Salam Silat Everyone,
The fact that Serak has been trademarked in the USA is very sad, and many people just can'tbelieve that it happened. People in the USA generally hold the De Thouars in high esteem, in Indonesia they have never been known until their bombastic claims became known through the internet. I cope paste from a certain Victor De Thouars web page:
Names on this list are
Serak® Lineage Holders from the Line of:
Maha Guru Victor I.C. de ThouarsInternational Serak® Markas– Head Quarters
Pusat-Academy in Bellflower, California USA
Full Earned Accredited Guru Serak® Ranking with Transcripts
Guru Serak Horacio Rodriguez. (Next Maha Guru - Markas, Pusat Bellflower)
Ustad Guru Serak Dan Inosanto (Marina Del Rey, California).
The red above highlight what would be considered bombastic in Indonesia, and also some might find the giving of a title Ustad to a Non-Muslim is confusing, not to say insulting. Never ever does a non-Muslim use the title Ustad, here. I understand these men are supposed to be very good martial artists, and maybe they are. But still they are misrepresenting silat culture with their titles.
But the bombastic titles don't stop here, here is another cut and paste taken off the web, from an article written by Chas Clements
http://www.kuntaosilat.net/deadly.htm:
Presently, the family consists of the four brothers;
Pendekar Agung Paul De Thouars, Great GrandMaster of Serak® Tulen and Bukti Negara, Guru Besar Willem De Thouars, founder of Kun Lun Pai Kun Tao and GrandMaster of Serak®, Maha Guru Victor I. C. De Thouars, Founder of Serak® Tongkat, and Maurice De Thouars, Maha Guru of Silat Serak® in Holland.
Looking through information on the web one finds that the de Thouars brothers seem to have big fights / arguments amongst themselves. While maybe they have been instrumental in spreading a type of silat in the USA, having family feuds, and publicly like this, is a misrepresentation of silat. Here is an other copy-past from Mr. Plinck's website
http://www.pencaksilat.com/history.html:
Brothers Maurice and Paul de Thouars began to learn Serak from Ernest de Vries (their Uncle) in Siam (now Thailand), beginning primarily in 1946. Willem went elsewhere for his training, not in the family art, but in Kun Tao, before branching into other styles, and Victor de Thouars later began his studies under Ernest and Paul. (This is has lately been repudiated by Pak Victor, who states in his book "Serak the Tsunami" that his first teacher was Pak Tisari Mardjoeki, in Indonesia, and that what he learned from Pendekar Paul added little to his training. Willem de Thouars, who as of this writing seems estranged from Pak Vic, takes issue with this, and calls Pak Tisari
"katjung," which I am told means "peanut".)
The use of the word 'katjung' (current spelling : kacang) is nasty, it doesn't mean peanut, rather it is an insulting way to refer to a servant. This kind of language coming in to the open from those who regard themselves as silat sources is also a misrepresentation.
Lets stop here for now, and lets hope that this discussion continues...
Warm salaams,
Bram.
English Version