Filipino Martial Arts News Article and History

[rainfall]

Samuel,

Thanks for the info!

I hope you have an OCR program. If not, we should all pitch in to treat your soon to develop RSI.

:)

[SCO]

http://cebueskrima.s5.com/custom2.html

http://vikingsword.com/rila/krieger.html

[Freddy]

Originally posted by DANINJA
Kali is also the name of a hindu god(i think) -is there some possible indian influence?

No theres no connection.

Kali is an East Indian Goddess (in particular "The Misstress of the Grave Yard")

[Samuel Browning]

Freddy mentioned the Moros as a group possibly similar to the Chinese Boxers. I don't know how well the comparison holds yet. I did look up the Moros in Stanley Karnow's Book "In Our Image: America's Empire In the Philippines (Ballantine Books, New York, 1989) and on p. 194 he provides the following paragraph which I have broken up. prior to this quote Karnow was commenting on the official end of hostilities in the Philippine rebellion which had lasted from 1899 until 1902. During this time the U.S. government which had seized the Philippines from Spain decided to take over this territory and when the locals objected, waged a brutal counter-insurgency campaign during which up to 200,000 civilians died from starvation and other causes.

"But the American conquest of the Philippines was not to be completed for a decade. The Dios-Dios sect on Samar went on harassing isolated U.S. garrisons. On Luzon, aboriginal tribes also defied submission, periodically staging head-hunting campaigns and their Filipino auxiliaries. The most obdurate resistance meanwhile came from the Muslims of Mindanao and the other southern islands. The Spanish had named them the Moros because of their resemblance to the Moors of North Africa even though they represented a dozen or so ethnic groups--each led by a local sultan or self styled profit. Dressed in gaudy turbans and embroidered vests, they launched massive attacks, waving spears and knives, and shouting bloodcurdling cries.

Two senior U.S. soldiers gained distinction in the fight against them. Brigadier General Leonard Wood, a Harvard Medical School graduate, had been Roosevelt's superior as commander of the Rough Riders in Cuba and later became governor of the Philippines. John J. Pershing had been promoted by Roosevelt from captain to brigadier general over nearly nine hundred officers after his first battles with the Moros. He returned to administer the region, crushing a large Moro movement in a bloody fight waged in 1913 on the slopes of a valcano--and subsequently commanded the American Expeditionary Force in Europe during World War I. Moro dissidents continued to struggle against the infidels for years, and their heirs are striving to this day to establish an autonomous state."

I also looked at my copy of Colonel Louis A. La Garde's book "Gunshot Injuries: How They are inflicted, Their Complications and Treatment 2nd revised ed (Wm. Wood and Co., New York, 1916), reprint by Lancer Militaria, 1991. All page numbers are from the 1991 reprint.

Anyway Col La Garde was a doctor for the U.S. army during the era of the Philipines campaign and says: "Our own officers have repeatedly reported in a similar way against the effectiveness of the Krag-Jorgennsen bullet in the Philippine Campaigns. Colonel Winter and Captain McAndrew, Medical Corps, U.S.A., have related the following incident to the author which bears upon the failure of stopping power of our service rifle. [the Krag-Jorgensen Rifle] In 1907 a Moro charged the guard at Jolo, P.I. When he was within 100 yards, the entire guard opened fire on him. When he reached within 5 yards of the firing party he stumbled and fell and while in the prone position a trumpeter killed him by shooting through the head with aa .45-caliber Colt's revolver. There were ten wounds in his body from the service rifle. Three of the wounds were located in the chest, one in the abdomen and the remainder had taken effect in the extremities. There were no bones broken." (pp. 68-69)

Later on the same page the Colonel mentioned that "the stopping power of our .38-caliber Colt's revolver had failed us on numerous occasions in the Philippines and elsewhere" which resulted in his being appointed to a board in 1904 to evaluate other pistol calibers for army use. This board recommended the army adopt a pistol caliber not smaller then .45 which eventually took place. La Garde also printed a picture and account of a prisoner captured on the Island of Samar, P.I. who had survived being shot in the chest three times with a colt .38 cal revolver and had to be stunned into submission with the blow from a rifle butt to the forehead. (p. 70)

