RUMI MAKI Fighting Arts

COMMENTS:

"Ancient Kickboxing" Very Alive

"I have not directly experienced this Rumi Maki Inca Art. But, from what I do know of various Arts -- especially Savate and Arnis -- inclines me to admire Rumi Maki [as appearing in this book] for having the virtues of both Savate and Arnis. The footwork and fistwork of Rumi Maki are fluid and sharp very like both Savate and Arnis. In addtion, Rumi Maki [of this book] appears to make great usage of posture and movement much like older Western Boxing Bare-knuckle Fisticuffs -- as the book remarks upon too. Precise-and-compact co-ordinated footwork and fistwork makes all these Arts effective. Yet, Rumi Maki has more features and virtues than just some kind of "Inca Kickboxing" -- there are clinching and grappling counters and attacks as well as other aspects uniquely Inca Rumi Maki."

Kevin Kiesky WA, USA

Book Review:

"It was with a bizarre coincidence that I happened to pick up this book about the little-known martial art of Rumi Maki, which originated from the ancient Peruvian Inca many hundreds of years ago. Normally, I would think, ‘what on earth has Martial Edge given me to read now,’ but it just so happened that the night before I watched a history docu-drama about the sixteenth century conquistador, Cortez, the man who laid siege to and defeated the Aztec empire. Thus having given me a rough idea of the history of the conquest of South America by the Spanish, it made reading this book all the more relevant and poignant as it was clear that through European colonization, the world has lost a lot of culture and traditions, martial included, through the need to impose Western ideas and religion upon those we conquered.

The first third of this volume gives a potted history of the ancient tribes that inhabited the southern continent of America from the Stone Age to the sixteenth century, when it was invaded by the Spanish and Portuguese. However, as interesting and diverse as these cultures were it is apparent like every culture on Earth, there has always been a need to develop a martial tradition as “Throughout time, every society has developed some form of self-defence, motivated by the actions of those whom wish to abuse or subject them through force.” No change there then. Of course, what is interesting about this book is that we tend to automatically think of the Orient when we think of martial arts but all societies develop them, and although they may differ slightly in reference to culture, they actually look surprisingly similar in the end as they are based around the same principle of people hitting each other. What was interesting about the South American martial arts was their similarity to the Chinese kungfu styles in that they are based around animals such as monkey or frog. The authors put an interesting spin on this as they equated this to the very early people’s need to hunt and “to use their ingenuity to equal or exceed the forces and abilities of the beasts they encountered.”

The emphasis of myth, ritual and religion is also explored (although the topic of human sacrifice is glossed over somewhat!) and the authors make clear that this is an integral part of the Incan martial arts and cannot be separated. One of the most fascinating descriptions is of the coming of age ritual whereby the young men of the tribe are put through a test to prove their status as warrior and burgeoning manhood. This month long test of endurance would make any marine’s eyes water and reduce a modern black belt to tears as the men were starved, beaten and pushed to their physical limitations to prove they had the fortitude to fight and continue their martial arts training. What was refreshing to learn was that the royal princes also had to endure this rite of passage, dressed in rags to equalise them to the other combatants so as “he would not feel contempt for wretched people, recalling that he himself had once worn their attire.”

The fascinating facts that one learns from this slim text, such as the painful altitude training and the adaptation to the hilly terrain, are numerous with the only criticism being that even more could have been written about the history and culture of the Incas. ‘Rumi Maki’ is a curious little volume for those interested in expanding their knowledge about world martial arts."

Lesley Jackson Martial Edge

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

We receive many emails daily where we are recurring questions about of Rumi Maki. Therefore, we have prepared this section is intended to resolve those doubts and common questions that we always make people interested in the subject. Here are some of them and their answers:

What is Rumi Maki?

Rumi Maki is a martial art Peruvian Inca roots which becomes the group or collection of different forms of fighting earlier cultures to the Inca empire, which were subsequently fused to the conquest of these ethnic groups or civilizations for the Inca people. It was thanks to the contribution of Mr. Flores as a pioneer who was able to recover some of this knowledge and supplement with input from other practitioners of different lineages and have been rescued by the organization Auka Wasi in Ritual Fights to become an Modern and functional martial arts.

How do you know that roots this art derives from pre-Inca cultures?

Basic information comes from oral transmission among the practitioners of this art, but across this information with existing data by the Spanish chroniclers, we can see that indeed it was a custom of the Inca people to adopt the customs of the peoples conquered they considered useful for its development, among which was the assimilate combat techniques and weaponry of peoples under its rule. We can cite a literature as an example: "Rites and competition in the Andes," published by the Publishing Fund of the Catholic University (ISBN 9972-42-587-8) page 57 paragraph 2: - "Therefore, the Incas were forced to keep them as allies (K'ana) and learn from them the technical knowledge to develop weapons, and implement tactics and strategies for war. '- There is a lot more information on this practice described in the chronicles of Garcilaso de la Vega, Blas Valera, Bernabé Cobo, etc.

