A historically accurate look at Serak. Its time now for truth to dispell the darkness of liars and also deceivers.

My brother Victor made a video outlining a very limited and one sided aspect of Serak. For years my brother Paul and Victor only gave a small view of the actual history of  Serak. Most have only seen some aspects of Oom John & Oom Ventje's way from Mas Djoet but there where other Uncles teaching Serak. And there where other teachers than Mas Djoet from Pak Serak.  People asked me why i stayed quiet. Because they where doing their thing and I focused on what I know. I stayed true to the way of  Pak Serak & my family art. My brother Maurice also stayed true to his line and actually was more completely trained by Oom John for 12 years where Paul only trained 3.5 years. So my brother Maurice and I stayed quiet while the rest of the circus act continued.  I taught and teach only those that showed their sincere Loyalty. I traded better students for those that only tried exploiting my name & family and our arts. The Parasites have received the boot from me a swift kick in the Ass to never be allowed back in the fold of the family.  People forget I am the eldest of the de Thouars and the Custodian of my System & the de Thouars Serak.  The parasites are worthless leeches. How many now are confused and also being lied to by the new so called maha gurus that never saw the entire art and are making up stuff fused with Karate or Kenpo and slappy happy crappy?  Poor structures and total lack of understanding of the Internal. Ask your self how did Pak Serak succeed in his art he made?   

In a Video Victor talks about the temple of Java here is my response and also my commentaries on a more accurate History of Serak:

 The temple was a gift from an Indian business trader to the island nation of Central and East Java. What always was kept forgotten that most of the Chinese old hand boxing arts or kun tao came from Portuguese Macao to Palembang first, and later that several of the teachers knowledgeable in the Internal fighting arts, and other original Chinese temple boxing schools came through mass migration to the Indonesian archipelago. The art Serak was not only under Mas Djoet who practices the Bandung, Bogor, and Garut Serak, which he taught to uncle John and Ventje but there were also direct lineage holders under pak Serak directly, and I too had deeper made studies of the fighting arts of the Indonesian archipelago with more of a closer background in studies of the World fighting arts and principles. . Serak came from the Makao kun tao. Mas Djoet, uncle John and uncle Ventje could not relate to ma ha guru, ma ha guru a most used for a title was the creation for here in America. Like Chop Suey. The two de Vries uncles were as formidable as they only were able to relate to as guru, and also Mas Djoet referred to himself as guru. Pak Serak was never honored like Jigor Kano, in Judo, should have given more consideration by followers in Serak to be equal respected for the founder, and not only give grace to Mas Djoet, Maroen or others. My reason with my studies in Serak from the two backgrounds . the Serak Bandung and the Serak Cheribon will train the practitioners under me even harder not to limit themselves only to the Mas Djoet Serak silat art. What others may claim will never be a real worry to me, and I too had long been trained under uncle John, Ventje, uncle Eddy and other reliable teachers of the different in diversity of the same art. All my trained practitioners in many states are well constructively trained and educated under me. They are never to regimented boxed in as most other Serak. We remain and will stay apart from others, and do things our own way. And yes, I did trained under uncle John also, and long before all others who have trained under Paul or Victor, and on the West coast of California, and came later to Colorado. With Paul first and Victor later in the 1980's. I started to teach in 1965, and in the state of Colorado and brought Paul to Colorado in the mid 1970's to teach. The real teachers of the West Javanese Ci mande had influenced Mas Kahir the direct founder of the system by the 1800's, and not the 1500's as was claimed by some who wrote inaccurate history; because Mas Kahir's best disciple was Pak Raden Atma, and he was from the 1900's and died around the 1970's. Many of the old schooled Chinese masters could be found in Sumbawa, and Borneo and Sulawesi and Java.. Mas Djoet under pak Serak and mas kahir under Embong Kahir could never have been from the 1500's. I will not retreat or side step my understanding of history for the wishes of others. 

