Caci (fighting)

The term caci is said to derive from the Manggarai words ca meaning one and ci meaning test, indicating a one-on-one test between the fighters. Caci is an ancient fighting art indigenous to the Lesser Sunda Islands.

According to local folklore, caci during festivals began with two brothers who owned a buffalo. When the younger brother fell into a deep hole, the older brother had to slaughter the buffalo to get its skin to help his sibling escape from the hole.[3] The community celebrated this act of love with a festival in which caci matches were held.

Caci fighter wearing horned helmet, songket sarong with bells, and holding a rattan whip and shield.

Competitors are bare-chested and wear pants covered by an embroidered woven sarung songke (songket sarong). Their lower backs and ankles are adorned with small jingling bells, which makes a peculiar sounds during moving and fighting. The upper body are intentionally remain uncovered in order to be exposed to the whips' lashes.[2]

The masked helmets are made of buffalo hide wrapped in colourful cloths with horn-like headgear, along with head-cloths worn over the face.[3]

There are two types of caci: with a whip (tereng or agang) or a stick (agang). The whip may be either long or short. The short whip corresponds to the cambuk of Java and measures 3 feet in length. The long whip is 5–6 feet long and made from palm stems tied together with either rattan or strips of water buffalo hide. The stick is an undecorated piece of hardwood measuring 1-1.5 yards long and 2 inches in diameter.

The shield is of round or elliptical shape. Also traditionally undecorated, it is known as giling or nggiling when made of buffalo hide and perisai kayu when made of wood. Both the whip and the stick form were traditionally practiced in Manggarai Regency, but the stick is rarely seen today. In Bali and Ngada Regency, only the stick form exists.

Caci warrior holding a rattan whip and shield.

A caci whip fight is performed by two contenders — always male — whom each opponents usually came from different villages. After a starting signal, the whip and shield duel commences.[2] During early in the match, the contenders might go back and forth in prancing manners, thus jiggling and ringings the bells attached on his hips and ankles. This was meant as a provocation, initiated some moves to taunt each opponent and enliven the battle. While in the background musicians beat the drums and gongs, and the supporters cheering.

In a caci match, the two fighters take turns alternately attacking and defending. The attacker is permitted three blows to any part of the anatomy, while the defender attempts to block with his shield. The defender is not allowed to attack while defending, but in the case of whip-fighting the defender may spin the whip above his head to prevent the attacker from closing in. Stick techniques are all swings with no thrusting or poking allowed.

All parts of opponent's body are allowed to be struck. However, contenders mostly aiming for opponent's upper body, especially their head, since landed a successful assault on opponent's face or head is considered as the highest point. Therefore, wearing protective equipments especially traditional horned helmet — which protects forehead, eyes and face — is highly required. Suffering a hit in the face or on the head means instantly losing the game. While a hit on the back is considered as a good strike, and believed as a good sign that next year's harvest will be plentiful.[2] The roles of attacker and defender are reversed in turns after each whip strikes. After four turns of trials, the winner is decided, and the next pair of opponents will take to the arena and having their chance in the next fight.[2]

Caci warriors preparing to perform during a festival in Ruteng on Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara.

Caci at one time served as a form of dispute management or conflict settlement within and between villages.[2] Fighters are divided into the host group (ata one) and the challenger group from another village (ata pe’ang or meka landang). Victory is obtained by hitting the opponent's face or head. In former times, championship bouts were held in which the objective was to blind the opponent's eye. The winner is required to happily sing a quatrain while the loser replies in a low voice to show despair. Participants must be agile, physically fit and able to sing local songs.[4]

Women playing a drum as musical accompaniment for Caci fighting.

Although caci is often considered as somewhat a playful competitive sporting event, it also has a sacrificial function. According to local belief, if the back of a fighter's body gets whipped, there will be a good harvest. The blood dripping from the wound constitutes as an offering to the ancestors for fertility of the soil.[2]

Matches are usually held in the yard of a communal house. Younger boys compete during the early part of the day, while senior fighters and champions take part during the afternoon. During the match, musicians, whom usually women are gathering and playing drums and gongs as a musical accompaniment to encourage the contestants as well as the spectators.

Caci in modern times is often mistaken for a dance, but actually throughout its history until as recently as the 1970s, it was a realistic fighting art.[1] Seasoned fighters were heavily scarred on their upper body, while losers further had the mark of the defeating blow on their face, or worst — having one of his eyes blind. Today however, injuries are usually shallow enough to heal within a few days.

Caci whip fighting is one of the traditional fighting arts of the Manggarai community on Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara.

Fights were traditionally held almost weekly but waned in popularity until they only took place during festivals. Today however, the interest from tourists has made caci more common but with changing agricultural circumstances, the art today is disconnected from its traditional symbolism. The length of the ritual is drastically shortened, showing only fragments of the process.

Caci can still be seen in its original context during the Penti ceremony, which the most important one usually held at 5-year intervals. Caci is most frequently performed during Penti, a traditional harvest festival to mark the end of harvest and the beginning of the new crop cycle. During Penti festival, caci fights might last at least a full day — but more often they may take two or three days — accompanied by the music of gongs and drums, attracting people to come for cheering and supporting their champion from their village, and it was held in such festivities.[2]

In East Manggarai Regency, the caci whip fight is performed by the men of the Ndolu ethnic group during the peak of the Karong Woja Wole traditional festival. Karong Woja Wole is a traditional harvest ceremony, marked by delivering newly reaped rice from the lodok puran kae (crop field) on Ndolu Hill, to the gendang ndolu (traditional house) in Waekekik hamlet.[5]

• Indonesian martial arts
• Pencak silat
• Stick-fighting
• Whip fighting
• Perang pandan
• Cakalele
• Kabasaran

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Caci

• Caci fighting video Caci Congko Lokap Gendang Poncung "beke" in Ruteng