KunTao Silat is a term coined by Steve Gartin and Chas Clements in the late 1970s to 
describe the melding of the teachings of U. Un Surya and the de Thouars Brothers – which is why KunTao precedes Silat.
KunTao is the Chinese Shaolin and Taoist martial arts as practiced in Indonesia prior to WWII as taught by U. Un Surya and Willem de Thouars. Silat is the indigenous Indonesian warrior arts, in our case describing the various Silat systems such as Serak, Kendang and CiMande as taught by the de Thouars Brothers – Paul, Willem and Victor.
Steve Gartin is the founder & leader of KunTao Silat. He does not care for titles or honorifics so
his students refer to him simply as, “Pak Steve,” meaning roughly, “dad,” in some of the pertinent Indonesian dialects from which our Silat arts originate.
In March of 2022, Pak Steve named his disciple Dr. Jonathan Pyndus as, “Keeper of the Lineage,” for the next generation. Dr. Jon helps Pak Steve manage KunTao Silat’s online learning system and conducts the online classes for students around the world.
KunTao Silat practitioners begin at Level One and progress through Level Seven before being acknowledged as a Guru Muda, meaning young teacher. Upon fulfilling certain requirements a practitioner reaches Guru level (teacher) and finally, through merit, completes the program as Sigung (master teacher).
From there the practitioner develops their own system based upon KunTao Silat principles, their prior training and personal proclivities.
KunTao Silat is an American Martial Life Style and a life-long pursuit, and there is always plenty of
martial lore to study and perfect and the video archives Steve has accumulated provides a profuse body of information for the Guru Certification Course members to study in their quest for their own personal Martial LifeStyle.
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