History
Arnis was developed by the indigenous populations of
the Philippines, who used an assorted range of
weaponry for combat and self-defense. Encompassing
both simple impact and edged weapons, arnis
traditionally involved rattan, swords, daggers and
spears.
In 1521, equipped with nothing more than bladed
weapons and their fearsome arnis abilities, Filipino
islanders defeated Ferdinand Magellan’s armored,
musket-bearing Spanish conquistador forces when they
tried to invade.
When the Spanish eventually returned and successfully
conquered parts of the Philippines, the traditions of
arnis were preserved, despite its prohibition, in the
forms of ritual dance, performance and mock battles.
While earlier Filipino martial arts were influenced by
Spanish colonization, the modern forms have been
affected by the country’s contact with both the United
States and Japan after gaining independence in 1898.
Just over a century later, in 2009, the government of the
Philippines declared arnis to be the martial art and
national sport of the Philippines.
The Indian Origins and the Southeast Asian Migration
The Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) could probably trace its
origins back to India to one of the oldest known martial
arts known as Kaliripayat. Kaliripayat is a complete
system of fighting involving use of different types of
weapons and empty hand fighting using both striking
and grappling. It is named after the Hindu goddess of
death, Kali, whose image appears as a six-armed woman
carrying a sword in each of her hands.
Some historians claim that the Philippines, Indonesia,
Malaysia, India, Thailand along with a couple of other
countries used to part of what was once called the
Madjapahit (sometimes spelled Ma(d)japayat) Empire.
Whatever the truth behind this is, it can be observed
that parts of the cultures of these nations share a lot in
common --- people wearing sarongs (a long piece of
cloth worn around the waist), having similar-looking
dances and sharing similar kinds of music. Kalirpayat
spread to Malaysia and Indonesia and evolved into
different forms specializing in different aspects of the
art. In Indonesia, the art is generally called Pencak Silat
and in Malaysia, it evolved into what is now Bersilat. It
should be noted that Pencak Silat and Bersilat are
generic terms and that there are hundreds of different
styles and systems under both.
Legend has it that ten Bornean datus (chieftains) and
their households were the first Indo-Malay race of
people that migrated to what is now the Panay in the
Philippines. Led by Datu Puti, these migrants were able
to barter for land with Haring (king) Marikudu, the
leader of a black race of people with curly hair who
were descendants of one of the first migrants to the
islands. Along with these datus came the precursor of
the Filipino Martial Arts.
The Pre-Spanish Era
As in Indonesia and Malaysia, the fighting arts in the
early Philippines were known by different names such
as Kali, Pagkakalikali, Kali Silat among others. The
names depended on the dialect spoken or was based on
the name of the tribe or family that practiced the art.
Hence, names such as Tausug Silat ( the fighting system
of the Tausug tribe) or maybe Lapu-lapu style (the
system practiced by Rajah Lapu-lapu and his tribe in
Mactan). There has been much speculation on the
origin of the word "Kali." One of the popular notions is
that it was derived from the Filipino word "kalis"
meaning sword. Others claim that it came from the
name of the Hindu goddess of death Kali (note that it
was previously mentioned that the goddess Kali also
wielded swords) or from Kaliripayat, the Indian martial
art named after her. Still some advocate that it is a
contraction of "katawan" (body) or "kamay" (hand) and
liho (movement in one of the Filipino dialects) meaning
that it means hand or body movement.
What is unique with the systems that evolved in the
Philippines is that weapons training goes before empty
hand training, hence, the common misconception that
the Filipino Martial Arts particularly Kali/Arnis/Eskrima
are only weapon arts or stick-fighting arts. The truth of
the matter is that empty hand fighting including hand
strikes, kicks, locks, throws and grappling are also
included in the curriculum. The Filipinos trained and
fought with blades and fire-hardened sticks and then
used the same concepts of fighting to their empty hand
systems. During the pre-Spanish colonization period,
there was more than ample opportunity to put these
arts to the test as there were wars among different
tribes and villages and there was also a need to defend
against pirates and the like. During the period that the
Chinese traded with the Filipinos and also migrated to
the Philippines, the Filipinos encountered new forms of
fighting in Chinese Kung Fu. This led to the further
development of the Filipino Martial Arts to counter the
techniques of the Chinese. Other Filipinos spied on
their secretive Chinese neighbors and were able to learn
to incorporate Kung Fu techniques into their own
systems. This led to hybrid systems such as Kuntaw
(Kuntao) and Kuntaw silat.
