Despite the fact that the sport now has roots in 40 countries around the world, pencak silat, a traditional martial art, is dying a slow death in its homeland: Indonesia. Eddie Marzoeki Nalapraya, known as the country’s father of pencak silat development, expressed hope that the government would p rovide financial support to rejuvenate the neglected discipline. “It is about time we received support as we’ve been building padepokan [pencak silat facilities] for the past 30 years without any assistance from the government,” Eddie said at a media conference to announce the 14th Pencak Silat World Championship to be hosted from Dec. 12 to 17 at Padepokan Pencak Silat Indonesia in East Jakarta. There are hundreds of pencak silat schools scattered around the archipelago, but less than 30 padepokan are qualified to hold training sessions. “Supporting pencak silat means both developing the sport and also preserving our culture,” Eddie said, adding that he was concerned about the Korean governm...
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