The Guru Silat

A portrait of the war magician augments an understanding of Malay mysticism by contributing an alternative view to what is already known about the medical shaman (bomoh). This chapter regards the ascension of the individual to become a guru silat, and should be read in conjunction with the following chapter where the guru silat is viewed in relation to the students. Malay styles of silat tend to be the constructions of the guru silat and not solely the transmissions of established lore − it is as if the guru silat are attached to a rhizome and through this are enabled to create silat. Here I find it helpful to interrupt the organic emic metaphor of silat sekebun (see Chapter 2), where silat was regarded as a garden, and instead regard silat as a rhizome. Deleuze and Guattari (2002: 10) dispense with the root, tree, branch, and leaf metaphor (of thinking, linguistics, organization) for that of the “rhizome,” a configuration where any part may be linked to any other part, rather than one where one part links to others in a structured genealogical manner.