Laos and Cambodia?

[krys]

many Indochinese and Indonesian and Filipino systems are heavily influenced by kung fu (the "kuntao" systems)

Hello Arnisador, I would not say many Filipino systems were influenced by chinese martial arts.... there are some kuntao styles, but these arts are more cma influenced by silat....
and there also are some local wushu styles that were influenced by escrima.


Returning to the question of the thread there is silat in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam...

I once met a skilled cambodian who learned a style called "lobok tao" (forgive my spelling), it was a local form of sylat using clawing techniques.....

Mabuhay ang filipino Silat at Arnis.

 

[arnisador]

Clawing techniques? Like Tiger-style?

 

[krys]

I don't know about tiger style, this cambodian was actually learning setia hati with me (very good pesilat).
He showed me some jumping motions associated with strikes using claw like fingers.
There were lots squeezes.
Once he also used some movements of a crocodile.....

This guy learned another system with famous cambodian cattle rustler :knive,stick and sword but I forgot the name......

Mabuhay ang filipino Silat at Arnis.

 

[arnisador]

Does anyone know any other Laotian or Cambodian martial arts?

 

[ThaiBoxingGear]

I don't know much about Laos. I've been there many times but have never seen any sort of martial arts gym or school. I have also been to Cambodia many, many times (about 30) and have watched some fights there.

Cambodian's call their art Traditional Khmer Boxing or Muay Boran. They take great offense at having their art referred to as Muay Thai. The Thai's and the Cambodian's don't like each other very much and quite frankly I don't know who to believe. I will call it Muay Thai while in Thailand and Muay Boran while in Cambodia, simple.

I just came back from Cambodia a few days ago and was one of three Barang (foreigners) allowed into a Cambodian TV station to watch a show there. It was free, we got to sit ringside and I took some pictures and also got some video clips. All are shown below...
Clip 1
Clip 2
Clip 3

 

[arnisador]

Yes, I had heard that they called it Khmer Boxing and were sensitive about the issue!

 

[ThaiBoxingGear]

I left out the N in boxing.

The links should be:

CLIP 1

CLIP 2

CLIP 3

 

[blackdiamondcobra]

Cambodian kickboxing would never be referred to as Muay Boran(which means old or ancient boxing in Thai and mostly refers to bare knuckle arts). Alot of people are used to the way the thais call these arts like Muay Pama(Burmese boxing), Muay Lai Lao(Laotian Boxing), Muay Khmer(Khmer boxing) and call them by these thai names. You will hear the Cambodians call it Pradal Serei or free boxing(Khmer free boxing). The official Khmer name is Kbach Kun Pradal Khmer. I spent alot of time training in Cambodia and this is the way they were always called in my presence.

In regards to the tiger style of fighting, there are variants of this in southern laos, cambodia and burma. In southern burma and southern laos, there are certain tiger styles that go into deep trances and become impervious to pain,etc. The tiger work in the older styles like bare knuckle is subtler. Lets say you have a one hand neck tie up and the other on the bicep controlling the free arm, the hand on the bicep will literally claw right into it. Its a sudden explosive, unexpected move as they simultaneously begin kneeing you. They work the clawing and ripping within the fundamental bare knuckle fighitng structure as well as changing elevation quickly.

 

[ThaiBoxingGear]

I have only ever heard it referred to as Muay Khmer, Muay Boran and Khmer Boxing in all my times there. Perhaps the people who I have spoken with were not as knowledgable as those you were training with but I do know that I've heard all of the terms I stated as well as Cambodian Kickboxing.

 

[blackdiamondcobra]

It's puzzling to me why they would use Muay Boran. But nonetheless I take your word for it if you indeed heard it. I went and videotaped and photographed alot of the weekend fights as a guest of the sports authority there and the people in the audience had alot to say about everything under the sun so I imagine virtually anything could up name wise.

I forgot to mention that silat itself is taught in burma, cambodia, thailand. I met at least one teacher in each place.

 

[krys]

I saw silat in Thailand and heard about in Cambodia, what kind of silat was it in Burma? Local silat?

 

[blackdiamondcobra]

One silat system I saw in Burma was malay silat. The other was a more of a mix with indigenous systems and that was in the south. The third I saw was the government sponsored form of silat which has the generic training format country to country and that was in the main training compound where they taught many different styles from japanese to chinese wu shu. Likewise I saw a couple of different variants like above in Vietnam.

 

[arnisador]

There's an article in this month's Journal of Asian Martial Arts on Leth Wei (Burma) and Khun Khmer Boran (Cambodia).

 

[brokenbonz]

One silat system I saw in Burma was malay silat. The other was a more of a mix with indigenous systems and that was in the south. The third I saw was the government sponsored form of silat which has the generic training format country to country and that was in the main training compound where they taught many different styles from japanese to chinese wu shu. Likewise I saw a couple of different variants like above in Vietnam.

could you tell us a bit about some lesser known indigenous systems in Myanmar? I heard something like "arakan", does it ring a bell?

 

[Ellis Amdur]

Donn Draeger informed me that he'd seen some very strong silat in the Kra Penninsula of Thailand in the 1970's.

Ellis Amdur

 

[PhilDunlap]

The Rakhine state also known as Arakan is a coastal area of Burma and has their fighters have and indigenous flavor but I have only heard of a system called Arakan in refering to a group in Australia and not in Burma itself

 

[blackdiamondcobra]

Yes, it would be an arakanese system from arakan but what system is it thaing, lethwei, naban....it would be named more distinctly beyond arakan or arakanese.

 

[PhilDunlap]

Vinny this is the link for the Arakan guys in Australia I really don't kow anything about them other than the contact I had with one of them had my BS meter going crazy

http://www.arakan.com.au/

Hope all is well with you how is the book coming

 

[brokenbonz]

I hear a lot about chinese system transplanted in other countries such as in indonesia, malaysia, borneo and the filippines with kuntaw/or kuntao and in Viet-nam with sino-viet styles, did anything of that sort evolved in countries like Thailand, Burma, Laos and Cambodia? Does anybody have any specifics to either chinese or indian influenced styles in those countries?

thanx,
Mauro