Octav Dirgantara Setiadji


© Promotion Oktav Dirgantara Setiadji
Octav Dirgantara Setiadji was born in Bandung, West Java. At the age of 13 he started learning Pencak Silat, which originated more than 1000 years ago in southeast Asia. It is a combination of elaborate dancing body movements in the training and its pugnacious use as self-defence in the rhythm of the traditional Indonesian gamelan. It is more defensive than other combat sports and spirituality, respect and artistic demand are important. At the age of just 18 years, Octav founded his first school, which is still open and where he works as a trainer. In the 70’s he advised film teams about combat sport scenes in their movies and trained members of the Indonesian army. To evolve the old structures of Pencak Silat, Octav assumes various ascendancies from other combat sports and fuses them into the special Silat Gerakan Pilihan. With the 12th Dan Silat Octav wears the highest distinction in this martial art. Since 1982, he has been teaching it in Berlin.