Cikalong Influence in Pukulan Cimande Pusaka by Ted Walls

Ted is an Anthropological student doing his Thesis on indigenous shamanistic inhabitants of Russia.

Cikalong is an art which was created and practiced by the Sundanese aristocracy (The Menat) of Cianjur. These were high-caste personages. When entering their presence, ordinary people had to bow their heads, crawl on their knees, and never touch them.

This art was created as a synthesis of Cimande together with the Silat of two Pendekars, Mas Kari and Mas Madi. The originator, Raden Jayaperbata (Later known as Raden Haji Ibrahim after a pilgrimage to Mecca) was a master of Cimande Kampung Baru, and a descendant of a long line of rulers of Cinajur. After learning from these three primary sources and a variety of other ones, he retired to the forest for a three year spiritual retreat, and during this time came up with the synthesis which he called Cikalong.

It is worth noting that the modern leaders of Cikalong acknowledge a Chinese influence as well, and Cikalong does strongly resemble Tai Chi at several points.

Cimande was already well known by the Cianjur aristocracy, as Embah Kahir himself was the official full time Silat Guru of the royal courts there for many years (until 1813) before his retirement to Tarik Kolot. Indeed, Kahir taught only his sons, and the aristocrats of Cianjur, making Cimande originally a royal art. So Cimande and Cikalong are actually related arts which took different paths of development.

Cimande became known among many classes of people, due to the widespread teaching of Kahir’s sons. But Cikalong, on the other hand, remained within the aristocracy, and was taught only to close family members.

In addition to the traditional Cimande of Tarik Kolot, Mas Jud, as told by his living relatives, studied Cikalong, most probably from Bapak Karta. It is possible that Mas Jud himself was of Menat ancestry. Pictures of him seem to confirm a resemblance with other aristocrats. As a result, the Pukulan Cimande passed down from Guru Wetzel has may features not found in modern Cimande, but found clearly in Cikalong. It seems to have been the goal of Mas Jud to use the five animal styles as a framework to integrate his favorite concepts from the two arts. The most pronounced Cikalong features in Pukulan cimande Pusaka are:

- Emphasis on sensitivity. Whereas Cimande seeks to condition the forearms with continuous hitting, Cikalong shuns this practice in favor of developing sensitivity in the arms. In fact, Cikalong (and Pukulan Cimande Pusaka) trains three levels of sensitivity:

1. Rasa Antel (physical touch). This is when we can feel what the opponent is doing merely by having contact with any part of his body. His movements and intentions are telegraphed, and it becomes possible to negate the force used by the opponent. Pukulan Cimande Pusaka trains this with the forearm sensitivity drill, which comes directly from Cikalong. This training is often done blindfolded. It is also why our art sticks to the opponent once contact is made, and punches follow the arm up to the head.

2. Rasa Anggang (remote sensitivity). This is when we can feel and react to an opponent’s movements from a distance. We do this to control the distance, and maneuver ourselves to a position of advantage. This is found in Pukulan Cimande Pusaka as the circle drill, where opponents must mirror the movements of the other. It is also performed blindfolded. This practice is also found in our Ilmu, when we practice projecting our awareness into an object to create a sympathetic connection to it.

3. Rasa Sinas (pre-sentiment). At this advanced level, one becomes aware of events before they manifest.

-Emphasis on Manipulating the Opponent. Cikalong actively uses “fishing techniques” (pancingan) in order to get the opponents to commit to attacking in a certain way. PCP also does this, by means of draw movements, indirect hitting, and footwork. In both arts there is also the use of angles and checking the opponent, to close off their means of attacking. In Cikalong this is called numpang kalawan.

- Emphasis on Grappling and sweeps. The goal of Cikalong is to break the opponent’s limbs, destroy their balance, and slam them onto the ground. This is done by flowing into breaking/grappling moves, and once the limbs are immobilized, the opponent is swept to the ground with either a sweep or strategic front kick. The style uses breaks (rerikesan), pushes (susungan), and locks (lipatan). We find the same strategy in Pukulan Cimande Pusaka, where various animal styles grab the opponent in a breaking fashion, then sweep him to a damaging fall. In both styles, we do not grab the opponent forcefully, because this would be a strength/strength contest, but hold loosely except for key instants.

-Use of Poison Hands. Because it is a close-range system which relies on technique instead of strength, Cikalong uses a series of twisting, arcing blows which do not require the retraction of the attacking limb. Contact is maintained, not pulled back, and blows are re-directed into those vulnerable openings which we perceive with our sensitivity. This is exactly the same in Pukulan Cimande Pusaka. The in-close attacks are a series of fists, open hand and elbow techniques.

-Emphasis on hard against soft. Pukulan Cimande Pusaka students are taught from the very beginning the principle that our hard bones are used against the opponent’s soft areas. This is also a vital principle inherited from Cikalong. In Cikalong, hard elbows and fists are used to attack soft targets, whereas softer parts of ourselves such as hammer fist and palm heel, are used to attack bones such as the head or jaw (only the face and eyes are soft). This requires a greater degree of technical sophistication. It also requires a certain degree of anatomical knowledge, the location of nerves and vulnerable areas.

-Use of whipping movements. Because the style is close-range and requires power from short blows, there is a special whipping body dynamic, a writhing looseness which can suddenly transfer its energy with momentary hardness.

All of these factors change the way we perform kelids, throws, drills and other things from Cimande. It would not be inappropriate to say that in the Mas Jud arts, Cimande is re-connected with its aristocratic roots. When this knowledge is combined with the devastating variety of the animal systems, the genius of Mas Jud begins to emerge. He managed to integrate the best of all three currents in a logical, understandable way.