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The Winds of Serak®

Part I

By V.I.C. de Thouars

 The Winds of Serak, ah yes, the force of a tornado that can be so hard, that it is said, that want to-be’s Serak words are written from shelters. Same as, not knowing about a recipe, and pretending to know about what is in the stew pot.

And so it can be about many of things, written information that can be found.

And for sure, and when it is done within the bounds of the knowledge of their own page and martial art style, invented (founder of an art), real or otherwise is great. Somewhere in a paragraph between the pages of their information other then my own, “The Winds of Serak” are the written down. You know how true the words are of Pendekar Paul my older brother. On many of occasions, when he was in his teaching mode mentioned to me; “vele mensen horen de klok luiden, maar weten niet waar de lepel is.” Translation in English:

"Many can hear the big bell sound, and yet they do not know on which side the bell striker strikes".

And those words still ring as clear as a bell in my ears, and to look for it in the future that the name of Silat Serak will have many of  "Winds of Serak".

 This mentioned, by all who are not knowing the system or suppose to know Silat Serak, and only pretend to know what Serak and it's foundation is. Many have seen Serak through a curtain and some even lived with Pendekar Paul in their youth. They smell the Winds of Serak and try to interject their thought into writings that can be surmised as a truth. For sure they do not have the music of Silat Serak in their ears, let alone professing and claiming to know the foundation and heritage of Bapak Sera, the Founder of Silat Sera-Serak and the innovator of Silat Sera Mas Djut.

 Well for a certainty, it becomes a tiring affaire, is it also true when ever you are at the start as many of us were in the early days, later folks will sling arrows and spears at your style or manners that one may have. For a certainty that prediction and future is here. 

 While it is very true that the Badui people within their laws and culture are peace-ful and also do not eat meat, and are really a closed society. One famous writer could not get an edge in, and fell upon silence, when he started to probe about what they do. It is also written that they do not eat any meat that is also true for the majority of the year. But once a year they do eat meat, this according to writers that have been able to punch through the silence. And of course they do not carry any blades or Sunda Keris blades right?…….Not!!

 That is farthest from the truth, a peaceful man or woman whose life is threatened and driven to the end of endurance will strike back to protect their existence to live.

“Its called the preservation of thy own life”.

 For a certainty Baduis are held at awe by common Javanese and politicians for their clairvoyant powers. They also predicted both world wars. And for well over 400 years they have isolated themselves. It is not that they are unaware of the modern ways, certainly not.

 Their laws are very strict, forbidden to kill, steal, lie or commit adultery. Even as in the early years of the 1800, within their law structure no one was allowed from their encampment to leave their jungle area. But for a certainty now Badui men are observed in the streets of Bandung and in the Capital of Indonesia, Jakarta. It is for a certainty that all of a sudden all the Baduis are grouped as one body of people. Yea! Right.  And since it is all compiling all in one or people lets all accumulate all of the US in to one body and commune right…….Not!!!!!  Does the US also not have laws that forbids us to steal and commit murder? You bet we do, but lets look at the crime statistics. And see a day in Los Angeles. Or in any of the Cities of the world.

 Historical records that are written down can easily be traced, and it should be to every reader’s mission to search. If the reader really wants to know to find these things out by themselves, other then reading about the Badui in WebPages.  Even this article. 

“Go search thyself, and believe thyself, and make sure of all the things”

Also in historical records in Indonesia as well as in the Netherlands, or even records in the library of congress, that in 1928 Dr. B. van Trich’t expedition, was a complete failure in gathering historical data from them. And also later attempts by nosy groups or persons.

  And also written that with uncertainty of their origins, some believe very strong that they could be from northern Banten, from the northern hills and speak the archaic language or dialect of Sunda the Badui now use. Or they could be descendants from the Sunda Kingdom of Pajaran near Batutulis. In 1579 invading Muslims destroyed the capital Pajajaran. This for a certainty pending whom in the region you can talk too. Many reasons why this could be is that most of history was kept by oral remembrance, and transferring through teachings and vocal gestures.

   As a Serak practitioner for my entire life and the founder of Silat Tongkat, find it disturbing that so much has been tried to be analyzed about Silat Sera-Serak and the founder is disturbing by non or otherwise Silat Sera-Serak practitioners, or by those professing to know, ……well know what?

