Willem de Thouars is one of the worlds' finest fighting men.  For over sixty years, he has studied with some of the foremost teachers of some eighty martial art styles; Pentjak Silat, the Chinese KunTao on Java,  the Five Majors of Shaolin and the Three Crowns of Chinese art in China, Western Boxing, European weapons arts and so on.  He has produced fine students for over forty years, teaching in the privacy of his own home to students accepted by invitation only.  For the first time anywhere, Uncle Bill makes his art accessible to the public by way of these videotapes of his work.  They give us an insight into the practice of a martial artist unparallel in his intention and dedication to honoring his teachers and their gifts.

The Documentary; an over view of the art of Willem de Thouars

            We see Uncle Bill in his most candid moments; practicing, teaching, demonstrating, active in seminars and with his Inner Circle Seniors.  He speaks of his teachers, his culture and the fighting art that emerged from his sixty years of continuous study and practice.  You will see many forms shown in their entirety, many applications, demonstrations by senior students and other aspects of technique and practice.  This video is the companion to "A Philosophy of Bamboo", Uncles' autobiography and history of his fighting arts.

Human beings have lived in Indonesia continuously for at least one and one half million years generating a culture of unsurpassed sophistication and subtlety.  Practicing all of the arts of civilization; worship, painting, sculpture, music & the dance, poetry and letters, statesmanship and diplomacy,  they have been makers and traders, artists and warriors, a people of great wisdom, sophistication and spirituality.

As the producers of the spices relished all over the civilized world,  they have traded since antiquity with India, China, the great Southeast Asian cultures, Thailand, Burma, the Malaysian Empires,  and later the Dutch, Portuguese, and other Europeans.  These were the "seven seas" that sailors of great expertise sailed.  These were the seas fraught with the most feared pirates, cannibals, head-hunters, dangerous waters, jungles, volcanoes and wildlife as well as the most holy people, beautiful women, honorable men and civilized society found on Earth.  These islands were never conquered in the literal sense; they have tolerated immigration and intermarriage, they enjoy trade and exchange- but these peoples were never conquered. 

Hai-Teng Sifu Willem de Thouars is the flower and fruit of this grand history of culture, art and the exchange between equal cultures.  He is a melding of the two cultures, Indonesian & European.  His family are of the of the Menangkebau people of Sundanese Sumatran extraction living on the Western end of Java.  The Badui are known as the "Invisible people of the Mountain Forest".  Said to be clairvoyant, able to become invisible, able to confuse enemies and to slay from a distance, the Badui' are a people of great spiritual depth and discipline. 

Sundanese immigrants to the Java, the Menangkebau Bugis people, from the time of great antiquity have maintained their own culture and language.  They are formidable warriors; afraid of nothing, technically capable and possessed of an intent and warrior purpose of great power.  They have been a culture that has provided the great builders, engineers, men of letters, statesmen and explorers of the empires of Indonesia. 

He is also descended from the Norman peoples of Holland/France.  Originally raiders, headhunters and warriors, the Norsemen swept over Europe, claiming the best land and hunting. Willems' family are nobility, trading across the world for hundreds of years in their own ships, leading their own companies of fighting men and trading in their own products.  Le Vasseur de` Cognee` de Thouars controlled vast trading companies, factories, townships and agricultural land in the area known now as the city of Thiers.  Known as men of the blade, the de Thouars family has been prominent in the martial aspects in the European model for generations as producers of fine weaponry and the patrons of fighting masters.  The title still vests in the de Thouars family in the person of Victor I.C. de Thouars, Willems' younger brother.

KunTao Silat is an art that finds its' roots in several cultures; Silat is the native art of  the Indonesians.  It is complete in itself-- subtle, terrible in its' affect and sophisticated in technique.  It shows the complete range of weaponry, has a deep spiritual content and expression and an historic organizational structure. 

KunTao is the arts of China, expressed by an ethnic Chinese culture that may have been on Java for 500 or more years experiencing the inevitable change that occurs from being so far from home.  The father arts of Shaolin styles; Honan, Fuchien, Fukien, Kwantung and Shantung are melded with the Mother styles of Taiji Chuan, PaQua Chang and I Hsing-Ie. 

Born to a prominent martial arts family of some one hundred and fifty years history as champions of the Kendang, Uncle Bill was a sickly child.  For this reason, he was allowed to seek other means of strengthening himself than only the family martial art of Silat SerakŪ- he  sought the expertise of the Chinese ethnic community and their Internal arts.  The unusual opportunity in this Javanese culture was only afforded him because of his family connections and the honor given them.  Ordinarily, in the Indonesian culture of the 1930's and '40's, the simple desire to learn an art from another culture would not be sufficient for acceptance.  It was the stature of the family that opened doors to him that would otherwise have been closed- this coupled with his great personal desire has built a bridge between styles that has not been seen before now.

His practice of the family art of Silat SerakŪ formed much of the basis for his later studies.  As a fully finished fighting art, silat teaches combat attitudes, practices and technique that have been formed in the crucible of an intensely aggressive people.  Permitted to seek instruction from very influential teachers, Willem studied other silat systems, the Chinese arts; I Hsing-Ie, PaKua Chang, Tai Chi Chuan and the animal systems of Shaolin stylings.  He is an accomplished boxer in the traditional Western style, a fencer in the European style and has investigated over 80 other martial arts stylings in depth.  He is the lineage holder in several diverse arts, each having its' own specialties and sophistications. 

Uncle Bill rises at 3:30 A.M. every morning for 3 hours of solo practice.  He awakens internally; praising God for another day and the Joy of it.  The opening of the body asserts the cleansing and enervating of the muscles, tendons and strengthening of the bones.  His practice starts with the time before the rising of the Sun in preparation to receive that energy as the rest of the Earth does also.

By the Way, Grasshopper, if there is a secret to the refined mastery of the work of Martial Arts, you just heard it:  Get up early in the morning, greet the Sun, practice your art in Joyfulness.

His personal practice is ongoing in the study of specific aspects of martial usage; targeting precision, distancing and positioning, anatomy - the tools of our work.  A man of great personal discipline and rigor, he sets himself problems and solves them in great scholarship and experimentation. 

As you receive instruction from this remarkable man, remember that you see the distillation of fifty years and more of deep study and practice.  His information is not just how to wave your arms and legs around.  It isn't just how to develop the power or speed. Certainly those things are available to you but that isn't where it ends.  His expression of the Art has layers and layers of information that will bear watching many times in your practice and study. 

Watch his positioning, posture and body alignment, notice his angle of incidence to the opponent and the timing of his actions.  Pay attention to the precision of his targeting of the opponent and his usage of the anatomical manipulations.    Seek to understand the intention of this man, to experience the depth of spiritual focus that yields the warrior.

It is not enough to be strong, to have endurance, or even enough to have courage or a desire to protect oneself or others.  A serious man, a martial artist, must have the spiritual purity to accept the responsibility for the Terrible Craft.