| About us |
|
|
|
The Making of Hari of King
By: Mitos Garcia |
 |
Kingship is something that is bequeathed from one generation of royalty to the next. Holding on to the title of king, however, requires constant effort, some amount of wisdom and a high standard of values consistent with the prestige of such a lofty status.
The original Filipino martial art called Sikaran called its champions “kings”- -hari, in Tagalog- - and not masters because they roved themselves to be the royalty in the practice of the sport. Men who had learned from their elders acquired the title. Earning it through hard practice and by achieving the near impossible, which made then consistent champions in the sport.
However, being hari in Sikaran does not stop with just being a champion in competitions. One also has to have a love for the sport, making it in his life’s ambition to spread as widely as possible its gospel of high ethical standards, nurturing it through hard times and good, teaching its techniques to as many as will learn them and keeping the rigid discipline that it always demands as a way of life.
Such a man is Hari Osias C. Banaag, whose life revolves around Sikaran, pulling into its influence his wife, children, brothers and friends. Beyond the familiar circle are the students who compose the peripheries of the Sikaran brotherhood on a national scale, extending even to other countries.
The title oh hari was recently conferred upon Banaag, or Osi, as his close friends call him, for the invaluable work he has done not only to perfect his own practice, but to evangelize the revival of this ancient Filipino sport which, a few years ago, was all but forgotten.
The title was conferred upon Banaag by Francisco Torres y Escorpion of Baras, Rizal himself a Hari of the old tradition. Torres was a farmer in his youth, like his ancestors before him, and an avid practitioner of Sikaran, an inherited interest which enlived the late hours of day for the people of Baras and the adjoining town of Morong.
Torres, while conferring the title on Banaag, admonished him to continue being hardworking, dedicated and highly moral. He advised all Sikaran players to stick to a diet that is health and wholesome and avoid a degenerating lifestyle.
The old man said that he had decided to make Banaag his heir, because of the work he has done to keep Sikaran alive and progressive. “I have noticed the dedication of this young man, and because non of my own sons have followed in my footsteps, I now make OSIAS C. BANAAG my heir as hari, to whom I will bequeath everything I know about Sikaran,” Torres stated.
Banaag was born in Baras, Rizal in 1959 where the Sikaran was originated, As a youth, he used to watch the elders play in informal Sikaran bouts. However, his first lesson in martial arts was in karate.
He is a religious person; Banaag early in life developed convictions, which gave him a high standard of moral values. He learned to master his bases instincts, adopting a lifestyle of meticulous self-discipline. As a Sikaran leader, he learned the ability to impart to his own students the virtue of true sportsmanship.
Banaag learned several trades, finishing courses in Biogas Technology, Bible Theology and as a master cutter in tailoring, which has served him good stead as a proponent of Sikaran. He took up course in Bachelor of Science in Education at the Tomas Claudio Memorial College.
On March 23, 1976, he went to work at the Foremost Farms in Pinugay, Baras, where he became a security foreman. His record as employee at foremost earned the respect not only of his fellow employees, but also of the management, earning him an award of integrity from the company. His work, however, did not stop Banaag from practicing his martial arts. He gave up karate and took up Sikaran, heart, mind and spirit, and exerted all efforts to promote it everywhere.
September 21, 1976, he established the Foremost Sikaran Arnis Brotherhood at the Foremost Farms, Milestone Farms and Peterson Farms, at the Barangay Pinugay, Baras, Rizal. Teaching anyone interested enough to undertake and learn the discipline that Banaag has consistently applied, not only to himself, but also to his students. “I used the Word Foremost not because I was working there, but because it means ‘the very first’ organization teaching solid Sikaran,” Banaag stated.
Banaag’s idea of discipline is simple, if rigid. “No matter how many promotions and degrees are conferred on a practitioner, if he or she is sloppy, or follows a lifestyle that parent would not wish their children to emulate such as: drunkenness, gambling, immorality, etc., or uses Sikaran to gain advantage of others, that practitioner is not worthy to eventually assume the status of hari, or any rank whatsoever because he has made a mockery of something that has become as sacred as our history as Filipinos,” Banaag stated.
These are the values and standards that have been set by Banaag into the Constitution and By-laws of the GLOBAL SIKARAN FEDERATION. He also encourages his students to study the history of Sikaran, to imbed in their hearts a complete knowledge of their favorite sport.
In his researches on the history of Sikaran, Banaag has come across some facts, which contradict certain popularly known myths about people and events. He is now in the process of correcting these misconceptions, broached by some for their own self-interest, through interviews and discussions with elders in Baras and Morong who have a better knowledge on the subject.
