Poerwoto is one with Merpati Putih

Poerwoto is one with Merpati Putih

JAKARTA (JP): Cigarettes are never far from him. His short
stature, thin body, simple clothes, wrinkled face and gray hair
tell nothing but a nobody.

But appearance sometimes deceives. This 50-year-old Javanese
commoner, Poerwoto Hadipoernomo, is regarded as the founding
father of the Merpati Putih pencak silat school, one of the
largest traditional martial art school in Indonesia.

His only brother, Budi Santoso, is regarded as co-founder.

At present, Merpati Putih has around 480,000 members
throughout Indonesia, including powerful members of the Armed
Forces, Army Special Force, the National Police and the
presidential security guards.

Merpati Putih's incumbent chairman is Solihin GP, former Army
Chief of West Java Command, who is now member of the Supreme
Advisory Council.

Poerwoto, affectionally called "Mas Pung" by his students,
said he inherited the self defense art from his father, Saring
Hadipoernomo.

"I was 18 when my father asked me to establish the school on
April 2, 1963," Poerwoto said. Saring named it Mersudi Patitising
Tindak Pusakane Titising Hening or Merpati Putih for short. The
name means "seek till you find the right action in the
tranquility."

The hand-to-hand fighting skills, according to Poerwoto,
originated from Amangkurat II, a sultan of the Javanese Mataram
kingdom in the 16th century. "I am his 12th descendant," he
claimed.

Following his father's instruction, Poerwoto, who seriously
learned the fighting skills when he was 14, collected 24 friends
and set up the school.

"My father found it necessary to build the school in order to
introduce the indigenous self-defense style to Indonesian youths
and prevent them from being influenced by foreign martial arts
which began to win their favor," Poerwoto said.

"Each martial art contains with it the characters and
philosophy of the nation to which it belongs and we want our
youths to stay faithful to our own identity," he puffed away as
he talked.

Merpati Putih offers 12 grades of skills. But when Saring died
in 1969, he had not yet taught all his skills to Poerwoto.

"But I received from him the manual on the advanced stages of
our family fighting style," Poerwoto, who became chain-smoker at
19, said.

The manual consists solely of pictorial descriptions which
only Merpati Putih's students can understand. He acknowledged
that it was very difficult, even for him, to learn the advanced
stages without his father's help. "I have not yet practiced all
the techniques described in the manual," he regretted.

Merpati Putih combines breathing exercises with combat and
self defense skills. Its exponents claimed that their skills are
based on the manipulation of waves found in the nature.

At its best, all these skills would theoretically enable
people to perform things which seem like magic such as walking on
the water or making oneself invisible.

"This can be achieved by eliminating body gravitation or
manipulating light waves to deceive the eyes," Poerwoto
explained. Actually he was reluctant to mention this because
people tend to term as magic or witchy any natural phenomena that
they cannot yet understand or scientifically explain.

The father of three sons said that he did not finish his law
study at Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada university. "As the school's
members grew and grew, I did not think about study again. I
believe my occupation as teacher and founder of the school is my
life," he looked contemplating.

He paused for a while. "My father would have been happy had he
seen how the school has developed now. I am happy, too. I have
done what my father entrusted me to do."