sent out his men to find the most fierce and powerful buffalo in the land. and so they came to West Sumatra.

The people of West Sumatra heard about the buffalo of the king of Java and came to see it. great was their awe of the beast. never before had any of them seen such a powerful and magnificent animal. the mere sight of it filled them with despair.

The elders met again, to try to change their plans, for they felt that they would never find it’s match. they came up with many plans and proposals, and rejected them all as useless. finally they hit upon a plan which was agreed upon by all.

One man had a new buffalo calf which he took from its mother. another fastened iron to the tips of the horns. they waited three days, and then sent the message to the Javanese king to say that they were ready for the fight.

The next day the Javanese brought their buffalo to the arena, and the villagers brought the little calf.

the Javanese laughed at the sight of the little calf. the Sumatrans paid no heed to this, and waited.

On the signal, both buffalo were released. initially nothing happened. the people were bemused. then the calf started to run. he had not been fed in three days, and was hungry. to big buffalo to him could have been his mother so he ran straight over to the big animal to start to feed. as he pressed his nose up against the Javanese buffalo the sharp pointed iron that had been attached pierced the underside of the big beast, and gored it’s belly. it roared with pain and reared, and began to run away. the little calf ran after him. the large buffalo ran with greater and greater difficulty, bleeding profusely from it’s wounds. then the king’s buffalo fell, and a great roar went up from the people of west Sumatra. “Minangkabau!! Minangkabau!! Minangkabau!!”

The Javanese king and his followers left the battlefield, and never returned.

This is the reason that the houses and head dresses of the people are made into the shape of buffalo horns.

slat people who do Minangkabau silat still adhere to the traditions and wear the typical attire of the area. there are a few people teaching genuine Minangkabau silat in Europe- in fact three of whom I am aware in Europe. one is in Spain, Juan Barranechea; one in Holland, Nick Smith; and one in Austria. all of these have I believe actually studied the art at source, and are regarded well as teachers. when this article was written this was the case. many years on i can include Steve benitez in this list too.

A few years ago I was fortunate enough to visit west Sumatra with a Malaysian demonstration team, for a silat festival called Galanggang Sili Berganti, held in Bukit Tinggi. it was apparent after spending the best part of a week watching all the styles of west Sumatra showing their stuff, that there is little difference between the many styles. I was reliably informed by one of the practitioners that there is a basis of each style in the next one, and they only vary from one another in a selection of techniques which the untrained eye would miss. The silat there is very soft and yielding- force is never met with force, and the combatants spar with a fluidity and grace not seen in many styles of silat.