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...it's been ages since i've been in this forum, but every now and then, i'd check it out just to see what's up. i love reading old threads and at times, it can get very passionate. not that it matters, but IMHO, a lot of the confusions created can be cleared by seeing the whole picture, or most of it anyway, rather than a small part of it. what i'm talking about is our beloved FMA. i'm not saying members here doesn't know what they're talking
about; actually it's the very opposite. i've seen a lot of very intelligent posts here, but it seems like the energy being used on some of these arguments are a total waste.
first of all, this thread is geared towards the practitioner that wants to know
more about the culture and history as to why the art exists and how did it evolved to what and how it is now. if you're the type that's satisfied knowing it works and that's all you need to know, then this might bore you....
let's look at the majority of FMA. here in the west, when someone mentions FMA, two items never failed to pop up: sticks and knives. these are the tools of our trade. the meat and potatoes, adobo and rice, etc, etc. FMA excels on this, no doubt. even to an average joe that doesn't know squat about FMA, filipinos here are synonymous with blades. an anglo teammate of mine in my bjj class asked me once why us filipino sticks (no pun intended) with the weapons of the past and why not move with the times coz there are such things as guns now, to which i replied it's in the blood. he countered with should someone pulls a knife on him and do all that fancy crap, all he has to do is introduce this person to his friend smith and wesson. i reminded him that should that happen, remember, there are no guns available in jail...
anyhow, that's what we use in our art; stick and knife. arguably, we are the
best on these in the world. i never heard of anyone that seriously wanted to
learn knife fighting or stick fighting go to a korean dojang, or to a chinese kwoon. and we should be proud of this...
and yet the irony behind all of these is not too may FMA practitioners, with the exception of our moro brothers, knows anything about the very essence of these arts. i'm talking about the very swords that originally started or inspired this art. of course we've heard about the barungs, krises and kampilans. maybe it's just here, but i see some FMA schools using barungs in their doce pares class. yikes! they might as well use a katana. these swords; the barung, kris and kampilan has an art of its own and a lot of you prolly know that by now. the tausugs and samas made sure that the same sword, the barung, that made these people unconquered by any foreign invaders, are never forgotten. to this day, the art of barung is alive and well, and are reverred by these people.
but what about the large percent of FMA'ers that consider their art coming from the visayan region? are you folks even aware of the binangons, tenegres, pinutis and talibongs? or maybe, just maybe, your art is actually derived from these sundangs? each of these sundangs are slightly shaped different. now could that be the reason why in your art you move a certain way? i know these are all semantics, right? maybe so. ok, in all fainess, we do see our grandmasters play with live blades every now and then, most likely custom made sundangs. there's no doubt in my mind that they can use those with deadly accuracy. that's great that we're maintaining this part of our heritage. but here's the scary part: these sundangs, the very essence of FMA, a big, big part of our heritage and culture is disappearing very fast. of course, you can still see a bunch of recent made blades in our market, or have a custom made ones, but what i'm talking about are the old ones, that ones that were made to see some action. some of which can be found here (most of you are already familiar with the moro weapons. what i'm trying to point out are the visayan ones):
these are the sundangs of the old. as you can see, our manongs didn't spared
anything when it came to details. they are indeed labour of love, and a fine
work of art. but yet the meanings and intricacies of these weapons are virtually unknown in their own land. the meanings behind the hilts and such, it seems to already be lost in time. it's a shame that we don't know anything about these, or when they were made. on what those intricate carvings meant (who or what do they represent). when i went back last year, i visited the philippine national museum (manila), and it's a shame that our biggest museum has but one corner reserved for about 4 or 5 moro sundangs, and zero visayan sundang. when i asked what happened to all the sundangs and such, i was informed that it was tucked away somewhere, and there's no plan on putting it up on display soon. museums in spain has a way better displays of the same weapons that was used on them. see here:
i'm just barely touching this one area of our blade heritage. going back to the
former link, one can see why we are famous when it comes to blade fighting to this very day. those sundangs shown above is but a small representation of what we have. our ancestors put a lot of effort into these weapons, reverred them, just as how americans value their guns in this day and age. for the members that are the philippines, it would be nice if you can take a moment in your free time and do an investigation on these sundangs, maybe ask your grandparents and such. time is of essence on this part of our heritage. once the knowledge disappears, it's gone forever. it'll be another topic here in the future that's gonna be all in theory; again, an endless arguement as to what comes first, the chicken or the egg.