Garnering the title of hari June 26, 1994, as the legacy of Francisco Torres to the Filipino youth, Banaag now has the authority to award rankings on his students and subordinates. An affidavit signed by Torres attest to the legacy.
With the final imprimatur on his status as the new Hari, Banaag has pledged to continue the old man’s dream of seeing Sikaran replace foreign-inspired martial arts in the hearts of Filipinos. He also hopes that, in the near future, Sikaran will also become a national official sport participating in the Olympics and other competitions worldwide.
Style of padamba, or flying kick, which was reportedly delivered with tremendous power, at an extraordinary height of 10 feet. Another, Alfonso Tesoro, likewise an undisputed hari, could crack coconuts with bare shins and is said to have acquired the hardness of steel. Casteneda was reported to have killed a carabao with a single biakid, the same way he used to dispose of opponents in the arena. He wound up without challengers eventually.
Although these men died of old age, they had no chance to teach the next generation, and left no legacy. Indeed, surviving old timers watched helplessly while their favorite sport, a product of centuries, slowly faded away to give way to “modern” martial arts from Korea, Japan, China, Indonesia and Thailand.
|
Torres mentions women who played sikaran, contemporaries who were no less mean players than the men.
Acquiring hari status were Segunda Jimenez and Marcela Llagas, who would enter the arena with their skirts bound like G-strings above their knees. “They could deliver some very powerful and painful kicks.
They took courage to get in there and face these women,” Torres muses.
A young man, OSIAS BANAAG y Catalos, had his beginning in karate, but abandoned this to concentrate on sikaran and refining his techniques in his ancestors’ sport. In 1976, Banaag established the Foremost (meaning first) Sikaran-Arnis Brotherhood and has since been its’ most dedicated practitioner.
Mainly through his tireless efforts, sikaran has now regained the interest of many young people, a good number of whom have become his students. He espoused the study of sikaran in Fort Bonifacio, and for security guards at the Manuela I and II (las Pinas) Shopping Complex, on the third floor of Manuela Complex (EDSA) crossing which established the Sikaran-Arnis Gym. Banaag’s efforts paid off. Having garnered (6th) sixth degree status in Karate, he attracted the attention of Hari Francisco Torres who recently conferred upon Banaag the status of hari, symbolizing his mastery of the sport.
No one can confer hari status except another hari, as part of the legacy he leaves behind when he retires from active participation in the sport. The conferment on Banaag is his first between hari and one who is not his own son. This was in recognition of Banaag’s efforts not only for being a top sikaran player, but also for using his own meager resources to nurture and spread it not only in the Philippines, all over the world.
As Torres’s heir, Banaag has an edge over his colleagues. The old man has committed to teaching Banaag his own techniques as much as his old bones will permit. Banaag, for his part, has sworn to uphold the high values of sportsmanship espoused by sikaran and pass on to the younger generations all the knowledge he has acquired. Thus, sikaran is restored to its rightful place as part of Filipino heritage.
|
|
|
Rebirth of an Ancient Sport
By: Mitos Garcia |
 |
FILIPINOS, before the arrival of the Spaniards, had their own sports. Notable among these were buno (arm wrestling), sipa (played by kicking a small bag up and down), arnis (stick fighting) among others.
The word Sikaran was derived from the word ‘sikad’, meaning kick. Sikaran originated from what are now known as Baras and Morong towns in the Rizal province. In Morong, the ancients called the sport Paninggara (accent on the last syllable), an old Tagalog term, which also means kick fighting.
Sikaran was first developed by farmers to pass away the twilight hours after a long, hard day in the fields, and to entertain their town mates. It eventually developed into a martial art during the Spaniard conquest, when it was later suppressed.
>>>The players began by marking a round area a few feet in diameter, to contenders enter the ring and slug it out with their feet, while the audience, made up of young and old fun loving folk, encouraged them with cheers. Whoever ran away first or was first to go down was the loser.
The champion was called a hari, meaning king. Being hari was by no means easy because he could always be challenged. A champion was expected to defend his title at all times. As the sport developed, the rules made it harder from the champion by setting handicaps while allowing his challengers all advantages possible.
Among the handicaps was one in which the hari would stay inside the arena, 6’ to 8’ in diameter and could not go beyond the perimeter.
He would have two to three opponents, however, could attack him from the inside or outside the line and enter or withdraw from the arena.
Old timers assert that one had to be good to remain a hari in this type of competition.
Another was done on a stairway. The challengers would be up on top of the stairs while the hari would try to dislodge them. If he succeeded, he went up another notch. The number of challengers would eventually dwindle, however.
