The Origins of Arnis

Courtesy of Carmen Novoa

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Arnis (also known as Kali or Eskrima/Escrima) is the national martial arts of the Philippines. It is a weapon based fighting discipline that uses sticks, knives and other bladed weapons, several improvised weapons, and open hand techniques. Popularity of the martial arts has increased since the 20th century with notable practitioners such as Bruce Lee, Jeremy Rener, Forest Whitaker, Terry Lim, and Lucy Liu. The art is also seen in pop-culture characters such as Nightwing from DC Comics, Jason Bourne, Kick-Ass, John Wick, and many more.

Arnés, the Old Spanish for "armor" is the root of the name. This is from the armored costumes and equipment used in traditional moro-moro stage plays.

Eskrima on the other hand is derived from the Spanish word for fencing, esgrima.

Lastly, Kali is said to be derived from the pre-hispanic filipino word for blades and fencing, Kalis. This was first documented an expedition chronicler, Antonio Pigafetta, who was part of Ferdinand Magellan’s crew.

There are other names and variations used in the different cultural groups and islands in the Philippines.

The origins of Arnis can be traced back to native "Pintados" or later "Tintadus" fighting techniques during conflicts between the various Prehispanic Filipino tribes or kingdoms. Aside from silat, other inspirations include Chinese, Arab, and Indian martial arts as well as those brought by settlers and traders who passed through the Malay Archipelago. Kuntaw, or specialized Chinese fighting techniques, are still used by some members of the populace.

There is also a few historical evidence that arnis also has roots from India via trade and relations with people who travel from Indonesia and Malaysia. An example is Silambam, an ancient Indian combat technique centered on a stick or staff, impacted numerous Asian martial arts such as Silat. As a such, Arnis may have ancestors in these systems; some Arnis maneuvers are comparable to Silambam's short stick (kali or kaji) and other weapon-based fighting methods.

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