So casual these words are written down by these non-Silat Serak people; "He was born in the 1800, in the city of Tjiribon". WebPages, that are so well done that when something is written, it can be accepted as the truth. And before long since it is on the Web, accepted as a truth.  Well these claims are farthest from the truth. In my years I have taught some of the beginnings of Silat Serak, and those folks have gone their own way, but none of these folks have even reach a one seventh of the system of Serak. Can these folks and former Murids now claim to posses the knowledge of Silat Serak or its founders, "I certainly do not believe so"

And even by folks who have practiced Silat Serak and become a known entity. Certainly not by Silat Serak standards nor mine, I knew that someday this day would come. Pendekar Paul developed Bukti Negara and myself developed Tongkat and O.D.F. for law enforcement. At the same time others have borrowed items from Serak and made it a widely known, and then making estimated guesses and claims about the founder of Sera-Serak, supposing to have heard the big secret,  even from Java itself. Like wow! That is very impressive, and even have endorsements to prove their integrity as representatives for the new waves of Silat.

Pendekar Paul de Thouars produced Bukti Negara and it has spread in abundance, that a well-known writer writes about the system Pendekar Paul created. A book title called Net Force by Tom Clancey and Steve Pieezenik.

The day, time and place of Mas Djut or his teacher Pak Sera are well stored.

Same as the information (letters) from Mr. Guru Besar William Reeders. He was in the same age bracket as my parents, and seen many of things as my mother and father. My father interned by the Japanese during WWII, and my mom making ends meet with five boys to take care of. And for a certainty they have seen many things in front of their eyes. And for sure believe them before I would believe anyone that has come after them, or most folks born after 1934. So it takes a lot of searching for writings if those sources are not available. Pendekar Paul also saw many of things and remembered the man Djut when he was a boy. Also too mentioned my parents when they remembered Djut and my uncles John and Ernis.

I asked my mom in the beginning of 1980 what Mas Djut was like when she had seen him training with my Uncles - now here is a woman that endured many of hardship as well as tribulations. She mentioned to me; “Hij is een enge persoon, en een vorse kerel dat goet pentjak Serak kan spelen. Hij (Mas Djut) droeg altijd vreemde kleren, niet zo als de gewone mensen.”

“He is a scary person, with a strong posture, who practiced Silat Serak very good. And he always wore strange clothing, not normal to the regular folks.”

For a certainty, also Pendekar Paul, feels that he learned it from the old days and so still hold on to the same old spelling of “Pentjak” and not Pencak.

The older folks do not even take the new spelling to hart and changing the “TJ” for “C” or “DJ” for “J”. Look at a map from Java, were street names are use or Cities.

The DJ is still prevalent.

Many make assumptions, and there is a saying what ASS-U-M(ptions) stands for.

And for a certainty, some folks could have heard and even learned now today on modern Java, Pencak Silat. Many Indonesian students that I encountered in Ames Iowa, as recent as in 1997 and in the early parts of 1998. These students study at the University of Iowa. They enjoyed their day with me when I gave a one-day Silat Sera-Serak seminar. Three of the many of students  were from the Tjiandjur (Cianjur), namely Charis Arief, he mentioned that his parents moved to Surabaya. After his graduation in 1997 that he would travel where his parents would be. The other two were brothers and sister, Monty and Juliani Yaputra. Juliani mentioned that she participated in the IPSI tournaments, and she “Juliani” practiced Tjimande and she wrote it out in the new spelling “Cimande”.  She told me my spelling was the old spelling and is no longer used in the Bahasa Indonesia. With that I replied that I learned the old way from Java, and also that my Guru used the old spelling and bound to do so. And she understood then why.

Request I made from her to show her Tjimande, and she did some latihan and her Tjimande Djurus and several langka’s. Her Djurus were done with pinpoint precision.

When she saw the Djurus from Silat Sera-Serak, she was very much taken by them and mentioned to me that those Djurus must have have come from the earlier days before her time. She also mentioned that she saw the same djurus performed by a very old Pendekar from a Desa (Village) near the city of Lembang in West Java.  My Bahasa Indonesia was extremely rusty, but days after the seminar I spend a lot of time with the Indonesian students practicing my Bahasa. I still correspond with these fine folks as of today. For a certainty that their interest is in making a living with and using their education.

Silat to these students was on the bottom of their priority list, somewhat sad, but really understand their plight to have the peace and prosperity and build Indonesia.

I placed a letter on this page that is still classified, and only show the letter for information purpose. I blocked off vital information. Most likely this will be declassified in 2010 and including the remaining information, and not before.

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