Pencak silat

Pencak silat is a form of martial arts originating in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, and Philippines. Some styles, such as Bangau Putih, are also originating from Chinese martial arts.

Pencak silat is commonly considered as a combat method, whether it is hand to hand or using weapons (such as knife, sword or keris, but also considered sport and as a form of traditional dance as it is often performed with traditional music as background in a performance.

Organization
There are hundreds of pencak silat school of various style which is called perguruan pencak silat. The national organization which governs these perguruan in Indonesia is Ikatan Pencak Silat Indonesia or IPSI (Indonesian Pencak Silat Organization). It is founded in Solo, Central Java, on May 18th, 1948.

International widespread
Since 1975, pencak silat began to be widespread all over the world. On March 11th, 1980, the Persekutuan Pencak Silat Antarbangsa (PERSILAT) or the International Pencak Silat Federation was formed and in 1994 its members were from 21 nations. In 1982, the first pencak silat world championship was being held in Indonesia. It is hoped that pencak silat will finally become part of the official competitions in the next Asia Asian Games to be held in Doha Qatar in December 2006.