On a gray dawn, I stood on the waterfront as I watched the curving prows of the traditional prahu sailing boats gracefully move into the chaos of Paotere Harbour. They came there to unload sea cucumbers, cuttlefish, and other strange creatures from the deep sea.
These boats belong to the Bugis people, a society of sailors notable for recognizing five genders.
"The Bugis have words for five genders that represent five ways of being in the world," explains Sharyn Graham Davies, an anthropologist at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
The Bugis are the largest ethnic group on the island of Celebes. They are concentrated in Makassar and the rice fields north of the city, but their prowess as sailors and traders cemented the influence of the Bugis in Indonesia and the Malay Archipelago.
They also struck fear into the hearts of the European colonizers, who saw them as ruthless pirates.
An influential people
Although they make up only six of Indonesia's 270 million people, the Bugis are extremely influential.
Some prominent examples include Jusuf Kalla, who was twice Vice President of Indonesia; and Najib Razak, former Prime Minister of Malaysia.
"The Bugis are among thestrongest ethnic groupsin the archipelago, politically, economically and culturally," says Sudirman Nasir, a Bugis who works in public health in the south of the island.
Anthropologist Sharyn Graham Davies explains that in Bugis society, the genders makkunrai and oroani correspond to the concepts of cis female and cis male in the West.
The calalai are born with female bodies but assume traditionally male gender roles; they may wear shirts and pants, smoke cigarettes, have short hair, and do manual labor.
Calabai, on the other hand, are born with male bodies but assume female gender roles, wearing dresses and makeup, and growing their hair.
"Many Calabai work in beauty salons," says Neni, a Calabai from the village of Segiri, north of Makassar.
"We also help plan weddings and perform at ceremonies."
The fifth gender
The Calabai do not pose as women, Davies details, but exhibit their own set of feminine behaviors that would be frowned upon in Makkunrai women, such as wearing miniskirts, smoking and acting in a more outwardly sexualized way.
Within Bugis society, the calabai and calalai people may be frowned upon in some quarters, but they are widely tolerated, even seen as playing an important role in society.
They are generally not attacked or persecuted by members of their own community.
The fifth gender bugis is the bissu, which is considered neither masculine nor feminine, but rather represents the full spectrum of the genus.
The Bissu, like the Calabai and Calalai, show their identity through clothing: they often wear flowers, a traditionally feminine symbol, but carry the keris dagger associated with men.
Many bissu are born intersex, but the term has implications beyond biology.
While gender in the bugis is often described as a spectrum, the bissu are considered to be above this classification: they are spiritual beings who are not halfway between male and female, but rather that embody the power of both at the same time.
"It is said that, on their descent from heaven, the bissu did not separate into male or female, like most people, but remained a sacred unity of both," explains Davies.
As such, they are perceived as intermediaries between worlds and occupy a role similar to that of shamans in the Bugis religion.
Possessed by the gods
A serene old woman and a cackling chicken were my traveling companions as I left Makassar in a battered sky-blue bemo (public minibus).
As we moved north, fragments of karst limestone, covered in jungle, rose skyward from the surrounding rice paddies.
We keep driving. The afternoon sun began to glow like coal and farmers bugis cast long, bent shadows as they bent to tend the fields. of rice.
As night fell, we reached the town of Segiri, where I followed a crowd of locals to a large wooden house.
Five bissu were gathered in the center of the room around a pile of rice. Smoke from fragrant incense swirled in the near-darkness, and the sound of drumming and chanting quickened to a feverish pitch as the bissu jerked into a trancelike state.
In unison, they drew their keri daggers and began to stab the wavy blades into their own temples, palms, even eyelids, apparently feeling no pain or barely drawing a drop of blood.
Undergoing this ritual, known as ma'giri', and coming out unscathed is considered proof that the bissu have been possessed by the gods and are ready to bestow blessings.
The language of heaven
This ceremony, like the parade in the rice field, is aimed at ensuring a bountiful harvest; good health and successful pregnancies are other expected results of a bissu blessing.
