History & Tradition
Literally, the word Malabar means "The Voice of the Eastern Facing Mountain", the voice of the West. Bapak Willem de Thouars chose to honour one of his Senior Practitioners of the arts, KunTao and Silat, Steve Gartin; he gave grace to the name "Malabar" as the first United States style. The mountain, ThunderRock, faces to the East, to Asia and to Indonesia.

Simplistically speaking, KunTao means "fist way" in Chinese. In the melding that is KunTao Silat; the major arts and styles of China, known to us all, were combined as they were immigrant to Indonesia many hundreds of years past. That synthesis of art was affected in a major way by indigenous Indonesian fighting art.

Silat, itself a syncretic art with major Indian and SouthEast Asian influences. As the Indonesians met the Dutch in trading and intermarriage, access to these arts, previously restricted to ethnic practitioners, became available to people (the de Thouars Brothers) who eventuall made their home in the United States of America.

Presently, the practice leader of Malabar Fighting Arts, Steve Gartin, and his associate,Chas Clements, combine almost 40 years of instruction in KunTao and Silat, and nearly 70 years of practice and instruction in martial skill. Their interest has been to translate and codify the instruction into a self-defense suitable for the American Citizen. Commonly available weapons are taught, as is response to attack from ambush and the fighting of one against many.

The objective then, is to grant an opportunity for our Citizens to learn from an art forged in the crucible of the most dangerous martial environment ever on the face of the Earth. These techniques, combat knowledge, were produced in an atmosphere of headhunters, cannibals, bandits, pirates, slavers and anarchy. These are martial arts of the Citizens, faced with armed and aggressive predators.

The activity is suitable, physically, for seniors, infirm, women & children as well as having instruction for the martial professional or adept. We cordially invite you to come train with us. Observe what we do, pick a class that is suitable for your interests, join in a Christian fellowship of American Citizens united for the common defense.

This page, and all contents, are Copyright 1997 by ThunderRock, Colorado USA.