The research of Pa Victor was also incomplete, not that I wanted to make this a big stink for a story history related issue.. The beginning started when the warriors of the Northern part from India, invaded Tibet and established in the kun lun mountains martial arts centers, much can be research and find its beginning back to the several styles of kun lun Tibetan fighting arts, and was also the beginning of Buddhism spread to China. The warriors who invaded Tibet wend further and established, and based on religious believes build 5 temple boxing schools, in the Southern part of China and based its essence on Buddhism. China then had the very first organized martial arts, and all based on the regimentation of the five Buddhist temple boxing schools. China under the emperor also had organized a cultural center in Palembang, brought in by introduction Chinese culture, cloth waving, created language, shared the art of cooking and painting and expanded business some four thousand years ago. Was long before serak, and pak Serak. Also a reason why the seven shaolin boxing schools was to maintain schools open for self defense only for Chinese. The Burubhudur temple, the Mendut and Praban were temples as a gift from an Indian business trader for the people of the Mataram empire, and before the Mojopahit from East Java. All through trade. The Burubudur temple in Central Java is three times the seize of the kremlin , in Russia. Serak was never trained or practiced in any of the temples. It was the creation of Pak Serak, who was born near the city of Cheribon, during the 1800's.

I will continue sharing my history lesson with those under me, that many came to learn from Pak Serak, and left and created their own version of Serak, like Mas Djoet did. The style of Mas Djoet was never a pak Serak original. He devised Serak to geared after his own body structure to teach, since was hard to learn from Pak Serak. But for the fewer who stayed kept maintaining the original system as was taught by Pak Serak. Unfortunate the history by the de Thouars brothers could only relate in what uncle Juhn and Ventje taught Maurice and Paul, and Victor to me remain a student of Paul with lesser studies under uncle John then Maurice. I trained under both, the de Vries uncles, and also under tha Pak Serak original followers, who were better informed then just the Mas Djoet history. I was always swept under neath the carpet for insecure reason of Paul and Victor. Now I am back on track, and care less of any of all the students under Victor, the ma ha guru or Paul the pendekar who try to convince the world that they only knew their Serak history out of a weaker source by fantasizing. I kept in silence for many years, and will share the real history of Pak Serak during the 1800's up to the 20th century when I finished my studies in serak from the shores of Java to the shores of America. I am thorough a finished disciple in serak, and also a better reason why the Serak I knew was mostly based upon T'ai Chi, I shing yie and pakua concepts and principles and very much influenced by shaolin and with Indonesian native fighting expression. Regardless the other history stories like bad jungle book stories, will remain much indifference with the culture, believes and history in backgrounds from all my brothers. It also should be noticed that Embung Kahir was not the creature of Ci Mande, there were others before him dating back in the 15th century who started the Cimande, and in Cimande village, and Embong Kahir later on revised and innovated Cimande into his own system of Cimande, became later the founder of Cimande. Embung Kahir was from the 1800's like Pak Serak. Anybody can rewrite history. I care less, I just do what I knew best is all of my caring.

The Chinese masters who taught in West java came all from Portuguese makao first, and later on from Palembang to West Java. A reason why West Javanese silat is different from the silat counterparts of Central and West Java. West Javanese silat relates more to tailor after the regimentation of Chinese boxing. Not just ci calong, Serak or cimande but also can be seen in the kebuk system of West Java, that it was like Thai boxing who relates to the Peking kung fu. The Majapahit empire bulked down during the beginning of the 14 century by the Chinese community in Palembang. Read history. Before the Majapahit was to reign the Mataram Hindu empire was, and faltered because they were building temples instead of growing rice fields and business. The Maja pahit under Gadja Mada made the Majapahit empire from East Java successful until it bulked down in Palembang, in Sumatra. The Dutch came through Bantam, and slowly destroyed the last Mataram empire around the 16th century.

Now tell me more about the bullshit of Serak practiced in temples. Will lecture my group on special dates on the East Indian history of the Malay peninsula, that started with the Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama who found first the fastest route to the East Indian archipelago around 1602, and before the Dutch came through Cape the Good Hope from the Ivery coast of Africa. Will include to lecture also during my arranged training shop sessions regarding Serak next. They may not like the real Serak history for the outsiders who only know their Serak history as was told be believers in bad jungle book stories.  The Magus of  Kuntao Silat & Serak the eldest and custodian of the true old ways of Kuntao & Serak. - 

Pak Willem de Thours.