Sabtu, Januari 23, 2010

Historical Background of Lian Padukan

The man responsible for bringing the art from Yunnan Province in China to the Malay states was called Syed Abdul Rahman Al-Yunani. A Chinese Moslem with Arab blood he came to Singapore in 1836 perhaps to work or trade.

What did happen, however, was that after he had settled in Singapore he came to the attention of the Sultan of Johor. This came about when he got involved in a dispute with a rickshaw-puller. What started as an argument soon turned into a full-blooded fight with Syed Abdul taking on not just one rickshaw man but six! That he trounced all six was evidence of the extremely high level of martial arts skill that he had acquired but what was truly amazing was that at the time he was already old with some reports stating his age as being more than eighty.

It is hardly surprising then that the Sultan came to hear of this amazing old man. Wanting to assess the veracity of these stories for himself the Sultan sent his two most highly-skilled bodyguards over to Singapore to test the veteran fighter. When they too were trounced Syed was recruited to come and live in the Sultan's palace and teach member of the Royal Household.

This palace was located in Mersing and it was here that the art spread amongst the local people gaining a reputation as an effective fighting art. Here it became known as Buah Pukul Mersing.
The art in its current form has been standardised and organised by the Head Teacher Haji Mohd. Hasyim of Johor Bahru. Haji Hasyim has taken the myriad of forms and techniques that constituted the art he was taught by his teacher and synthesised them into just twenty forms, divided into five levels.

Reference: Silat Warrior. Issue Autumn 2001

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