Silat

Silat is a collective word for a family of martial arts created by the Malay people from Southeast Asia. Originally developed what in now Indonesia, peninsular Malaysia, Southern Thailand and Singapore. Silat was also traditionally of Brunei, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Practitioners are called pesilat.

The movements of silat are often performed as a dance during festival such as weddings. These performances can be done either solo or with a partner and are often accompanied by music, notably the gong, kendang (drum) and suling (flute). As a result several traditional dances were influenced by silat, such as inai. In the Minangkabau area silat is one of the main components in the men's folk dance called randai, besides bakaba (storytelling) and saluang jo dendang (song-and-flute).