gumagalang...
about; actually it's the very opposite. i've seen a lot of very intelligent posts here, but it seems like the energy being used on some of these arguments are a total waste.
first of all, this thread is geared towards the practitioner that wants to know
more about the culture and history as to why the art exists and how did it evolved to what and how it is now. if you're the type that's satisfied knowing it works and that's all you need to know, then this might bore you....
let's look at the majority of FMA. here in the west, when someone mentions FMA, two items never failed to pop up: sticks and knives. these are the tools of our trade. the meat and potatoes, adobo and rice, etc, etc. FMA excels on this, no doubt. even to an average joe that doesn't know squat about FMA, filipinos here are synonymous with blades. an anglo teammate of mine in my bjj class asked me once why us filipino sticks (no pun intended) with the weapons of the past and why not move with the times coz there are such things as guns now, to which i replied it's in the blood. he countered with should someone pulls a knife on him and do all that fancy crap, all he has to do is introduce this person to his friend smith and wesson. i reminded him that should that happen, remember, there are no guns available in jail...
anyhow, that's what we use in our art; stick and knife. arguably, we are the
best on these in the world. i never heard of anyone that seriously wanted to
learn knife fighting or stick fighting go to a korean dojang, or to a chinese kwoon. and we should be proud of this...
and yet the irony behind all of these is not too may FMA practitioners, with the exception of our moro brothers, knows anything about the very essence of these arts. i'm talking about the very swords that originally started or inspired this art. of course we've heard about the barungs, krises and kampilans. maybe it's just here, but i see some FMA schools using barungs in their doce pares class. yikes! they might as well use a katana. these swords; the barung, kris and kampilan has an art of its own and a lot of you prolly know that by now. the tausugs and samas made sure that the same sword, the barung, that made these people unconquered by any foreign invaders, are never forgotten. to this day, the art of barung is alive and well, and are reverred by these people.
but what about the large percent of FMA'ers that consider their art coming from the visayan region? are you folks even aware of the binangons, tenegres, pinutis and talibongs? or maybe, just maybe, your art is actually derived from these sundangs? each of these sundangs are slightly shaped different. now could that be the reason why in your art you move a certain way? i know these are all semantics, right? maybe so. ok, in all fainess, we do see our grandmasters play with live blades every now and then, most likely custom made sundangs. there's no doubt in my mind that they can use those with deadly accuracy. that's great that we're maintaining this part of our heritage. but here's the scary part: these sundangs, the very essence of FMA, a big, big part of our heritage and culture is disappearing very fast. of course, you can still see a bunch of recent made blades in our market, or have a custom made ones, but what i'm talking about are the old ones, that ones that were made to see some action. some of which can be found here (most of you are already familiar with the moro weapons. what i'm trying to point out are the visayan ones):
these are the sundangs of the old. as you can see, our manongs didn't spared
anything when it came to details. they are indeed labour of love, and a fine
work of art. but yet the meanings and intricacies of these weapons are virtually unknown in their own land. the meanings behind the hilts and such, it seems to already be lost in time. it's a shame that we don't know anything about these, or when they were made. on what those intricate carvings meant (who or what do they represent). when i went back last year, i visited the philippine national museum (manila), and it's a shame that our biggest museum has but one corner reserved for about 4 or 5 moro sundangs, and zero visayan sundang. when i asked what happened to all the sundangs and such, i was informed that it was tucked away somewhere, and there's no plan on putting it up on display soon. museums in spain has a way better displays of the same weapons that was used on them. see here:
i'm just barely touching this one area of our blade heritage. going back to the
former link, one can see why we are famous when it comes to blade fighting to this very day. those sundangs shown above is but a small representation of what we have. our ancestors put a lot of effort into these weapons, reverred them, just as how americans value their guns in this day and age. for the members that are the philippines, it would be nice if you can take a moment in your free time and do an investigation on these sundangs, maybe ask your grandparents and such. time is of essence on this part of our heritage. once the knowledge disappears, it's gone forever. it'll be another topic here in the future that's gonna be all in theory; again, an endless arguement as to what comes first, the chicken or the egg.
gumagalang...
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