General Information
Welcome to the home of White Crane Silat in Oakland.
We hold class on Tuesdays from 6:30 – 8:30pm at the Shattuck Ave Methodist Church just blocks from Ashby Bart. Enter on 63rd St., 2nd floor.
Get individual attention from female & male trainers with 10-20+ years of experience.
Contact us before your first class.
SILAT as Martial Art
SILAT offers a huge diversity of training and self-cultivation opportunities appropriate for everybody – independent of age, gender and physical condition.
Alongside primary self-defence science and technique, SILAT offers specific health movements.
Silat Basis
Elementary contents of SILAT are:
- The cultivation of self,
- Faithfulness to truth,
- Pursuit of excellence,
- Defence of social harmony, and
- The ability to master one’s self.
These goal values are a primary basis of PGB Bangau Putih training.
Harmony
Harmony and harmonic movements are a characteristic of SILAT. They are derived from observation of the natural elements, plants and animals, and inspired by traditional historical and philosophical figures. These movements enhance and strengthen the functions of the inner organs, have a toning effect on muscles and bones and promote better posture. Existing energies become activated and their circulation regulated.
Body, Physics, and Perception
Control of the body and the sensitization of perception are essential to acting with purpose and responsibility. Self-defence in the first meaning the art of using one’s own strengths and weaknesses and dealing with one’s fears.
The forms of movement contain soft, evading forms as well as hard and uncompromising techniques. The mastering of those is not only useful in a situation of self-defence (as in a physical fight) but as well in daily life (with more mental or emotional struggling).
Through continuous exercising of movements and different techniques we learn how to evaluate ourselves better and achieve the trust and the assurance without which each technique is useless.
SILAT as Martial art specifically for women
It is important, especially in martial arts, to pay attention to the conditions of the body and to develop given strengths. Through specific movements the feminine nature is emphasized and smooth power is used and developed.
SILAT as Martial art specifically for children
Through a variety of different techniques an ideal system has been developed to enhance co-ordination and increase the ability to concentrate. Children learn in a playful way to expand their natural feeling for the body, in the same way self-awareness, willpower and the controlled used of the own energy are developed.
Here are some video clips demonstrating aspects of our style
Lineage
White Crane Silat traces its origins to the monasteries and convents of China around 600 A.D. At this time the first patriarch of the legendary Shaolin temple, Bodhidharma (a.k.a. Ta Mo), first integrated internal yoga disciplines and martial arts training into a new movement practice.
As the centuries passed, successive generations created new systems and refined the old. By 1200 A.D., other major centers had appeared on several of China’s sacred mountains, and secular schools also flourished. We are especially indebted to two of these schools: the Taoist Wu Tang monastery, which originated the concept of long forms, and the Buddhist O Mei convent, which was the source of most of the women’s systems.
By this time, movement styles included animal forms (white crane, tiger, snake, monkey and dragon, etc.), elements of nature (wind, bamboo, earth, etc.), and Buddhist and Taoist deities such as the Goddess of Compassion, the God of Justice, and the Eight Immortals (including the drunken system). Many of these movement systems were also associated with specific forms of energy cultivation (Chi Kung), which variously aimed at developing power, health, and spirituality.
Prominent martial artists often traveled across the country in search of new techniques, and then retired to one of these monastic communities where they engaged in meditative practice and passed on their skills. As a result, these communities experienced a number of renaissances, and indirectly influenced each others styles. In latter centuries, this process of cross-fertilization accelerated, as much that was hidden within these institutions became open to lay people, first in China and then abroad.
About the Grandmaster
The White Crane Silat lineage is currently taught through Persatuan Gerak Badan (the Organization for Harmonious Body Movement), an Indonesian organization founded in 1952 by the late Grandmaster Subur Rahardja (Suhu). Born in 1925 to a martial arts family (clan) in Bogor, West Java, Suhu became a student of Silat at a young age. Suhu’s uncle and first teacher, Liem Kim Bouw, was a martial arts master and respected healer. Later, Suhu studied under several other martial arts masters who came to live with his uncle during times of difficulty in Asia in the 1930′s and 40′s.
Suhu demonstrated prodigious talent for the martial arts from a very early age. He also demonstrated the extraordinary discipline necessary to learn various styles and to endure the rigorous years of study of martial arts often taught only in monasteries.
According to one of Suhu’s most famous teachers, Agung Gedeh Jelanktik, the former King of Lombok, he had mastered the external form of martial arts by the age of twenty. Suhu then went on to master the internal styles as well. It is said that the current White Crane Silat style taught by PGB represents Suhu’s synthesis of four martial arts styles with that of his original clan style of kun tao.
In the years following World War II, Suhu joined his country in the battle for independence. Suhu gained a reputation as a formidable fighter during the guerrilla campaign against the Dutch and English colonial powers. Due to his bravery and common sense, Suhu often found himself in the role of leader. Suhu naturally began to share his martial skills with his close friends and comrades during the struggle for independence.
From this close knit group of young fighters Suhu founded his first group of 18 students, known as the Block-18. This group provided the foundation for the the forming of Persatuan Gerak Badan in 1952. Suhu chose the White Crane as the symbol of the school because the crane is a social animal which represents balance and grace, and only fights in self defense.
Silat Today, International Retreats, Healing Arts
In 1970, men and women from the West began to learn Silat in Bogor with Suhu. Inspired by their commitment, Suhu began to teach in the West.
Enthusiastic students often traveled to Bogor to train under Suhu in Indonesia and some of Suhu’s senior students traveled to the Western countries to provide instruction. The White Crane Silat center in Bogor began to host students from all over the world for a few weeks to a few years. White Crane Silat branches are now all over the world.
Suhu died in 1986 leaving the care of PGB to his son, Gunawan Rahardja. Gunawan, the current Grandmaster of White Crane Silat, has continued and expanded upon his father’s work.
The center of White Crane Silat in Bogor continues to provide a high level of training for Indonesians and students from all over the world. It also provides free English classes to local youth that might not otherwise receive it.
Every year an international retreat is held in a different host country.
Gunawan continues to provide traditional Asian healing to the community that he learned from his uncle and father. Many of these patients become practitioners of White Crane Silat.