Why just Rumi Maki is now known?

Rumi Maki actually always been known but from the 70's with the boom in martial arts as a practice is identified between the customs of the Andean people. Many times the man of the Andes because of their idiosyncratic language, uses the term "Rumi Maki" to name the best fighter or warrior and not to name what he does as something separate. For them ability makes the person and not the technique that can be learned. It is this confusion in your opinion, which resulted in Rumi Maki has not been identified as a separate art to the person for a long time.

What is the training they received in Rumi Maki Mr. Flores?

A mid 60's he began his apprenticeship in this fighting system under the guidance of Eugenio Panta, continuing his training in the next decade and Huamaní Challco, Teodoro Ramírez, until their "graduation" with other practitioners of this art in the late 70.

Why confuse people Takanakuy with Rumi Maki?

As explained above, in the Andean idiosyncrasy there is no concept of martial art or technique, but these are considered related to the individual skills, so that the person is called to his knowledge and not their "profession "or" trade ". The word Rumi Maki has the meaning in Runa Simi (known as "kechwa" or "Quechua") to designate who has the best ability to fight, that is, Rumi Maki is called the best fighter and not the set of techniques learns to fight. That's why the confusion on the name and history perhaps unable to distinguish one from the other. On the other hand, Takanakuy literally means "fist grip" is the "act" and not the technique or skill in itself. Then deduce the above, Rumi Maki is the "ability" to do "Takanakuy".

Why is not widely known Rumi Maki?

Rumi Maki was already present by the Peruvian people but under the concept of "skill" fighter and "art" by many independent martial 50s. From the 70's begin to emerge several publications on the subject, a first book and a mimeographed manual in Spanish, but nevertheless, it was more the allure of the glamorous deployment of new oriental martial arts were not accessible to so its spread unnoticed. It's because it was published the book "Rumi Maki Fighting Arts" in English, the subject again today, gaining momentum and attention in the minds of fans of martial arts and martial sports.

Rumi Maki is practiced in other Andean countries?

It is complex to specify this, because they live a different reality to ours. We know that historically due to the expansionist culture of the Incas, there are very few in other countries could be called truly "direct descendants" of the rule of Tawantinsuyo because they are really part of the conquered peoples and mostly belong to other different ethnic groups which formed the Incas (call "Mapuche", "tehuelches", "Guarani", etc.).. and being a practice of Rumi Maki "Elite" (the correct word is "Ayllu"), is very rare to have transcended the members of peoples under for them, either by reason or force. Chances are that the practice of Rumi Maki can survive even in a very reserved in the departments of Potosi and Oruro in Bolivia as manifested by some Bolivians in some websites.

Never heard about or read anything about the habits of men fighting in the Andes: Is something newly invented?

No. There is a vast literature on this subject, such as those written by anthropologists Corbak 1962, Hopkins 1982, Orlove 1994, Platt 1986; Skar 1982 who describe the practice of ritual fights for at least 200 years, consisting clashes scheduled, Ritualized conflicts within and outside the community. These encounters (battles, confrontations, fights, fighting rituals, etc.) Are promoted by young people of the Andean communities, which provided slings, bolas, whips or sticks, and sometimes opposing melee, go to the fight backed women and elderly groups participating in the ritual, dancing, preparing the party and encouraging the fighters. The total number of participants varies from tens to hundreds.

These rituals are often war powers between dual community groups, as Duviols (1973) noted in documents of the colony, as in the seventeenth century was seen in the central highlands of Peru, a profound distinction between herder groups the adjacent highlands (Llacuaz) and groups of farmers Kishwar (Wari).

Of particular interest is the mention of Duviols (1973) on the Wari-Libiac dance (war dance), an important ceremony of integration between potentially hostile groups of herders and farmers. The presentation of ritual combat concerned the former differences between herders and farmers in the highlands Kishwar. In this act emphasize their traditional enmity and provided on the other hand, a ritual basis for their interaction over time. The Wari-Libiac dance could be an ancestral form of modern ritual fighting, and perhaps descended from pre-Hispanic forms of ritualized interaction between farmers and herders.

Mr. Flores is the only one who knows Rumi Maki?

No, this is not true. Mr. Flores is only the first to spread the art openly and example to other instructors and practitioners of Rumi Maki to begin to teach without restrictions and freely to those interested in their practice either through Auka Wasi Organization. Your position within Auka Wasi as he says, is temporary, until other instructors begin to take the reins of this organization and he can then continue with his personal project. Currently we already have members of other genealogies in Perú with whom we share lots of information to better inform the origins, development and techniques of this art.

