Cipecut Silat Sarong: The Whip of Mande Muda

By Mike Young

The exotic system of cipecut silat is rarely found outside of its Indonesia birthplace. Developed in the early 1970s in the Cikalong village, the techniques of this art were refined to an exact science throughout the years.

Originally, Cipecut silat sarong was confined to techniques involving the three meter whip. Gradually over the years, however, its techniques came to include any practical, flexible weapon that had whip-like characteristics, including loose clothing, towels, belts, sarong waist cloths, men’s ties, and even fanny packs. These items could be modified into formidable and even lethal weapons under a trained practitioner of cipecut silat. In fact, I witnessed a person’s wrist being broken during a cipecut demonstration while a master improvised cipecut techniques with the flexible belt-portion of a fanny pack!

Cipecut silat techniques include lethal whipping and choking maneuvers. How can all of these techniques be done with a flexible weapon, you might ask? Like all effective martial arts techniques which remain in use today, only the most effective combat techniques were taught when one’s life may depend on it. Thus, a complex system of strikes and leverage locks has proven cipecut silat victorious in heated combat.

The primary strategy of cipecut silat is to first throw an opponent off balance with a long extended strike with the flexible weapon. Such a strike is usually directed to a vital region on an opponent’s body, the eyes and groin being the most favored. Once a strike is deployed, a cipecut practitioner will go for a lock or a choke technique to subdue or finish- off his opponent.

Uyun Suwanda, the creator of maenpo mande muda silat, adapted the cipecut silat techniques to a complex and unique system employing the sole use of the Indonesian sarong (waist cloth) for combat.

The Indonesian sarong is worn by Indonesians in everyday life as clothing and uniforms, it is used for carrying items and even used as a blanket. Since most Indonesians generally have a sarong nearby, Uyun Suwanda saw the practicality of developing an effective self-defense system based on its use.

After fifty years of refinement, Uyun’s son, Herman Suwanda, became the sole inheritor of the maenpo mande muda system, and is the only person currently teaching true cipecut silat sarong techiniques in the world.

The basics of the cipecut silat sarong techniques begin with the practitioner trying to catch an opponent’s hand with the sarong. If the practitioner is successful in doing this, he then tries to apply a locking technique to his opponent with the sarong.

Once the practitioner feels comfortable with applying locks with the sarong, they then learn a series of choking techniques. The pinnacle of sarong technique seems to be that if you can catch one’s hand with the sarong and wait to trap the other, you will then have the opponent subdued, as if wearing handcuffs.

As the cipecut silat sarong practitioner becomes proficient with the sarong, he is eventually taught how to strike with it with devastating effect and quickly lock and subdue the opponent. For street effectiveness, a sarong the use of a wet sarong is taught, as water weight increases the striking effectiveness of the waist cloth. In fact, some practitioners of the system will even go so far as to place rocks, needles, or a knife within the sarong when dealing with a life or death situation, this is an attempt to increase the effectiveness of the sarong’s strike.

I was also told a story of a cipecut silat sarong practitioner answering a challenge match with a practitioner from another silat system. Since the cipecut silat practitioner was previously beaten by this very opponent, he added a few items to his sarong to insure victory. The sarong was treated with hot chili pepper,sticky rice ( to hold the pepper to the cloth), and a medium-sized rock. In short, the fight lasted less than five seconds, as the challenger felt the rock crash against his head. Talk about improvision!

There are virtually thousands of cipecut silat sarong techniques that can be improvised. The secret is to just practice them over and over until the techniques become second nature. There are no forms or complex footwork to follow, just one-on-one practice of specific sarong techniques.

To close, Pendakar Herman Suwanda relates that, “All one has to do is to learn one technique well, and the rest of the techniques will eventually fall into place.”

This  This article originally appeared in the February 1998 issue of Martial Arts Legends: Exotic Martial Arts Around The World