La Garde also wrote: "At war with savage tribes or a fanatical enemy, a military man seeks to arm his soldiers with a rifle that delivers projectiles with telling effect. A fantic like a Moro wielding a bolo in each hand who advances with leaps and bounds and who never knows when he is hit until he is shot down must be hit with a projectile having a maximum amount of stopping power." (p. 68)

Finally La Garde mentions that the British had experienced similar trouble with rifle stopping power during the Wizirestan Chitral expeditions of 1895 and shortly thereafter where "Many of the enemy in these two campaigns continued to advance and fight after the receipt of from one to six wounds by Lee-Metford bullets." (p. 68) Our military readers might be interested to know that Wizirestan is a location in Pakastan's tribal belt just across from Afganistan and that based on comments to be found on David Hackworth's military website, American troops are also complaining about the stopping power of their pistols and rifles in Afganistan.

[Freddy]

So much for the 9mm caliber bullet. I go with the .45

[Samuel Browning]

Some more good stuff from Stanley Karnow's Book "In Our Image: America's Empire In the Philippines (Ballantine Books, New York, 1989) on p. 178 the author recounts a real ultimate power moment.

"Sergeant Herbert O. Kohr recalled an incident one Sunday in the Luzon town of Nueva Caceres, where a farmer peddling eggs approached an American sentry playing solitaire. Before the sentry could look up, the peasant severed his head from his body with a bolo and escaped."

[There was no indication in the record, i.e. Robert Hamburger, that any air guitar was played before this attack.]

Onward to the Dios-Dios Sect.

"Samar, the first land sighed by Magellan as he neared the Philippines in the sixteenth century, is the third largest island in the chain, and among the wildest even to this day. Its interior, still largely unmapped, is a rugged terrain of jungle-clad hills, with no roads and few trails. General Vicente Lukban, a rotund man in his fifties, had gone there late in 1898 with a hundred armed followers, announcing himself Aguinaldo's governor [At the time Aguinaldo was leading the fight for Philippino independance] The scion of a rich Chinese mestizo family from Luzon, he cemented an alliance with the leaders of the Dios-Dios, a religious sect. He won their confidence by executing the local Spanish friars, who had branded the movement heretical. [The Spanish who had ruled the Phillippines before the Americans used the friars as agents of their administration.]

The cult, which dressed in red, had been founded years before by a self-styled messiah, who inspired his disciples with the promise of eternity in a golden heaven. They were fearless fighters, convinced that their anting antings, or amulets, rendered them invincible. Twirling huge knives, they would charge in suicidal waves -- like 'breakers dashing against the rocks,' recalled one American soldier who had faced one of their assaults. Lukban employed them as spies, and encouraged their cruelties against real or imagined traitors. One of their punishments for a native suspected of pro-American sentiments was to turban his head in a U.S. flag soaked in kerosene, set it aflame and mutilate his corpse. As a warning, they staged the spectacle before the victim's fellow villagers.

American troops first landed on Samar in early 1901, setting up coastal outposts as Lukban prudently retreated inland. In August, a company of seventy-four U.S. officers and men arrived at Balangiga, a town on the south side of the island. The men carried Krag-Jorgensens and the officers Colt forty-fives, a powerful [single action] revolver of Indian war vintage recently reissued as the only weapon capable of stopping a fanatic in close combat. One soldier, noting the two hundred nipa huts clusted around a flanking church and a mildewed town hall, remarked: 'Boys, we're really in guguland for sure now." (p. 189)

[Note: the American troops often referred to the Philippinos as gugus, or googoos which was the equivelent of calling a black person a 'nigger', when the American troops first arrived in the Phillipines they habitually used the N word to refer to the locals until the former term was developed. For part of this background see Karnow, p. 154]

