Yes, Arnis is an original Filipino fighting art.
Filipino martial arts is a broad term more detail is covered in specific aricles. The three major branches of Filipino martial arts are Arnis typically from the northern Luzon regions, Eskrima from the central Visayas regions, and Kali from the southern Mindanao regions. Within these branches dwell a long line of masters, families, systems and history. Most Filipino systems will associate with one of these terms and their respective Regions of the Philippines.
The oldest martial arts in the Philippines were those practiced by the indigenous Filipinos. They were in contact with the aborigines of Taiwan and Borneo which is evident from oral legends and the similarities between their fighting styles. The native tribes focused on combat with sticks, cudgels, knives and broadswords while practicing unarmed combat forms like dumog. Some of these ancient Filipino martial arts still exist but others are either extinct or very rare. Armed training took precedence over empty-handed techniques with the reasoning that a warrior will naturally learn to fight without weapons after gaining enough experience with them. Even today most Filipino fighting arts remain weapon-based. Malays from Indonesia and Malaysia made three separate migrations to the Philippines and brought with them the influence of silat. Filipinos would later go on to create silat styles of their own. Early traders from China also had a large impact on the local fighting techniques and certain Filipino styles contain characteristically Chinese movements. Additionally, the Chinese practiced localized forms of kung fu which they called kuntaw. These Malay and Chinese settlers are considered progenitors of the classical Filipino martial arts. The first western account of Filipino fighting techniques comes from the 16th century when Spanish colonists attacked. The invaders failed to defeat the locals in hand-to-hand combat and only managed to arise victorious after resorting to guns. This shows that martial arts in the Philippines had already reached a high level at that time. During the period of colonization, Filipinos could only train in secret. It was this isolation between the practitioners that gave birth to the vast number of Filipino styles today and the reason they were often passed down through family members. Through the Spanish language came the words now used to refer to Filipino fighting arts namely escrima, arnis and kali. After independence, martial arts could be practiced publicly and freely influenced each other. Modern styles use weapons and techniques taken from numeorus sources especially silat, kung fu and karate. Today there are said to be almost as many forms of kali as there are islands in the Philippines.
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