The Spanish Occupation/Colonization
During the 16th century, the Spaniards arrived in the
Philippines. Led by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand
Magellan along the way of trying to circumnavigate the
world looking for new trade routes, the Spanish came
upon the southern islands of the Philippines.
Immediately, the Spanish conquistadors set out to
introduce Roman Catholicism to the natives and to claim
their allegiance to Spain. In the islands of Cebu,
Magellan was able to convert and gain the favor of
Rajah Humabon. Having seen his success so far,
Magellan decided to further his conquest of the
archipelago. As a sign of their alliance with Rajah
Humabon, Magellan agreed to attack Rajah Lapu-lapu in
Mactan, a rival of the Humabon.
Having overconfidence and believing in his superiority
over the locals and being armed with swords, cannons
and guns, Magellan led a group of 49 conquistadors to
attack Mactan on April 27, 1521. This was to his
downfall as he was confronted with approximately a
thousand warriors and quickly overwhelmed. The
Spaniards were unprepared for this kind of fighting as
the natives attacked with bamboo spears, blades and
fire-hardened wooden stakes wielded using circular and
elliptical patterns that the Europeans were unused to. It
was reported that Magellan died after being hit by a
poisoned arrow. The survivors went back to Spain and it
would take another forty-four years until the Spanish set
foot on Philippine soil.
Eventually the Spanish occupied the archipelago. It did
not take them much difficulty because there was not
much of an organized resistance since the natives were
not a united nation then but were divided and clannish.
So, the Spanish took the archipelago island by island
and tribe by tribe. However, they were not able to
totally dominate the island of Mindanao, home of the
fiercest warriors in the islands. This was another era on
the evolution of the Filipino Martial Arts. The fighting
methods also adapted to overcome the fencing
methods of the Europeans.
Mindano was relatively untouched by the colonizers.
Thus, the Kali continued to thrive freely. This was not so
in the Luzon and in the Visayan islands. Having seen the
effectiveness of Kali, the Spanish colonizers outlawed its
use. The Filipinos, being an innovative and resilient
race, did not allow their beloved art to die out. They
created plays such as the Moro-moro (a play depicting
the Catholic-Muslim/Moor wars of the Crusades) to
entertain the colonizers. It was here that the Filipinos
were able to practice their craft. The practice of the kali
techniques were hidden in the choreographed fights
and skirmishes (Eskrima in Spanish) during the play. In
the Philippines, the Spanish word "eskrima/escrima"
meaning skirmish took on the meaning of fencing or a
sword fight. Thus, Eskrima became the dominant term
used for Kali in the Visayan regions. In Luzon, the
popular term for Kali was Arnis de Mano (armor of the
hand). During the plays, the Filipinos wore a sort of
leather harness (Spanish "arnes") or armor. Arnis, a
corruption of the word "arnes" thus became a sort of
secret codeword for Kali. The Spanish would think that
people were talking about their costumes whereas in
fact they were referring to Kali. To differentiate the
name of the art from the costume, they renamed it
Arnis de Mano or armor of the hand.
Arnis and Eskrima were widely used and developed
during the Philippine war of independence from Spain.
The revolutionary movement called the Kataastaasang
Kagalang-galangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan
(The Highest and Most Honorable/Noble Gathering of
the Sons of the Nation) or Katipunan or KKK for short,
trained in Arnis/Eskrima and fought with bolos
(machetes) since had very few guns. With this as their
main weapon and with the help of the Americans, the
Filipinos were able to gain their freedom from the
Spanish in 1898. This proves the effectiveness of the
Filipino Martial Arts for the Filipinos were able to
triumph inspite of the overwhelming odds against them
from their well-armed opponents.
