Johannes NugrohoSouth – Bullied for not being "masculine enough", Bambang Priawan is feeling wretched.
Priawan, a transgender man, rues his lot in life as part of a sexual minority in Indonesia, destined for prejudice by both society and government alike.
In Priawan's moment of distress, Betari Jaluwati, a transgender goddess, descends from the heavens to comfort him. Resplendent in her glorious rainbow-tinted hair, she tells Priawan to stop despairing. The almighty, she says, is neither male nor female.
This is an excerpt from a contemporary Javanese shadow puppet play created and performed by Ki (an honorific for a dalang or puppet master) Samidjan, 68, a resident of Gunung Kidul, Yogyakarta, and his son Kus Sri Antoro, 42, who acts as his assistant.
LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) themes remain controversial in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country.
The recent release of the Hollywood superhero movie Eternals had to be postponed in Indonesia due to public angst over a scene in which two men kiss. The scene was later deleted for the Indonesian audience.
Samidjan said that it was the growing intolerance in the country that had pushed him into action.
"We created Betari Jaluwati and Warya Bissunanda [another trans character] as new wayang characters to express our concerns about the discrimination against LGBTQ citizens of our country, who often have their rights trampled upon by the state," he said.
Around 60 per cent of people in Yogyakarta's transgender community have experienced discriminatory practices by local bureaucracy, according to a report by Yogyakarta's Independent Journalists' Alliance.
As a result, most have been denied basic rights such as ID cards, without which they cannot apply for jobs or open bank accounts.
Samidjan said his LGBTQ characters were part of his "wayang marjinal" line-up, a set of puppets designed to represent marginalised groups in Indonesian society, including small farmers, labourers and people with disabilities.
He said the idea of creating "wayang marjinal" had occurred to him after listening to a blind neighbour complain about the prejudices he faced as someone without sight.
The puppet master had wanted to come up with plays which encouraged people to care about each other and not to judge others who were different.
"No one chooses to be born different; to be blind, to be gay or trans. I don't know if my wayang will change people's attitudes but I just want to put the message out there."
Indonesian shadow puppetry or wayang is a Javanese tradition dating back to the 11th century, when it was first recorded on a stele. Usually based on the exploits of Vedic heroes such as the Pandavas, a classic wayang performance aims to entertain as well as convey a moral message to its audience.
Wayang remarkably survived the transition from the Hindu-Buddhist era to that of Islam in the 15th century due to its use by Islamic missionaries to spread the new faith.
Recognised by Unesco in 2003 as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, wayang is, however, a fast fading art form among the country's young.
Samidjan, father of three and grandfather of two, is trying to turn the tide by making wayang more relevant to modern times through using current issues in his plays. He insists that so far he has not witnessed any audience outrage over his transgender wayang characters whenever he has performed them.
"Maybe it's because the dialogue I wrote for the characters is full of humour, which gets the audience laughing," he said. "Although the message is one of tolerance, it's not delivered in a sermonising tone. Wayang is after all meant to entertain."
Samidjan said that when co-creating the two trans wayang characters, he and his son consulted the local LGBTQ community and modelled them on actual people with their permission. He wanted to get the details right.
The first prototypes of both Betari Jaluwati and Warya Bissunanda are now proudly displayed at the Al-Fatah pesantren, an Islamic boarding school for the transgendered, where Samidjan and his son first debuted their LGBTQ-themed play in December last year. Both characters also appeared on November 16 as part of a wayang pluralism festival.
Shinta Ratri, 57, a transgender woman who is also chairperson at Al-Fatah, remembered fondly the time she watched Samidjan perform at her pesantren. "It was heartwarming to see our kind represented. We are indebted to Ki Samidjan for not forgetting us," she said.
A self-taught puppet master, Samidjan started crafting wayang puppets when he was in junior school. In 2001, he started a workshop producing "wayang limbah", literally "refuse wayang", from recycled materials such as plastic and bits of metal.
"I wanted to move away from the traditional material of cow hide because it's more practical and cost-effective. In the end, I settled for used plastic and metal because it makes more sense to recycle waste so that our wayang is also environmentally-friendly."
For his creation of wayang limbah, Samidjan was awarded the Kalpataru Award, the Indonesian government's honour for citizens deemed to have made contributions to environmental conservation, by the city of Yogyakarta in 2018.
Purists among wayang lovers may not be thrilled with Samidjan's new liberating approach to the art, especially adding new LGBTQ characters to his repertoire.
But both Samidjan and his son Kuntoro believe that wayang was never meant to be a static or elitist form of art and as such it must move with the times to remain a germane part of Indonesia's culture.This article was first published in South China Morning Post: https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3157508/indonesia-lgbtq-wayang-shadow-puppets-have-message