Shot in: Indonesia
It was the year 1544 when the Portuguese merchant Antonio de Paiva first reported on “transvestites priests” living among the Bugis people of South Sulawesi. The largest ethnic group in this part of Indonesia, Bugis have long recognized five genders within their community: men, women, calalai (transgender men), calabai (transgender women), and androgynous shamans called Bissu.
In the kingdoms that ruled South Sulawesi before its colonization by Europeans, the Bissu lived among the royal courts as advisors to kings and preservers of traditional customs, often honored as saints and thought of as demi-gods. With the arrival of the Dutch and the subsequent fall of local kingdoms, the Bissu’s priviliged status evaporated. Meanwhile, as Islam spread through in Sulawesi beginning in the sixteenth century, the Bugis traditional religion began to disappear along with the existence of shamanism itself.
Today in Indonesia, transgender women are often referred to as waria – the merging of two Indonesian words, wanita (woman) and pria (man). While some continue to act as conduits between humans and the gods, nearly all are marginalized and discriminated against, pushed to the fringes of a culture within which they once had a respected place.
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Elisabetta Zavoli (b. 1976) is an Italian freelance documentary photographer who has been based in Indonesia for 6 years. Most of her projects are about documenting environmental issues and gender issues. To see more of her work, visit www.elisabettazavoli.com.
