Founding
The White Crane Silat lineage is taught through Persatuan Gerak Badan (Unification of Body Movement), an Indonesian organization founded in 1952 by the late Grandmaster Subur Rahardja (referred to as Suhu). Born in 1925 to a martial arts family in Bogor, West Java, Suhu studied Silat from a very young age. Suhu's uncle and first teacher, Liem Kim Bouw, was a martial arts master and respected healer. Later, Suhu studied under several other martial arts masters who lived with his uncle during times of difficulty in Asia in the 1930's and 40's.
Suhu demonstrated prodigious talent for the martial arts from a very early age. He also demonstrated the extraordinary discipline necessary to learn various styles and to endure the rigorous years of study of martial arts often taught only in monasteries. According to one of Suhu's most famous teachers, Agung Gedeh Jelanktik (the former King of Lombok), he had mastered the external form of martial arts by the age of twenty. Suhu then went on to master internal martial arts as well.
(1925-1986)
It is said that the current White Crane Silat style taught by PGB represents Suhu's synthesis of his family's style of kun tao with four other martial arts styles.
In the years following World War II, Suhu joined his country's battle for independence. Suhu gained a reputation as a formidable fighter during the guerrilla campaign against the Dutch and English colonial powers.
From a close knit group of young fighters Suhu founded his first group of 18 students, known as the Block-18. This group provided the foundation for the forming of Persatuan Gerak Badan in 1952. Suhu chose the White Crane as the symbol of the school because the crane is a social animal which represents balance and grace, and only fights in self defense.
The Present
In the 1970's young men and women from the West came to study White Crane Silat in Bogor under Suhu. Inspired by their commitment and interested in achieving a wider audience for his art, Suhu began to travel to the West to teach.
Soon White Crane Silat branches began to crop up in Germany, France, and the United States. Enthusiastic students often traveled to Bogor to train under Suhu in Indonesia and some of Suhu's senior students traveled to the Western countries to provide instruction. The White Crane Silat center in Bogor began to take on a very international flavor with students from all over the world coming to stay and train for a few weeks to a few years.
Suhu died in 1986 leaving the care of PGB to his son, Gunawan Rahardja. Gunawan, the current Grandmaster of White Crane Silat, has continued and expanded upon his father's work.
The center of White Crane Silat in Bogor continues to provide a high level of training for Indonesians and students the world over. An international retreat is held in a different host country biennially, and students come from around the globe to attend a week long intensive training seminar. Gunawan also continues the healing traditions of his uncle and father by providing traditional Asian healing practices to a wide variety of patients. And, as has always been the case, many of these patients, once well, become practitioners of White Crane Silat.