Majapahit Martial Arts (Inosanto Academy)

Majapahit Martial Arts

Southeast Asian Martial Arts Program of the Inosanto Academy

The Majapahit Martial Arts program of the Inosanto Academy encompasses the many Southeast Asian martial arts taught by Guro Dan Inosanto at the Inosanto Academy that are not taught within their own dedicated stream (e.g. Lacoste/Inosanto Kali, Muay Thai, Jun Fan/JKD). Guro Dan regularly references and teaches from this wide range of arts that he has mastered and incorporated into this program.

These include systems from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, the Philippines, Vietnam and elsewhere.  Some of the best known of those arts include:

  • Filipino martial arts

    • Pekiti-Tirsia System of Kali
    • Lameco Eskrima
    • Kali Ilustrisimo
    • Balintawak Eskrima
    • many others

  • Indonesian martial arts

    • Pencak Silat Mande Muda
    • Pencak Silat Bukti Negara
    • many others

  • Thai martial arts

    • Krabi Krabong Buddhai Sawan
    • Krabi Krabong (Military – Nattapong)

  • Burmese martial arts

    • Bando

HISTORY OF THE MAJAPAHIT EMPIRE

Majapahit was a vast arch­i­pel­agic empire based on the island of Java from 1293 to around 1500. Majapahit was an empire of 98 trib­u­taries, stretch­ing from Suma­tra to New Guinea, con­sist­ing of present day Indone­sia, Sin­ga­pore, Malaysia, Brunei, south­ern Thai­land, the Philip­pines, and East Timor, although the true nature of Majapahit sphere of influ­ence is still the sub­ject of stud­ies among historians.

Hav­ing traders in con­tact with Thai­land and the Philip­pines might also explain where the Thai Mar­tial Art of KRABI KRABONG, the fore­run­ner of the mod­ern day Kick Box­ing ring art of Muay Thai, got it’s FMA like Sinawali dou­ble sword weav­ing pat­tern from. Like all of Asia, the Majapahit Empire was also very heav­ily influ­enced by China. The Indone­sian Mar­tial Art of Kun­tao is a blend of the hand tech­niques of South­ern Kung Fu and the foot­work of Silat.

In weaponry, the Majapahit expan­sion is believed to be respon­si­ble for the wide­spread use of the kris wavy dagger/sword in South­east Asia; from Java, Bali, Suma­tra, Malaysia, Brunei, South­ern Thai­land, to the Philip­pines. Although it has been sug­gested that the kris, and native edged weapons sim­i­lar to it, pre­date Majapahit, nev­er­the­less the empire expan­sion con­tributed to its pop­u­lar­ity and dif­fu­sion in the region.


Majapahit Martial Arts program