The de Thouars "Family" and "Family Art" 2003

      Much has been said and written about the de Thouars family as relates to the martial arts.   Most of the publicly available written information exists in the form of either Web pages or Newsgroup postings.  If one goes to a newsgroup search engine and types "Silat Serak® ", "de Thouars", de Thouars", or "Silat", one will find literally hundreds of posts which make reference to this family name

       While this is deserving, due to the enormous contribution the Brothers have made to the martial arts in the United States, it can also be the breeding ground for a great deal of misinformation or misperception as to the exact nature of this family name's relationship to the arts. Quite simply, the broadest generalization one should make about the de Thouars "Family", is that Silat Serak® was brought to the United States by two of them, passed down from the senior practitioners of the de Vries family starting with their grand father Johan de Vries, to which the de Thouars are blood relatives. 

For years, Paul and Victor de Thouars were exponents and practitioners of Serak® , and only Serak® , in the US.  Maurice de Thouars was and is an exclusive practitioner of Serak® in Holland.

Yes, the Brothers have convened from time to time over the years to promote the "family" arts, and these get-togethers have included the subsystems of Tongkat, Bukti Negara, (each an exclusive and direct derivative of Serak® ) and other eclectic systems and derivations, but over the past 50 years or so the name de Thouars has most widely been associated with Serak® .

 The Brothers in the United States today have little in common other than their surname and martial history.  Ma Ha Guru “Pak Vicâ€? has no other affiliations with other de Thouars brothers, and hasn't had for years now.   As his students we do not concern ourselves or comment on such matters, except to clarify what our organization the International VDT Academy does focus on, which is progressing in and continuing Pukulan Pentjak Silat Serak® .

       We do not believe we have ever seen posted, a sweeping generalization on the de Thouars "family art" to the rec.martial.arts newsgroup, by a legitimate Serak® practitioner. It has been years since it was appropriate or meaningful to lump the brothers' martial teachings together as the same group.  Most distinguished Serak® people are training, not typing!  Our International VDT Academy lineage from Pak Vic s in the "Family" of Pak Sera, Mas Roen and Pak Tisari Mardjoeki!

Selamat!

“The Gods of Mt. Olympus�

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