What is your relationship with Tinku as practiced in other Andean nations?

We must carefully define the term "Tinku", "Tinkuy" or "Tupay" to understand what he means. In the Andean people these two words are used to determine it is a fight, "Tinkuy" means "meeting", "confrontation." And the word "Tupay" comes from the Castilian "bumping" that is also used to describe these events. The Tinkuy as current practice is possibly a remanant of the Inca tradition and custom test the value of people not only in appearance "moral" but "quality" of the person's ability warrior or fighting ability (ability to call them "Rumi Maki" as explained in previous paragraphs.) The Tinku now is degenerating as a competition of dancers in the festivities of the Andes and powers of bloody fights, no real sense of its origins. In Rumi Maki Tinku is practiced as a way to test the fighting ability of the student and for promotion of grade level.

Rumi Maki Is now a reconstruction?

Yes, but in a very different way than you think. The purpose of Auka Wasi is to bring together all the practitioners of this art scattered across the length and breadth of Perú It is our aim to obtain more information from these other sources and genealogies of practitioners of their method of fighting. Until now only have the information provided by Mr. Flores and a few more practitioners of different genealogies of Rumi Maki. It should be noted that the training received by Mr. Flores was teacher to student, first-hand and not a reconstruction It is impossible for anyone to scarce 13 years could "rebuild" an art, then that was the age when he became known for the practice of Rumi Maki. Mr. Flores had a lot of research to corroborate any oral transmission received from their instructors and disclose everything that was demonstrable historical level. There is much more information received by Mr. Flores and other instructors that still needs to confirm and will only be possible by crossing data from other practitioners.

Rumi Maki Is an invention of the military regime of 70?

No. During the 60s and 70s Peru, lived under a military dictatorship, intensely nationalist, which highlights the cultural values and folk of the nation. At that time there was a military group called "D.O.S." whose training was based possibly on the practice of Rumi Maki, as Herman Gori said the journalist in a local newspaper, marking the first time mentioned Rumi Maki with a system fight, separate from the concept of "skill" inherent in the individual. It should be noted that Rumi Maki was conceived as a practice of "Elite" (Ayllu) and not a practice "massive" war between the hierarchy. It is very difficult then, that in the military era had been "crowded" this practice, even with the support of a nationalist regime. This is not the purpose of Auka Wasi, but rather to try that this practice should not perish, precisely because of that sense "elitist" of former interns. On the other hand, there is not any relationship existed between Herman Gori - Mr. Flores and make us think that might be related to an agreement between them for the words of Rumi Maki in the newspaper article.

How is it that the Incas developed systems of fighting with bare hands, if you know that ancient people were fighting using weapons, then why in Rumi Maki is not handling weapons and emphasizes disarming techniques?

There is a belief that the early inhabitants of the Andes weapons first used as a defense and attack the man rather than the unarmed combat for self-defense. However, archaeological evidence shows in many ceramics and pictograms of the Andes men fighting with bare hands, which is ruled they had not known or practiced techniques grappling without the use of weapons. For the same evolutionary process, the handling of weapons is result have developed first hand the fight clean and not vice versa. Once exploited the full capabilities of the fight unarmed, the man of the Andes knew he must increase their offensive power and that is where idea and develops different gadgets and devices to expand its tactics of war that it could achieve victory over his opponent. Rumi Maki currently taught and practiced only three of them being the deep, the rounder and stole, based on concepts used in modern martial arts to define this: Functional and Traditional. It's called Functional all those techniques that are used today and can be implemented at any time with excellent results. Traditional is the original martial art practice, according to the time it was created. The learning and use of makana, champi or qeti is a way Traditional Therefore its use is now obsolete, however, is Functional handling sling, rounder or stolen as it allows us to defend ourselves in situations of long-range attack.

What is Auka Wasi?

It is the organization created to research, rescue, preservation and dissemination of traditions, customs and rituals of the arts of war inherited from the Incas and the cultures that preceded them in the Andes and the Amazon. Auka Wasi as an institution was originally created for search, rescue and collection of ancient fighting arts practice known as Rumi Maki and as its governing body, but now also seeks to accommodate all practitioners of the different rituals Fighting practiced in Peru. The word Auka Wasi in Runa Simi language literally means "House of the Warrior".

What is expected of Rumi Maki?

Through Auka Wasi as an organization, we hope to bring together other instructors and begin to reveal some of their knowledge, admitting more number of practitioners, thus rescuing the ancient wisdom of the Incas inherited by them from their predecessors.

We hope that this explanation is clear the answer to this question.