Pradal Serey

From OTMWiki

Pradal Serey is the name of a centuries old kickboxing sport of Cambodia.

Many of its students are of Southeast Asian and East Asian descent. To name a few, many foreign practioners such as French, Australian, British, Sudanese, and Americans parttake in the sport of Pradal Serey as well.

It is the national sport of Cambodia. It is also known as Kbach Kun Khmer, or Sovanna Phum

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Phnom Penh - Cambodian kickboxers getting ready to attack

1 Rules and Match Set Up
2 History
- 2.1 The Near Extinction of Pradal Serey
- 2.2 Pradal Serey Today
3 Well known Pradal Serey practitioners
4 Pradal Serey promoters
5 See also
6 External Links

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Rules and Match Set Up

A match consits of 5 sets of 3 minute rounds and takes place in a 6.1 meter square boxing ring. A one or two minute break occurs between each round. At the beginning of each match boxers practice the praying rituals known as the Twai Bongkum Kru. Traditional Cambodian music is played during the match. The music is played used the instruments of the skor yaul(a type of drum), the sraliai(a flute like instruments and the stringed chhing. Pradal Serey is founded on four techniques which consits of: blows of fist, kicks, blows of elbow, and blows of knee. Boxers wear leather gloves andshorts.

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Cambodian Kickboxer celebrating victory

Rules

1. A boxer is not allowed to strike his opponent while he is on the ground.
2. A boxer is not allowed to bite.
3. When an opponent can not fight anymore, the refreee stops the fight.
4. Blows to the back of the opponet is not allowed.
5. A boxer may not hold on to the ropes.
6. Blows to the genitals are prohibted.

Victory can be obtained by knock out. A knockout occurs when a boxer is knocked down to the ground and can not continue fighting after a 10 second count by the refree. Victory is also obtained from the end of the match when judges decide by a point system which fighter was more effective. If fighters end up with the same score a draw is called.

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History

Pradal Serey was created in Cambodia from the 9th to 14th Century during the Angkor regime when the Khmer Empire dominated and controlled most of what is now Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos. It was broadly used among the Cambodian Military to protect the country of Cambodia from being invaded by its neighbors.

The Art of Pradal Serey is a very brutal and rigorous art-form which uses every single part of the human body, the hands, legs, elbows, knees and feet. It has been praciticed and passed down from generation to generation.

Pradal means fight and serey means free. Translated literally, it means "The Art Of Free Fighting"

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Bas-relief carved on a wall of the Bayon Temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia of A Khmer boxer being blessed before a fight.

Historically Pradal Serey predates Muay Thai. This fact is well recorded in the bas-relief left behind by early Khmers in the ancient temples of Angkor Wat. Much of the writing on this ancient khmer art has either been destroyed or adopted by the invading Thai armies and governing institutions during the rise of the Thai people in the 13th century. There have been many heated debates of the true origins of kickboxing on this issue.

Pradal Serey was a very important influence to the development of Muay Thai and other Southeast Asian forms of kickboxing.

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The Near Extinction of Pradal Serey

On April 17, 1975, during the chaos of the Vietnam War, A communist group called "The Khmer Rouge" took the opportunity to overthrow the Cambodian government and rose to power. Their plan was to destroy the current Cambodia and restart it anew as a peasant country. To do so, they executed all educated people and others whom had ties to the old government(doctors, teachers, soldiers, actors, singers,Pradal Serey practioners, etc.) and threw the remaining Khmer population into labor camps, in which many died of starvation and diseases, to be re-educated under the new government. An estimated 2.5 million cambodians died during Khmer Rouge Regime. This lasted for four years until 1979 when the Vietnamese overthrew the Khmer Rouge.

Pradal Serey had been banned during the Khmer Rouge era and because of this, the art of Khmer Kickboxing had almost become completey wiped out of Khmer history. Today Pradal Serey is being revived after decades of devastation and near extinction.

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Pradal Serey Today

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Kun Khmer Vs. Muay Thai Banner In Australia

Pradal Serey is making a strong comeback since its banishment back in the 70s. .

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Kun Khmer Logo in Australia

Numerous gyms have opened and large masses of students, local and foreign, have come to train in Cambodia. There are weekly matches held, in which many are televised, and many of Cambodia's best have traveled internationally to compete. There are currently schools of Pradal Serey located in Cambodia, Europe, The United States, Australia and other parts of Asia. Cambodia is trying hard to promote the sport as the Thai did with Muay Thai.

During the war, Thailand did its best to monopolize kickboxing and promoted its sport Muay Thai worldwide, and succeeded. The Thai have set up an international boxing committee in which almost 100 countries participate which lead to the why Southeast Asian kickboxing is widely known as Thai boxing.

At an ASEAN meeting in 1995, Thailand wanted to rename Southeast Asian kickboxing as Muay Thai or Thai Boxing. The Cambodians proposed to rename the sport as "Sovanna Phum" boxing or "SEA Boxing", which represented Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. Sovanna Phum means "golden land" in both the Khmer and Thai which came from the language of Pali and refers to mainland Southeast Asia. "SEA" is a popular acronym referring to Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, the Thais would not compromise.

Recent exposure of Khmer Kickboxing to the western world have come from traveling journalists and tourists.

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