Thang-Ta / The legend of Sword & Spear

Thang-Ta is a traditional martial art practiced by the major ethnic group Meitei people of Manipur, northeastern India.
Thang means sword and Ta means spear, Hence Thang-ta means "Sword & Spear", which includes a wide range of weapons techniques too.
Thang-Ta originally refers to the weaponry division of Meitei martial arts called Huyen langlon, and constitute it together with the empty hand technique called "Sarit Sarak".
It looks very close to Myanmar's ethnic martial arts because of its historical geographical proximity. If you look at the video below, you can also feel the similarity with weaponry practiced in the plain of North India, and some nuances of Chinese kung-fu in various aspects.


Promotion video of Thang-ta in English


I have not been to Manipur yet and have not seen it in the field, I discovered Thang-ta school branch by chance, on the research of Maharashtra in 2010.
A branch school was opened in Amravati by Mr. Mahavir, who learned the art under Master Prem Kumar who has the main school in Manipur.

Member of Thang-ta school in Amravati


group practice of Thang-ta

This video, I uploaded to Youtube, has got  several claims of "This is not Thang-Ta!", Which seems to be from Manipuri. I'm not sure but it has probably been localized somewhat by Mr. Mahavir in Marathi taste.
The northeastern part of India, including Manipur, was too deep backcountry to visit, but it seems that foreigners can easily enter in recent years, so I would like to explore and deepen martial arts exchanges in the future.

Reference: Huyen langlon






HOME © Since2005. Sangam Institute of Indian martial arts. All Rights Reserved. NEXT

No comments:

Post a Comment

C.V.N. Kalari Sangham / Trivandrum

Master: Sathya Narayanan Gurukkal East Fort, Pazhavangadi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala 695023, India Tel 0471-74182 Website: http://www....