Padang (ANTARA) - Silek Minangkabau tradition in W Sumatra is increasingly foreign in our country. Not many young people still want to learn it for various reasons.
Though Minangkabau is very rich in silek flow. Almost all "nagari" or villages have their own silek flow in accordance with the name of the area where the silat developed.
In the past, all the young generation in each nagari must have learned silek aside from being self-defense or self-defense as well as protecting the village from outsiders.
But now, the target place for learning silek has become increasingly lonely.
Ironically, according to Pandeka Tareh Batimba, the tradition silek thrives abroad. There are at least 20 thousand students of the Minangkabau Silek Tradition abroad.
In the next twenty or fifty years, maybe the generation of Minangkabau that arose in the awareness of wanting to learn the traditional silek, had to fly to London, Paris or to the US, where the martial arts developed rapidly.
"It would be unfortunate for us if that really happened," said Tampuak Pahimpunan Tuo Silek Minangkabau Luak Limopuluah. His eyes wandered into the sky. The dark future of the Minangkabau Silek Tradition is in front of the eye.
The decline of the Minangkabau Silek Tradition according to Pandeka Tareh Batimba is inseparable from the myths about the martial arts. The myth that sometimes comes from a wrong understanding of silek.
The first myth, the teacher only teaches all his intelligence except the highest knowledge to students.
However, Chairman of the Association of Tuo Silek Minangkabau Luak Limopuluah, Irwandi Pandeka Tareh Batimba rejected the myth. The Silek Minangkabau teacher has never hidden knowledge from her students. All are taught in both physical and mental silek science.
The second myth, Silek Minangkabau must be learned at night. If it's not night, it means it's not the Minangkabau Silek Tradition.
To reintroduce art and tradition to the community, especially the younger generation, the government held the Silek Art Festival (SAF) so that it was interested to get to know and study it more closely.
Head of the W Sumatra Culture Office Gemala Ranti said the Silek and Performing Arts Festival was held to encourage young people to be more active in exploring cultural wealth.
SAF is a collaboration of the Ministry of Education and Culture, the W Sumatra Culture Office and a number of parties related to the development of silat, arts and culture in W Sumatra in the Indonesian platform.
Tuo Silek Minangkabau Luak Limopuluah, Irwandi Pandeka Tareh Batimba hopes that the festival can be held every year so that it really becomes a blink, a light in the middle of the future of the increasingly gloomy Minangkabau Silek Tradition.
Baca juga: "Menebas" kungkungan mitos silek Minangkabau
Baca juga: Tuo silek: Learning silek minangkabau doesn't have at night
Baca juga: Youth of Pesisir Selatan take part in Silat Tapak Suci World Championship
Editor: Mutiara Ramadhani
Translated by:Internship Student of ANTARA 2019
Myths about the Minangkabau silek must be dispelled
Tuo Silek Minangkabau Association Luak Limopuluah Irwandi, Pandeka Tareh Batimba (wearing a cap) with pandeka from the area and pandeka from Malaysia in Payakumbuh. (ANTARA SUMBAR / Miko Elfisha)
