Arnis, also known as eskrima/escrima or kali, is the national martial art of the Philippines. These three terms are, sometimes, interchangeable in referring to traditional martial arts of the Philippines ("Filipino Martial Arts", or FMA), which emphasize weapon-based fighting with sticks, knives, bladed weapons, and various improvised weapons, as well as "open hand" techniques without weapons.
There were campaigns for arnis along with other Philippine martial arts to be nominated in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists; and as of 2018, UNESCO has inscribed nine martial-arts-related intangible heritages.
Name Arnis comes from arnés, the Old Spanish for "armour" (harness is an archaic English term from same root). It is said to derive from the armour costumes used in traditional Moro-moro stage plays, where actors fought mock battles with wooden swords. Arnes is also an archaic Spanish term for weapon, used as early as 1712. (Arms is an English term from the same root)
Eskrima (also spelled escrima) is derived from the Spanish word for fencing, esgrima. Their cognate in French is escrime and is related to the English term 'skirmish'.
The name kali was not historically used and is a 20th century coinage. It is most likely derived from the pre-Hispanic Filipino term for blades and fencing, kalis (Spanish spelling: "calis", cognate to kris or keris), documented by Ferdinand Magellan's expedition chronicler Antonio Pigafetta during their journey through the Visayas and in old Spanish to Filipino Mother Tongue dictionaries and vocabulary books dating from 1612 to the late 1800s, such as in Vocabulario de Lengua Tagala by Fr. Pedro de San Buenaventura. In this sense, kalis or calis (e.g. pagcacalis, "the art of kalis") ultimately fell out of use and was replaced by escrima and arnis. The term calis in various forms was present in these old Spanish documents in Ilocano, Ibanag (calli-t; pronounced as kal-lî), Kapampangan, Tagalog, Bicolano (caris), Waray (caris), Hiligaynon, Cebuano (calix, baladao – "kalis balaraw/dagger" and cales), and Moro-Maguindanao in Mindanao (calis – the kris, weapon). In some of these dictionaries, the term calis refers to a sword or knife kris or keris, while in others it refers to both swords and knives and their usage as well as a form of esgrima stick fighting. While kalis remains an academic term equivalent to kris or keris in some Philippine languages, in common usage kris is most often used to refer to the weapon while kalis instead most often sees use in Catholic contexts as an unrelated homonym, the translation of chalice. The first to use the term kali in reference to Filipino martial arts was Buenaventura Mirafuente in 1948, claiming it was the original native term before it was replaced by arnis or escrima. While Mirafuente posits that the original term was kali and that the letter "S" was added later, the late Grandmaster Remy Presas suggests that the "S" was dropped in modern times due to hypercorrection (assuming the "S" was a Spanish addition, when it wasn't) and became at present more known as kali in FMA circles outside the Philippines itself.
There exist numerous similar terms of reference for martial arts such as kalirongan, kaliradman, and pagkalikali. These may be the origin of the term kali or they may have evolved from it.Remy Presas, 1974, Modern Arnis, pp. 10–12, .
In their book Cebuano Eskrima: Beyond the Myth however, Dr. Ned Nepangue and Celestino Macachor contend that the term kali in reference to Filipino martial arts did not exist until Buenaventura Mirafuente wrote in the preface of the first known published book on arnis, Mga Karunungan sa Larong Arnis by Placido Yambao, the term kali as the native mother fighting art of the Philippine islands.
Practitioners of the arts are called arnisador (male, plural arnisadores) and arnisadora (female, plural arnisadoras) for those who call theirs arnis, eskrimador (male, plural eskrimadores) or eskrimadora (female, plural eskrimadoras) for those who call their art eskrima, and kalista or mangangali for those who practise kali.
It is also known as estoque (Spanish for rapier), estocada (Spanish for thrust or stab) and garrote (Spanish for club). In Luzon it may go by the name of arnis de mano or arnes de mano.
The indigenous martial art that the Spanish encountered in 1610 was not yet called "eskrima" at that time. During those times, this martial art was known as paccalicali-t (pronounced as pakkali-kalî) to the Ibanags, did ya (later changed to kabaroan) to the Ilokanos, sitbatan or kalirongan to Pangasinenses, sinawali ("to weave") to the Kapampangans, calis or pananandata ("use of weapons") to the Tagalogs, pagaradman to the Ilonggos and kaliradman to the Cebuanos. Kuntaw and Silat are separate martial arts that are also practiced in the Philippine archipelago.
Historical accounts
Origins Legend
According to legend, It was introduced by Bodhidharma, a Buddhist Monk born in India (5th or 6th century CE), who came to Southeast Asia via the Srivijayan capital of Palembang and then reached the island of Luzon. Upon his travel, he saw dried Ratan canes on the ground and introduced this rare, martial art to the locals.