Anyway back to Balangiga, "On September 26, [1901] a boat brought the Americans mail from home along with their first news of [President] McKinley's assassination. Connell [an Army Captain] ordered a mass for the president to be held at the church on Sunday, two days hence. He was puzzled [end of page 189] by the numbers of native women from nearby areas entering the church bearing coffins that they claimed, contained the bodies of children who had perished in a cholera epidemic. Had his sentries investigated, they would have found the coffins to be filled with bolos -- and the mourning woman to be men. . . Most of the Americans awoke before reveille on that sultry Sunday morning to reread their mail. At six o'clock as the bugler sounded mess call, they straggled across the town square to the tents where the company cooks were serving breakfast. Twenty minutes later, it happened.

Only three American sentries were on duty. The local police chief, stopping to chat with one of them, suddenly seized his rifle and fired a signal shot. The church bells then pealed crazily, and the natives appeared from everywhere, brandishing bolos, picks, and shovels. Rushing into the mess tent, they decapitated a sergeant -- leaving him, as one of his buddies recollected, 'leaning forward with a spoon clutched in his hand . . . his head lying on the table.' They pitched another soldier into a barrel of boiling water as he washed his utensils. Screaming and slashing, they stormed the huts that lodged some of the U.S. troops. A survivor later recalled the sight of one man 'bleeding from a gaping wound on his forehead, sitting bolt upright on a ladder in front of our shack dying,' as another crawled 'on his hands and feet like a stabbed pig, his brains falling out from a head wound.

Guided by [the town's mayor], a group of natives invaded the convent adjacent to the church, which also had served as a barracks. After killing two officers in their beds, they crashed into [Captain] Connell's room, where he had been reading his breviary. He leaped from the window and ran, only to be chopped to ribbons by a howling gang. . . . The unarmed Americans fought back desperately with everything from baseball bats to rocks, and a cook fended off his assailants by hurling cans of beans at them." (p. 190)

With only thirty six men left alive out of an original company of seventy four, a surviving Sergeant named Frank Betron organized a retreat. Most of the thirty five men who escaped by boat were wounded, with seven soldiers dying enroute to the next American garrison, and another eight dying from their wounds once they reached the American hospital. Only twenty American troops survived of the orginal seventy four soldiers who had been attacked with mostly sharp force weapons. When the Americans organized a return to the village they found "Their dead comrades had been mutilated beyond belief". (p. 191)

The American general in charge, one Brigadier General Jacob Smith sent four companies to Samar under the following directions that were given to its leader, Major Littleton Waller.

"'I want no prisoners, I wish you to kill and burn, the more you kill and burn the better you will please me. I want all persons killed who are capable of bearing arms in actual hostilities against the United States.' Waller, a scrupulous professional, asked Smith to define an age limit. 'Ten years.' replied Smith. Waller pressed for clarification. 'Persons of ten years and older are those designated as being capable of bearing arms?' 'Yes,' responded Smith." (p. 191)

Waller went forth and did his best to turn Samar into a 'howling wilderness' resulting in later Senate hearings on who had given the order to gun down children as young as ten years old. Waller would eventually reveal Smith's directives to him, while being court martialed, Smith his superior was allowed to retire without receiving any more then a slap on the wrist. (pp. 191-194). Waller was acquitted on what can be summarized as a following orders defense.

[SCO]

http://www.defend.net/deluxeforums/showthread.php?t=12226
http://home.earthlink.net/~federicomalibago/moroweapons.html

[GRaMLyTZ]

If memory serves me right , Pigaffeta painted what he thought happened in the shores of Mactan . I myself havent read any history books saying he was actually there ( who knows he was actually there ) but from accounts of relayed stories by the defeated men of Ferdinand Magellan , he got the idea of relaying the incident again thru painting .

Kris to my surprise , I stand corrected on my comment on what Kali Pula used on Magellan when I asked my good friends from Maranao in Mindanao about the history of the legendary double bladed sword . It was only used in the islands of MIndanao to protect from foreign invasions and what Kali Pula aka Lapu Lapu used was actually SUNDANG or PINUTI . It is a sword about 50 inches long .