No one knows now who, in those ancient times, where the progenitors of this Filipino sport. It is that came during the time of rajahs and datus. When the Spaniards came, the sport had already been played for several generations.
Techniques were handed down from father or mother, to son or daughter and refined new rules were made the impractical ones discarded.
The primary rules that have withstood the generations of change are the ones that gave the sport its name. Only the feet are used for fighting and the hands used only for grabbing, throwing, parrying or blocking. Up to the present, fighting techniques are still being developed without changing rules by those who would keep sports as pure and original as possible within the modern international contest.
The two attacks of the foot fighting art are: The Pilatik )panghilo or parylizing) and Patusok (pamatay or lethal thrust). The pilatik is aimed at less vital parts of the body, while the patusok is directed at the heart, neck, head, groin and spine.
The major kick of the foot fighting art is called the Biakid or sickle kick. Biakid is a kick where the center of the force is at the back of the heel. It is the most powerful kick, it could be delivered at all angles and is controlled by the largest muscles that run down the body, which are the hip, thigh and legs to the heel and the ball. Sikaran may be played as a sport or used in self-defense.
According to the old timers, sikaran champions themselves who learned its history from their elders; the 18th century saw the suppression of sikaran by the Spaniards due to rumors of an impending revolution. Sikaran then went underground, but it survived to produce the generation of proponents at the turn of the century.
A surviving hari, FRANCISCO TORRES y Escorpion of Baras, recounts that the American takeover of the country did even more harm to the sport because the introduction of boxing to the country’s youth.
Their own children looked tot the new sport and left sikaran to stagnate and all but die a natural death.
However, the old timers continued to play in the fields, reviving the interest among fellow-farmers in Rizal, even if the youth now disdained the sport in favor of boxing, and foreign inspired martial arts. The old haris found themselves bereft heirs to whom they could bequeath the techniques of the sport.
Now 98 years old, Torres is one of the very few surviving haris. Others are Emiliano Ballesteros and Demetrio Ramos, both from Baras, and Jose Gonzales from Morong. All the rest have passed away in the intervening years.
Among the great sikaran players, Perfecto Ballesteros gained province-wide recognition as “Agila” for his style of padamba, or flying kick, which was reportedly delivered with tremendous power, at an extraordinary height of 10 feet. Another, Alfonso Tesoro, likewise an undisputed hari, could crack coconuts with bare shins and is said to have acquired the hardness of steel. Casteneda was reported to have killed a carabao with a single biakid, the same way he used to dispose of opponents in the arena. He wound up without challengers eventually.
Although these men died of old age, they had no chance to teach the next generation, and left no legacy. Indeed, surviving old timers watched helplessly while their favorite sport, a product of centuries, slowly faded away to give way to “modern” martial arts from Korea, Japan, China, Indonesia and Thailand.
Torres mentions women who played sikaran, contemporaries who were no less mean players than the men. Acquiring hari status were Segunda Jimenez and Marcela Llagas, who would enter the arena with their skirts bound like G-strings above their knees. “They could deliver some very powerful and painful kicks. They took courage to get in there and face these women,” Torres muses.
A young man, OSIAS BANAAG y Catalos, had his beginning in karate, but abandoned this to concentrate on sikaran and refining his techiniques in his ancestors’ sport. In 1976, Banaag established the Foremost (meaning first) Sikaran-Arnis Brotherhood and has since been its’ most dedicated practitioner.
Mainly through his tireless efforts, sikaran has now regained the interest of many young people, a good number of whom have become his students. He espoused the study of sikaran in Fort Bonifacio, and for security guards at the Manuela I and II (las Pinas) Shopping Complex, on the third floor of Manuela Complex (EDSA) Crossing which established the Sikaran-Arnis Gym. Banaag’s efforts paid off. Having garnered (6th) sixth degree status in Karate, he attracted the attention of Hari Francisco Torres who recently conferred upon Banaag the status of hari, symbolizing his mastery of the sport.
No one can confer hari status except another hari, as part of the legacy he leaves behind when he retires from active participation in the sport. The conferment on Banaag is his first between hari and one who is not his own son. This was in recognition of Banaag’s efforts not only for being a top sikaran player, but also for using his own meager resources to nurture and spread it not only in the Philippines, all over the world.
As Torres’s heir, Banaag has an edge over his colleagues. The old man has committed to teaching Banaag his own techniques as much as his old bones will permit. Banaag, for his part, has sworn to uphold the high values of sportsmanship espoused by sikaran and pass on to the younger generations all the knowledge he has acquired. Thus, sikaran is restored to its rightful place as part of Filipino heritage.
|
|
