The Weapon of Lembing | Malay Martial Arts - Silat

Monday, September 23, 2013

The Weapon of Lembing

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Lembing is considered the oldest weapons from other weapons. Basically Lembing is throwing weapon. Its existence has been detected since the stone age. It was a special weapon for hunting at the time.

Hunting spear at the stone age


Spears are either known as Tombak in the Javanese words and were called Lembing by the Malay. There were two types of Lembing , the throwing spears and one used for fighting at close quarters. Lembing basically are ballistic weapon and the stem was made from straight wood that measure from opening arms from one end to the other. The blades were made and design like knife and sharp blade were inserted into the stem and reinforced with rattan or ferrule bond.

lembing weapon
Malay Lembing

Mastering the art of Seni Lembing, one must understand the criteria of the lembing.  Malay Lembing is more shorter and sharp blade at the edge. There are many types of blades that can be found such as wide spear like leaf,  wide blade and light long stem normally are mean for ballistic purposes and a spear used for battle the blade are long and sharp and the stem are strong. Lembing commonly was made with a long hilt which using rattan or nibung or a hard wood that not easy to break. While the blade size measure of a span distance. Mostly the blades are taken or copied from the shape of bamboo leaves. The length of the spears are measured from the ground until shoulder before attach with a blade.

In the art of a warrior Lembing are commonly used with both hand in defending and slicing and were used as a throwing weapons at a certain time. The length of a Lembing stem is measured from the shoulder to the ground and the blades are about a span length. The blades are various from a beetle leaf design alike or from a bamboo leaf design.

Lembing are made from long hilt and since that it is long the techniques used are more on swinging. At the end of the hilt, the rod are attach together with a blade. These blades are used in making a thrust and hurling. The combination of this two techniques makes Seni Lembing is an art of mastering both the Seni Simbat and Seni Keris.

When training with Seni Lembing one should understand the techniques of making a thrust and handling the bar. The thrust are made with a twist of both hand and opposite twisting when pulling the blade out from the target. While the bar are used to block, played with a hand drill or movement an addition can be swing.

Therefore in order to mastered Seni Lembing once must really mastered the way of applying the hand ,changing and controlling the stem of the Lembing while making a movements of thrust and slicing, throwing and changing hands drill.

photo: credit to fototeacher.com


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