Bissu shamans still letting the spirits move them

Sharyn Graham, Contributor, Auckland, New Zealand

As assorted officials and participants in suits and formal attire clustered together in the room, a group of colorfully dressed people, their faces heavily made up, stood out from the rest.

I was glad to see them: This was an international conference, sponsored by the local Barru government in South Sulawesi, and bissu transgender shamans had been hired as the welcoming committee.

It happened only last year, providing proof that these people, whose fortunes have waxed and waned along with those of their Bugis society, are back at center stage as honored citizens in the country's reformasi (reform) era.

The Bugis of South Sulawesi are renowned as hardy seafarers, a people whose ingenuity, adaptability to adverse circumstances and mettle have helped them successfully migrate throughout the Indonesian archipelago.

Lost in the revisionism of history -- the tidying up of facts to present a version of events more "acceptable" to the sterile standards of the Soeharto regime -- is the story of the bissu.

In 1998, two friends and I boarded an overcrowded Pelni ship taking us from Bali to Sulawesi. While my friends were curious about local foods and customs, I was on a mission to learn more about the bissu priests.

At that point, all I knew about the bissu was what Christian Pelras mentions in his authoritative book, The Bugis. I knew that they used to work for the ruling raja and bestow blessings on people, becoming possessed by a spirit that descended from the spirit world.

During our three-day voyage, we had plenty of opportunity to talk to locals. If they did know about the bissu, they said they no longer existed or were so few in number to count.

I was intrigued if this was true, and if the efforts of the Dutch to destroy the Bugis kingdoms -- where the bissu found their place at court -- and then the methods of the central government since the 1950s had indeed led to the demise of the bissu in modern society.

But upon arriving in the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar, we met some bissu, much to the surprise of the driver provided by a family friend. We then decided to head up north to Segeri, the reputed cultural home of the bissu.

"The prominence of the bissu in Segeri dates from 1776, when a prince of Lawu settled there ... and brought with him a number of bissu, who were otherwise limited to the powerful courts of Bone, Wajo and Luwu itself," Anthony Reid writes in The Road North To Parepare in Sulawesi.

For many anthropologists, the bissu are fascinating because they are transgender (often called transvestite) shamans, similar to the berdache of Native American society and the hijra of India. Like the reog traditional dancers of Ponorogo, East Java, who traditionally took young men as their "wives", the bissu are a subject of interest because they seem to confirm the presence of transgender acceptance in traditional societies.

But I was to learn that the Bissu are still expected to be ascetic, and this means that they are not permitted to marry, or partake in any sexual relationships.

We spent some time in Segeri, but we were informed that if we really wanted to learn about bissu and their practices, we would have to travel further north to the town of Pare-Pare.

When we arrived in Pare-Pare, we were directed to the home of one of the highest-ranking bissu priests in South Sulawesi. He invited us to witness a ceremony.

It took a week for the ceremony to be arranged as seven bissu had to travel from all over the province.

On the day that the ceremony was to be performed, the bissu rose early. The bissu began the arduous task of assembling all the paraphernalia and assorted foods that they would need for the ceremony: bales of hay, a water pond, decorations, collections of rice, coconuts, herbs, and spices.

This preparation took most of the day. As the sun set, and the Islamic call to prayer echoed through the town, the bissu began to ready themselves for the ceremony by applying ritual make-up and dressing in their sacred clothing.

In order to conduct the ceremony, the ultimate aim of which was to bestow a blessing on the three of us, the bissu had to be possessed by an appropriate deity. In order to awaken the deities and call them to earth, the bissu performed an elaborate ritual involving chanting, music and the offering of ritual foods.

Once the deities had been awakened, they descended and possessed the body of the bissu. The bissu were already in trance by this stage and their entire demeanor changed when they got possessed by the deities; they become irritable and aggressive.

In order to prove to us that they were possessed -- proof that we required so we would know the blessing would be successful -- the bissu performed the ma'giri, a self-stabbing ritual. They took a sacred sword -- the most sacred swords were those that had been passed down through many generations of bissu -- and attempted to penetrate their skin with it.

Some of the bissu even went to the extent of lying on the floor with the sword pressed to their throat. The other bissu tried to force the sword into their palms and temple. Because the sword did not penetrate the skin, we were told that the bissu were kebal (impenetrable) -- a sign that they were possessed by a powerful spirit and were thus invulnerable.

Now possessed, the bissu blessed us, thus ensuring that we would have a safe journey back to Australia.

The next morning I got the chance to talk with some of the bissu about life in contemporary Indonesia. They told me that the popularity of bissu has waxed and waned over the last few hundred years. At present, however, they said that their practices are undergoing a revival in popularity. This is due in large part to the new era of reformation and the increasing appeal of adat (traditional custom)s.

The bissu told me that in the past they used to guard the palace of the Bugis kings and protect the royal family. But with the disbanding of the royal courts in South Sulawesi in 1957, noble-dominated kingdoms were abolished and replaced by the centralized national government. This meant that the bissu had to change many of their practices in order for them to have a role in contemporary society.

From my experience, including another year and a half studying the bissu, they are accepted in modern society, particularly since the end of the Soeharto government and the freeing up of attitudes across Indonesian society. I never witnessed any overt discrimination; in fact, bissu were actively incorporated into many social functions.

While bissu still perform many traditional blessings -- for instance, bissu bless the rice fields, royal weddings and the birth of a baby -- bissu have incorporated new blessings into their social role. As well as official ceremonies like the one I attended last year, the bissu are also called upon to bless people about to undertake the haj pilgrimage to Mecca.

It's been a long journey back, but the bissu have returned to where they belong at the heart of Bugis society.

The writer is a lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand. Her doctorate explored issues of gender in South Sulawesi.