KG. TANGOK, LAND OF MUAY THAI

Kg Tangok, apart from being the land of legends and pawangs was also the home of boxers; Muay Thai boxers. Muay Thai is a new vocabulary to the thoroughbred practitioners of Tangok Kick-boxing. It was only known as ‘boxing’ then without the word ‘kick’ as that was what boxing meant to them; free sparring using all the body arsenals as weapons and shields. To not being able to use legs, knees or elbows in self defence is unthinkable.

The emergence latter of Muhammad Ali, the hero of world heavy-weight boxing, that rocked the world was a revelation that there was another version of boxing out there.

It was said that the grandmaster of Tangok Boxing was a Bangkok Champion named Awang Merah. But that was just from words of mouths to explain the origin of Tangok Boxing. He was not known outside the village. Name like Hussin Apolo was more well known and graced coffee shop talks those days.

LOCAL BOXERS

Awang Merah trained many local boxers. One person trained by his student was a neighbour, an ustaz by profession; a real charming character with beautiful voice and infectious smile. I will only call him Hamidi, not his real name as a sign of respect to him.

There was another boxing character, the terror of the village. I will call him Samad, also not his real name. He was a very close relative. Samad loved to test his skill on others and would challenge all known local boxing fighters to prove that he was the village champion.

Almost all fell to his prowess. Hamidi however refused the challenge, his religious upbringing forbid him from openly displaying his skills. However Samad would hear nothing of it and kept badgering until the latter conceded.

The sparring that followed was a lesson to Samad and a measure of his actual proficiency in the art, a smash to his ego. However, Samad being the Gedebe (tough guy) of the village refused to accept being second best. He went to Southern Thailand to polish his boxing skill.

TEST OF SKILL

After quite a while away, he came back a more confident man. He issued another challenge to Hamidi. Legend have it that both sparred practically non-stop from asar to maghrib. Hearing the maghrib azan, the religious gentleman Hamidi asked to concede defeat although they actually broke even in the fight. He acceded to Samad being the Tangok Champion. Both fighters were swollen faced and dead tired. Hamidi remained indoors for three days but Samad paced the village the next day, swollen faced, smiling gloriously, an undisputed champion and local gedebe.

Samad then opened his school of boxing. I and my brother joined too. It was against Ayah’s will but my late mother, called Mek in soft voice said to him, ‘Anak Jantan (man) must learn boxing to be able to defend the family‘. So I learnt Tangok Boxing under Samad for a year before going to Kota Bharu for secondary schooling and learnt Silat Gayong.
I remembered an occassion when another student, Yassin who thought he was above the rest of us, green horns, asked to spar with Samad himself. It was not wrong in kick boxing tradition to make such a request to the teacher. This was called ‘sudi‘

Samad just smiled and said ‘ok. I will not attack, just defend‘. Yassin launched himself onto Samad with a flurry of blows to show his prowess but the champion just stood his ground with high body shield, soaking all the blows like it was nothing.

Boxing is half about toughness and the other half skill. Then, suddenly Samad moved into the opponent, still with body shield. Now Yassin got caught by his own attacks that fell short of the destructive range. His balance lost, he fell to the ground without Samad launching a single punch or kick.

Trying to recover his composure, Yassin said that was a real trick and he got stars in his vision. Well, seeing stars coming from one’s own folly is a real lost of face. We all knew that and smiled to each other. He never came back for further lesson. The grudge however remained.

As for Hamidi, he got a teaching job in Agama School, Kota Bharu and latter transfered to Pekan Pahang. Hamidi always show respect to elders and one particular person he never missed paying respect to was my mother, Mak Su Aji to him. I was there on one such visit, back from Pekan.

Mek asked him how he managed over there, being an ‘Orang Dagang‘ (outsider). He smiled and said everything’s ok but that was only after he was tested. He then tell the story of how a gardener was so cocky and always demeaned him in front of other workers. After too many of these, he challenged the gardener to a fight, seeing that was what the gardener was cornering him into.

On the morning of the duel, there awaits the gardener with a smirk on his face that got Hamidi’s blood boiling and brought all of Awang Merah’s lessons to the fore. As the gardener pulled a fast, hard punch supposed to flatten him in a second, he launched the famous Muay Thai round house kick that sent the attacker into the black abyss of consciousness for a few minutes.

After regaining consciousness with the help of Hamidi, he said the ustaz brought not just religious lessons but also boxing lessons as well. Then on Hamidi said all workers were full of respect for him.

I was away at Kota Bharu when I heard of Samad’s tragic death. He was slaughtered from behind, on his very own motorcycle. It was said that the murderer was someone closed to him because they were on the same motorcycle driven by Samad. His passenger had asked Samad to stop for cigarette at a local shop. As Samad tried to kick down the parking gear of his motorcycle, he was slashed from behind. The blood that flowed was like a stream as he was a big sized man. His father (both father and son was not on good terms, both of hot temperament), said to me one day that he really believed the assailant was Yassin, a friend of Samad but having a grudge because Samad was the reigning champion he could not unseat.

What happened afterward was a dark episode of our kampong with the police rounding up suspects indiscriminately and giving them the infamous interrogation techniques including the ‘Segok Polis‘ that caused the victims deep pain and even internal injury. Rumours were ripe that my late father was the informer. That was because a police inspector frequented our shop for a sip of Mek’s superb tea.

Our family survived untouched but amidst constant fear of safety. An elderly auntie whom my late father regarded as an elder sister kept the family informed of the boiling turmoils and advised him to keep the family indoors. Yes, it was a dark period indeed akin to the Communist Emergency Era. Mek was constantly on edge and father was treading a quick sand. He cannot be seen to be acting differently as that would be akin to acceding to the blame. It was quite a while before the dangers subsided and life return back to normal.

#memoir

#muaythai #Tangok #folklore