History
As arnis was an art usually practiced by the poor or commoner class (as opposed to nobility or warrior classes), most practitioners lacked the scholarly education to create any kind of written record. While the same can be said of many martial arts, this is especially true for arnis because almost all of its history is anecdotal, oral or promotional. Another origin of arnis can be traced back to native "Pintados" or then "Tintadus" fighting techniques during conflicts among the various pre-hispanic Filipino settlements, though the current form has Spanish influence from old fencing which originated in Spain in the 15th century. It has other influences as well, as settlers and traders travelling through the Malay Archipelago brought the influence of silat as well as Chinese and Indian martial arts.Mark V. Wiley (1997). Filipino Martial Culture. Tuttle Publishing. .Sam Buot (1991–2009) 'Eskrima-Arnis, Martial Arts of the Philippines. Some of the population still practise localized Chinese fighting methods known as kuntaw.
It has also been theorized that the Filipino art of arnis may have roots in India and came to the Philippines via people who traveled through Indonesia and Malaysia to the Philippine islands. Silambam, a stick/staff-based ancient martial art of India influenced many martial arts in Asia like silat. As such, arnis may share ancestry with these systems– some arnis moves are similar to the short stick (kali or kaji) and other weapon based fighting styles of Silambam.
When the Spaniards first arrived in the Philippines, they already observed weapons-based martial arts practiced by the natives, which may or may not be related to present-day Arnis. The earliest written records of Filipino culture and life, including martial arts, come from the first Spanish explorers. Some early expeditions fought native tribesmen armed with sticks and knives. In 1521, Ferdinand Magellan was killed in Cebu at the Battle of Mactan by the forces of Datu Lapulapu, the chief of Mactan. Some Arnisadors hold that Lapulapu's men killed Magellan in a sword-fight, though historical evidence proves otherwise. The only eyewitness account of the battle by chronicler, Antonio Pigafetta, tells that Magellan was stabbed in the face and the arm with spears and overwhelmed by multiple warriors who hacked and stabbed at him:
The natives continued to pursue us, and picking up the same spear four or six times, hurled it at us again and again. Recognizing the captain, so many turned upon him that they knocked his helmet off his head twice, but he always stood firmly like a good knight, together with some others. Thus did we fight for more than one hour, refusing to retire farther. An Indian hurled a bamboo spear into the captain's face, but the latter immediately killed him with his lance, which he left in the Indian's body. Then, trying to lay hand on sword, he could draw it out but halfway, because he had been wounded in the arm with a bamboo spear. When the natives saw that, they all hurled themselves upon him. One of them wounded him on the left leg with a large cutlass, which resembles a scimitar, only being larger. That caused the captain to fall face downward, when immediately they rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears and with their cutlasses, until they killed our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide. When they wounded him, he turned back many times to see whether we were all in the boats. Thereupon, beholding him dead, we, wounded, retreated, as best we could, to the boats, which were already pulling off.
Due to the conflict-ridden nature of the Philippine archipelago, where settlements (Kedatuans, Rajahnates and Sultanates) were often at war with one another or raiding each other, warriors were forged in the many wars in the islands, thus during the precolonial era, the geographical area acquired a reputation for its capable mercenaries, which were soon employed all across South, Southeast and East Asia. Lucoes (warriors from Luzon) aided the Burmese king in his invasion of Siam in 1547 AD. At the same time, Lusung warriors fought alongside the Siamese king and faced the same elephant army of the Burmese king in the defense of the Siamese capital at Ayuthaya The former sultan of Malacca decided to retake his city from the Portuguese with a fleet of ships from Lusung in 1525 AD.The former sultan of Malacca decided to retake his city from the Portuguese with a fleet of ships from Lusung in 1525 AD. SOURCE: Barros, Joao de, Decada terciera de Asia de Ioano de Barros dos feitos que os Portugueses fezarao no descubrimiento dos mares e terras de Oriente , Lisbon, 1777, courtesy of William Henry Scott, Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippine Culture and Society, Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1994, page 194. Lucoes influence even manifested in East Asia at Japan where Lucoes sailors initially guided Portuguese ships to the ShogunateBayao, Bras, Letter to the king dated Goa November 1, 1540, Archivo Nacional de Torre de Tombo: Corpo Cronologico, parte 1, maco 68, doc. 63, courtesy of William Henry Scott, Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippine Culture and Society, Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1994, page 194. and even South Asia in Sri Lanka where Lungshanoid pottery from Luzon were found in burials there."Quest of the Dragon and Bird Clan; The Golden Age (Volume III)" -Lungshanoid (Glossary)- By Paul Kekai Manansala The first contact the Portuguese have of people of Luzon was in the Malabar Coast off Western India at South Asia, wherein; at the Letter from Gaspar Pereira to King Manuel I of Portugal, January 11, 1506, in Cochin. Published in Cartas de Affonso de Albuquerque seguidas de documentos que as elucidam, Vol. 2 (Lisbon: Academia das Sciências de Lisboa, 1898), 354−369 (364-366). Original manuscript in Arquivo Nacional/Torre do Tombo, Corpo Cronológico, Parte I, Maço 5, Doc. 70, fols. 8−8v, a "Luzam" (A person from Luzon) was serving in the Portuguese navy fighting against the Muslims of the Indian coast.