Serak Lineage from Pak Serak until the 1980s
Serak Lineage from Pak Serak until the 1980s
All Silat styles taught at the NKI come officially from two major lineages.
The Pukulan Pak Flohr and several Serak variations from different Uncles (teachers) members of the De Vries and de Thouars families, the last two are tracing their lineages back to one man: Pak Serak.
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Serak Lineage the Foundation: Pak Serak
There is no written documentation from the living days or proof of existence for Pak Serak, he supposed to have lived from 1783 to 1885 and was from the Badui tribe in Banten region West Java, of rather short statue (about 1,50m in height) and had a deformed right leg (clubfoot) and a shortened left arm.
His real name was supposedly Elijah Haboen Hasin (acc. to Victor de Thouars) or Eyang Sera (according to our sources in Indonesia).
He is supposedly had trained 9 systems of Martial Arts, mastering three of them to create his own style based on body mechanics, geometry/leverage, and timing rather than force.
It might be questioned how a handicapped member of a tribe known for avoiding contact with outsiders managed to study so many styles (let alone the fact that he supposedly lived for over a hundred years when the average life expectation in the area was around 30 years) – most likely some of the facts have become exaggerated over time.
However, Pak Serak had several students and two of them passed along his style of Silat to coming generations: Mas Jud (or Djoet) and Mas Run (or Rhun/Roen).
Serak Lineage in Indonesia: Mas Jud and Mas Roen
Mas Jud formalized the system, adding the guardian hand (as Pak Serak only had one good arm) and traveling around Java studying and teaching other Silat styles (some forms of Cimande also claim to originate from a Mas Jud).
The real name of Mas Jud is disputed, he might have been called Juragan Mantri or Raden Kanta Suryadarma.
The same uncertainty goes for the period in which he lived – most sources state thas Mas Jud died in 1930 or 1938, while Uncle Harry James de Vries claimed to have visited Mas Jud as late as 1963 (being introduced to him as a 15 year old boy).
The lineages represented in the Naga Kuning Institute derive from the de Vries family, from the brothers John and Ernest (Ventje) de Vries, who learned Serak from Mas Jud (Oom Ventje also trained under Mas Run) and passed their knowledge on within the family.
Serak has traditionally been taught as a “closed door system” which only was passed on to family members or close friends. See this article about the Secretness.
Serak Lineage coming to West: Oom John and Oom Ventje
Oom John is remembered as a patient teacher, while Oom Ventje had the reputation of a ferocious fighter who did not have much sense for teaching.
We ofter use two terms to differentiate two aspects of our Arts: Pukulan (the fighting aspect and the art of striking), Permainan (the art of controlling the body, manipulation), none is better than the otherone, both complete each other.
In the NKI (Naga Kuning Institute) we trace the Permainan part of the Serak system mainly to Oom John, while Oom Ventje passed more of the Pukulan way to his sons (maybe due to the part of Serak he learned from Mas Run), while still teaching also Permainan Serak to other students.
De Vries and De Thouars Families
After the 2nd World War and the Indonesian war for independence (Bersiap in 1945), the De Vries and De Thouars families migrated to Holland (with several relocations and times in prisoner- and refugee-camps).
Uncle Paul de Thouars started training Serak in Amsterdam in 1951 with his uncle Oom John (after a few months of training with Oom Ventje in a prisoner of war camp) but left Europe four years later (1955) to seek his fortune in the United States of America.
Uncle Dolf de Vries came to Holland in 1961 and after some rough years with teenage gangs, he became a musician and toured around with his band(s).
Uncle Nono de Vries was with him and together they started teaching some students and formed a training group after they retired from their active music career.
Later (around 1985) Uncle Dolf formed the 1st Foundation Pak Serak to safeguard the art of Serak and to pass it on to coming generations. However, the foundation did not work the way he wanted and fell apart after a couple of years.
Carsten Spannagel
NKI Assistant Group Leader – Oslo (Norway)