The Development During the American Occupation
and World War II
The freedom of the Filipinos was short lived for the
Philippines was soon occupied by the U.S. The fame of
Filipino warriors in Mindanao was such that the
American soldiers were issued with .45 caliber pistols
since the Moro Filipinos were not easily dropped by
the .38 caliber pistols and were still able to close the
distance and attack the Americans. However, the
Philippines came under American rule.
During World War II, the Filipinos fought side by side
with the American forces against the Japanese. Under
the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFE),
the elite Bolo Battalion was formed as part of the
guerilla resistance. It was in this theater of war that the
fury and effectivity of Arnis was once again seen. It has
been said that the Japanese fled upon seeing the Bolo
Battalion charging against them. Soon, the Allied Forces
gained the victory against the Japanese.
The masters during this period are probably the ones
responsible for what the FMA are right now. A lot of the
war veterans migrated to the U.S. to later introduce the
art to the Americans. At first, the FMA were closely held
secrets but due to the pioneering efforts of people like
GM Angel Caballes, the FMA were introduced to the
American public. On the other hand, most of the
Filipino masters stayed behind and still continue to pass
on their knowledge to the present and future
generations of Filipinos. As for the U.P. AngKAN ng
Mandirigma-LESKAS members, we will be there as it
happens!
Soon, coming up on this page is a better version of the
history of the Filipino Martial Arts by Bot Jocano, a
Filipino Martial Arts historian and member of LESKAS at
the University of the Philippines Diliman.
Arnis Today
So arnis has passes through several stages in its
evolution. Before the 16th century the Filipinos used it
in their constant tribal wars, nurturing it from its
Polynesian orgins into an art uniquely their own. The
Spaniards united the warring tribes in the 16th century
and arnis underwent its second transformation. Arnis
retreated underground forcing the masters to transform
a public art used by warriors in tribal conflict into an art
of individual self-defense. The popularity of the moro-
moro in the 17th century brought arnis into the stage,
this time in theatrical form, somewhat ending its
isolation.
The 20th century brought several influences to bear on
arnis in rapid order. During the 60's and the 70's arnis
students with black belts in the japanese martial art
tried to incoporate Japanese techniques into arnis. By
the 80's, however, a reaction had set in and arnis
practitioners now tried to free arnis from foreign
influences. This coincided with the growing
international fame of arnis.
Currently arnisadores are trying to tame arnis into a safe
sport, although they have yet to find a satisfactory
solution. Eventually arnisadores may have to draw a line
between battle arnis used for self-defense; tournament
arnis used for sport; and theatrical arnis used for
exhibitions.
Meantime arnis continues to evolve. Unlike other Asiatic
martial arts whose masters ty to pass on the past too
improve their techniques and do not hesiatate to revise
a technique should the change prove more effective.
They encourage their students to do likewise. The result
makes the distinction between traditional arnis and
contemporary arnis meaningless. There is no traditional
arnis. There is only contemporary arnis. Arnis is a srt
constantly in ferment.
Thus it is risky to generalize about arnis style. Arnis
techniques in regions remote or isolated from urban
center are notable for the simplicity and purity of their
passed on through successive generations of the
Ilustrisimo clan in Daan Bantayan, a remote fishing
island in Central Philippines.
Styles in regions near urban centers, or in provinces
where people are fond of stage plays and dancing, are
more complex and theatrical, which does not mean that
they are more combat effective. One such is the
Macabebe Style, named after a town near Manila, the
Philippine capital. Its adherents swing and twirl their
batons in complicated circles and figures of eight.
Inside the cities are found styles heavily influnenced by
th Japanese and other Asiatic arts. For example, Modern
Arnis has numerious practioners in Metropolitan Manila
using the wide stances and stiff bodies characteristic of
Japanese karate, from which many of its sayaw (katas)
are derived. Theatrical arnis also flourished in the cities.
Kung Fu's influence is currently negligible. That may
change as some kung fu students are now enthusiastic
students of arnis as well. Some people cite Kun Tao, a
Muslim Style in Mindanao, Southern Philippines, as a
style of arnis heavily influenced by kung fu. Actually Kun
Tao is a Chinese style that came from Malaysia; it was
then heavily influenced by arnis as it spread in
Mindanao.