Bissu community glitters in ritual dance

By I Wayan Juniarta

TIRTA GANGGA, Karang Asem, Bali (JP): For three decades, they have been hounded and blamed for violating social and moral ethics. Now, the transvestite Bissu community in Sigeri, Pangkep, South Sulawesi, is trying to revive its age-old traditions.

The revival of the Bissu community was manifested in a rare performance at the recent Milleniart Festival in Tirta Gangga, Karang Asem, East Bali.

Eight Bissu performed an extraordinary Harvest ritual dance, mesmerizing an audience of thousands at the Tirta Gangga Water Palace.

Dressed elaborately in glittering costumes, the Bissu transvestites started their performance with humming ritual hymns.

They then swayed and moved on the stage imitating farmers in rice fields. The dance was part of the harvest ritual to yield good crops.

According to a lecturer at Makassar University, Makassar, South Sulawesi, Andi Halilintar Lathief, the Bissu had important jobs as the caretakers of various rituals and ceremonies held by the king and the Bugis community, especially those related to agricultural activities.

"This community still carefully keeps a scared arajang to be used in a ritual to start growing and harvesting various crops," said Andi.

During the sacred ritual, the Bissu spell out a mantra while dancing in a trance-like condition.

The dancers began to shock the audience when they stabbed their own bodies with kris. Blood spilled out from their bodies.

A Balinese dancer, Cokorda Sawitri, exclaimed, "This is incredible. They are in a trance but they can still control their movements."

Children are not allowed to watch this performance in order to protect them from bad omens, said Andi.

There is no fixed evidence on the origin of this Bissu community within the Bugis-Makassar social structure.

According to Lagagilo, the community's oral traditions, the Bissu fell from the "sky" to assist the King of Luwu. The word bissu was also unclear. Some say a Bissu is one who has achieved certain physical and spiritual strata.

In the community, only a few people can be categorized as belonging to the Bissu. The Bissu comprise only of males, but physically they behave, dress and act as women.

Scholar Taufik Rahzen explained the Bissu become furious if people compare them to homosexuals. "For them, becoming a Bissu is the highest spiritual achievement," said Rahzen.

The Bissu claim they are neither male nor female because based on their beliefs, the deity and the holy spirits are sexless.

Such beliefs and attitudes adopted by the Bissu have caused many an uproar among the Bugis-Makassar society because they consider this to go against social and religious norms.

The discontent reached its peak in 1996, during the "cleansing" of followers of the Indonesian Communist Party, which was known as Operation Repent. The Bugis also went after members of the Bissu, some were killed and the rest hid in the province's remote areas.

A year after this operation, farmers failed to harvest their crops. People were anxious, thinking that it was a "curse" from the deity for "cleansing" the Bissu.

The Bugis community gradually accepted the existence of the Bissu. They began to invite the Bissu to hold harvest rituals in the hope they could gain higher yields from their crops.

"It was the agricultural interest that saved the Bissu community," recalled Andi, who has made a comprehensive study of the Bissu community.

To regain their social and cultural position, the Bissu also made compromises. In every ritual, the Bissu invited religious leaders to open the rituals.

"Also, there are some Bissu who have performed the haj," added Andi. Now, many of the Bissu prefer to be called sanroe (teacher).

Andi said that during the Bugis Kingdom period, the Bissu played significant roles as the king's political advisors and confidants as well as household keepers of the palace.

The king often asked for advice before taking important steps or implementing a policy. During a war, the Bissu also acted as the king's strategic counselors. They decided when the king could attack or retreat from the war, said Andi.

"Before giving advice to the king, the Bissu held a ritual. In trance-like states, they delivered 'messages from above' to the king," he explained.

The king gave a 30-hectare plot of fertile land and rice fields as gifts for their merits.

Their powerful positions in the royal circle, as well as in the community, provided both social and economic profits. Most of the Bissu were economically secure.

However, Rahzen said that actually, the Bissu had other substantial cultural roles in preserving the originality of the Bugis-Makassar cultural and literary heritage.

It was the Bissu who continued to practice the Bugis-Makassar oral tradition called Lagaligo.

During the Lagalilo performance, the Bissu asked 250 people to sing and tell the story and the history of the Bugis-Makassar society.

"It could be the longest oral literary repertoire to be kept in people's minds," Rahzen admired.

None of the stories have been written in a book or any other printed form. Yet, the Bissu remember the stories by heart and pass their knowledge on to the next generation.

"The Bissu also have a different language which is only understood and spoken by their own members," said Andi.

Reviving the traditions of the Bissu community is not an easy task. Their communal properties were seized by the government under a land reform law.

Without rice fields and other properties, the Bissu could not generate income. What is more, the community has no leader. Their last Puang Toa (leader) died a few years ago.

The ritual to select a new leader will cost millions of rupiah, which they do not have now. Besides, so far, nobody fits the requirements to become a new chief. Included in the important prerequisites is a mastery of various rituals and ceremonies, being able to recite from memory the Lagaligo and other social and cultural activities.

"Because of the political chaos in l966, the number of Bissu left is only 20 people," said Andi.

For the Bissu community, the road to survival remains very shaky. Unless help from the government and the Bugis-Makassar people is forthcoming, they will witness the death of a community which has faithfully kept its centuries-old traditions alive.