"Becoming a bissu is a soul calling," says Eka, head of the bissu in Segiri.
"We traveled at a young age to study with an older bissu and learn our secret language, Basa To Ri Langiq (the language of the heavens), which only we can understand."
In addition to bestowing blessings, Eka officiates at weddings. "The bugis treat us very well," she continues. "They have to, because we supervise all the customs of the bugis."
Although their religious rituals and conception of gender are steeped in pre-Islamic ideas, the majority of the Bugis are Muslim, many devout.
"There were complex interactions between Bugis values and Islamic teaching," Nasir explained. "This led to forms of Islamic syncretism-bugis."
They struggle with their own sexuality
For example, as Davies points out, the Bugis often come to the Bissu to bless an upcoming pilgrimage to Mecca.
Many Calalai and Calabai struggle with their own sexuality and sense of self, the anthropologist explains.
They believe that their lifestyle - which may include same-sex relationships - is sinful according to Islamic belief, but also that they are the way they are because it was prescribedby Allah.
For the same reason, they have no concept of being born in the wrong body. Although some calabai can undergo cosmetic procedures to appear more feminine, they will not consider themselves women, as Davies discovered in his fieldwork.
Islam became predominant in Indonesia around 1400, but for centuries locals reconciled their varied perception of the genre with the new faith.
"European sailors have been writing about their reflections on gender diversity on the island of Celebes since at least the 16th century," says Davies.
Social equality
In 1848, British colonialist James Brooke wrote in his diary: "The strangest custom I have observed is that some men dress as women and some women as men; not occasionally, but all their life, devoting himself to the occupations and pursuits of his adopted sex".
Visiting the island of Celebes, Brooke was further struck by the social equality she observed between women and men, a sentiment shared by fellow imperialist Thomas Stanford Raffles.
A third gender known as waria (a portmanteau of wanita, meaning female, and pria, meaning male) has long been recognized in Indonesian societies.
Since the mid-20th century, however, Indonesia in general has become less tolerant of non-binary ideas of gender, leading to persecution of the calabai and bissu in particular.
Tortured and murdered in the 50s
Starting in the 1950s, a wave of violent attacks against the LGBTQ community began.
"When Kahar Muzakkar's Darul Islam rebellion movement wanted to establish an Islamic state in the 1950s, the Bissu were arrested, tortured and forced to repent," recalls Nurhayatai Rahman Mattameng, a Bugis philologist.
Some bissu had their heads shaved to publicly shame them; some were killed.
"During the New Order era under President Suharto (1967-1998), there was an initiative called Operation Repentance," adds Mattameng.
"All Bissu were forced to (renounce) Latang, the ancestral religion of the Bugis, and instead chose one of Indonesia's officially recognized religions."
In 2001, Islamic extremists burned down the Makassar headquarters of GAYa Celebes, an organization that advocates for gay rights.
In 2018, the Jakarta Post reported that transgender women were being detained and placed in detention centers in the Indonesian capital, as a "deterrent" measure for people who identified as waria.
"The Bissu, Calalai and Calabai are experiencing a lot of stigma and discrimination, which is unfortunately increasing along with the growing assertiveness of political Islam," laments Nasir.
"Endangered"
Eka agrees that the future looks bleak.
"The number of teachers with knowledge of bissu customs is declining. People's interest in living as calabai is declining as well," he says.
"In the future, the bissu will be in danger of extinction."
However, not everyone is so pessimistic about the future of this unique culture. Help is available from people like Halilintar Lathief, a Bugis activist, artist and anthropologist.
Lathief's organization, Latar Nusa, fights to revitalize Bissu and Calabai culture by preserving traditional literature and empowering them to reap the economic benefits of their traditional roles by seeking paid work as makeup artists. of brides, wedding planners and caterers, and medicinal shamans.
"For the first few days, the trauma of the persecution they had faced meant that no one wanted to convert or pretend to be a bissu," says Lathief.
You can read the original version of this article in English on BBC Travel.