Pradal Serei, The Khmer Ancient Way Of Combat, Is Still Alive In Cambodia

Pradal Serey, or Khmer Boxing, intends "free combat style" in Khmer language. It is believed to be the oldest of South East Asia's ancient Martial arts. Bas-reliefs at the Bayon, in the ancient metropolis of Angkor, show Khmer soldiers displaying armed combat techniques involving knees, elbow joints and kicks. Even though any written record of Khmer pugilism had been lost for centuries, it is believed by the Cambodians that this was the army's criterion armed combat style at the clip of the Khmer Empire's upper limit enlargement (9th century AD).

Pradal Serey, or Khmer Boxing, intends "free combat style" in Khmer language. It is believed to be the oldest of South East Asia's ancient Martial arts. Bas-reliefs at the Bayon, in the ancient metropolis of Angkor, show Khmer soldiers displaying armed combat techniques involving knees, elbow joints and kicks. Even though any written record of Khmer pugilism had been lost for centuries, it is believed by the Cambodians that this was the army's criterion armed combat style at the clip of the Khmer Empire's upper limit enlargement (9th century AD).

Khmer pugilism was on the brink of extinction, together with all word forms of Khmer culture, during Politician Pot's Khmer Rouge government (1975-1979). In order to rapidly make a new, ultra-Maoist society based on an Utopian, agricultural life as in the centuries before, the Khmer Rouge announced Year Nothing and systematically destroyed the country's infrastructure. All "enemies of the revolution" were executed. These included teachers, aristocrats, educated people, monks, doctors, artists, foreign speech production Cambodians, actors, vocalists and Khmer pugilism practitioners. Everybody else was sent for re-education to labour encampments upcountry, which later became sadly known as the "killing fields". Millions died of starvation, diseases and summary executions. A large part of the centuries-old Khmer cultural heritage, including pradal serey and its teachers, disappeared in lone four years.

Following the country's slow recovery from the 20 years-old civil warfare that erupted after the Khmer Rouge were ousted by the Vietnamese in 1979, Khmer pugilism slowly resurfaced in small, private schools in Phnom Penh. Far from being commercial operations, such as schools were created by survivors, to go through whatever was left of pradal serey to the new generations, thus keeping the country's heritage alive. Since 2003, Khmer pugilism have been officially supported by the Government as an of import portion of the Khmer heritage and it's attracting a growth figure of immature athletes. Professional combatants now gain a life from sponsorships and hard cash prizes, but they're far behind their Tai opposite numbers in footing of income. On average, a professional Khme pugilist gains 20 USD a fight, plus some commodity from the sponsors, mostly Thai-based companies already involved in muay Tai events in Thailand.

Cambodian government have got been very vocal about the history of their native Martial art, especially with their Thai neighbors. Whilst pradal serey was already around approximately one thousand old age ago, no such as thing as muay thai, or even muay Siam, was recorded at the time. Moreover, they reason that when the Khmer empire collapsed in the 12th century ad and Angkor was abandoned to the jungle, Thai interlopers captured Khmer soldiers and assimilated their captives' combat style into their ain army's standard. Thus pradal serey is, according to Cambodians, the true ascendant of muay boran and so of muay thai! Don't state this to a Thai, though...

From a spectator's point of view, pradal serey looks very, very similar to muay thai. In truth, many techniques derived from muay boran are actually known and permitted in muay Thai professional person bouts, but they are very rarely implemented. Kampuchean combatants instead trust much more than on elbws and knees, often performing stilish and graceful moves reminding of muay boran forgotten moves. Khmer pugilism is exciting to watch, as it's faster and more than technic than muay thai, without the ferociousness proper of Let Wei. Nowadays Pradal Serey have its ain boxing electrical circuit and fightings are televised on Kampuchean Channel 3 and 5 on weekends.