COmmonsense wise , magellan wont die from the stick attacks for as what history tells , Magellans troops wore metal armor . The only thing than can penetrate that is the sword itself .

[~$G$~]

Originally posted by Kungfoolss
Steeped in Filipino history, warrior tactics find modern application

July 10, 2003


http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Jul/07102003/images/fea_kali.jpg


Salt Lake Police officer Jared Wihongi has a special weapon when it comes to apprehending suspects. It is not his training from the police academy, but his expertise in a martial art once deemed so dangerous that the Spaniards banned it for 400 years. Wihongi is one of many to discover a modern use for the ancient warrior arts of the Philippines. More commonly known as Kali, Arnis, and Escrima, the Filipino martial arts have a long history of secrecy and evolution. Wihongi constantly uses techniques from Kali on the job.

"The Filipino martial arts are some of the best suited martial arts for police officers. I have utilized techniques frequently on the job. More than anything though, I think the confidence that I have gained from training in Kali has been my biggest protection. People you deal with on the street can feel whether you are confident, afraid or overcompensating for a lack of confidence. Seasoned criminals will exploit your weaknesses," he said. Used by Filipino warriors for centuries to defend themselves from foreign enemies, the warrior arts are a time-honored and cherished tradition of the culture. Before Spain's colonial rule over the Philippines, indigenous people have been practicing and perfecting sword-fighting. It was not until the death of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan at the hands of the sword-wielding Filipino warrior Lapu-Lapu that the world got its first glimpse of this deadly art. As a result, the Spaniards banned the practice of the earliest form of the ancient art, Kali, from the entire archipelago for 400 years. Any written records of the origin were destroyed. But the art survived as Filipinos continued to practice Kali in secret.


ltanglao@sltrib.com

http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Jul/07102003/thursday/73948.asp


Man! I know Jared...he's a cool cat, even though he's a cop, he's one of the nicest and most personable people I know! I think he trains over at Evolution martial arts in Sandy...or Ogden, can't remember. But, he had Grand Tuhons Jerson and Nene Tortal from the Dikiti Tirsia system in to train with us straight from Manilla for a seminar once...man...it was breathe taking!
Seriously...I love these Utah guys...we might not all see each other alot, but...we have some seriously good times...I mean, how often does a chance like that come along....I'm just pissed because I missed the Leo Gaje seminar he had...I was too busy being a shit.

[SCO]

$G$,
does your posting contribute something to the discusssion of the history of FMA?
What`s the long quotation good for?
If you feel it`s impossible for you to suppress your urge to assure your legitimacy through namedropping, it would still be nice if you do so elsewhere.
Thanks.

[~$G$~]

ok...here's where you can find a link to the history of the dikiti tirsia system.
www.pekiti-tirsia.net

also this week, an indigenous stick fighting competition.

[JKDChick]

I'm surprised this got past me the first time, but that whole article bugs me because of this sentence:

Since Indonesian pencak-silat and Malaysian langka-silat predate Filipino kali as martial arts in the Philippines

What's the proof of this?

[~$G$~]

I was under the impression that Kali was the old martial art of the whole Mahaphat (I can't spell, sorry, I'm retarded) Empire, and all of the other arts had evolved from this. It means Kamut Lihook, right?
I'm trying to remember all this shit people said, and it's getting mixed up, what would be interesting to know is how Chris Sayoc was influenced by Gaje.

[SCO]

Just leave it.
It`s better for everyone.

[GRaMLyTZ]

Originally posted by JKDChick
I'm surprised this got past me the first time, but that whole article bugs me because of this sentence:



What's the proof of this?

Probably ancestors of the FIlipinos are the Negritos/Pygmies , INdonesians , Malayans . Whatever was found in some form of culture , art , history , lifestyle , FAM has something to do with 2 latter whom influenced much on the styles like the ESCRIMA , KALI , PANUNTUKAN , ESPADA y DAGA .

[~$G$~]

how does yaw yan differ from sikarot (sp?) or panatucan boxing?