The Myth of Maempo Cimande

[Source: Interview with Bapak Rifai, Guru Pencak Silat Cimande Panca Sakti in Jakarta, 1993]

Not far from the Mande river shore was a family of a merchant by the name of Kahir who lived in peace and calm. One day his wife went toward the river to run her daily errants such as washing laundry, cleaning food materials and relieving herself. When the wife was washing laundry she saw a school of monkeys across the stream, picking up "kupak" fruit along the river shore. Not too long after that a tiger appeared at the same place. Feeling that the presence of the tiger was very disturbing, the monkeys screamed and made loud noises, as loud as they could. Kahir's wife was alerted and wondered what would happen next. The tiger roared furiously and charged towards the monkeys with its strong paws, but the little monkeys, not showing any fear at all, dodged the tiger and striked back by biting on the tiger's stomach. The tiger struggled and striked back, but his attacks did not prevail over the monkeys. On the other hand the other monkeys, using branch sticks, they tried to divert the tiger's attention and made him even more angry and jumped on them again. But at the same time the monkeys dodged the attack and bit on him again.

Ibu Kahir was carefully watching this moments by moments, she comprehended every movements which appeared to be as a fighting technique. As a result, she didn't finish her job in time, she arrived home late and did not prepare lunch yet. Her delay in preparing lunch made Mr. Kahir very upset at her and he didn't want to understand her, though she tried her best to explain. He got so upset and that he tried to slap her on the face. She dodged and escaped the slapping. Her husband got even more upset and lost control over himself. Blow by blow he tried to land on his wife, but none were able to touch her. She always managed to dodge the blows. Panthing and out of breath, Mr. Kahir asked his wife :"where did you learn to play poho?" (poho means to perform "deceiving moves", or "maempo" for short). The wife explained to her husband that her delay was due to her return from the river, after having watching an interesting fight between the tiger and the monkeys.

After that Mr. Kahir dilligently asked his wife how those swift moves were done, and his wife showed him some samples. Mr Kahir would recall those fighting moves and it is now known by the name "jurus kelid pamonyet" (dodging monkey style). The monkeys attacking by using branches is known as "jurus pepedangan" (sword move) and striking of the tiger with both of its strong paws is known as "jurus pamacan" (tiger style). Because the tiger's position when charging against the monkeys was with both rear legs in squatting position and the monkeys were using low stance position, thus the basic moves for Cimande is first - jurus kelid (dodging moves), starting from the tiger's sitting position and the next step is standing low (low stance) monkey style. The maempo teknik was continuously developed by Mr. Kahir and the locals called it by the name of maempo Cimande.