BUGIS SOCIETY AND GENDER
Class rankings are very important to Bugis. There have traditionally been are three main classes: nobility ("descendants of kings"); commoners ("freemen"); and slaves (war captives, violators of custom, and those selling themselves to pay debts). In the 20th century, the category of slave has disappeared. Noble titles (Karaenta, Puatta, Andi, Daeng, Puang) are still used, but, since World War II, education and bureaucratic position earn as much or more deference than ancestry alone.
Bugis class rank is often based on lineages that date back to when the Bugis had their own kingdom. Nobles are believed to possess white blood which may be diluted by people of lower ranks. Slavery has been abolished but continues as kind of caste system that affects descendants There is some mobility within the ranks through hard work and entrepreneurship. The three-tiered Bugis system of social levelsis more firmly established in their homeland than it is after they migrate to other islands. [Source: Greg Acciaioli, “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 5: East/Southeast Asia:” edited by Paul Hockings, 1993 ~]
Customs regarding inheritance and marriage are in line with Islamic law. Political organization still has some roots in the old aristocratic system. With local leaders often being of noble descent with entourages and leader-follower groups formed around them. The local regencies are in line with former realms governed local nobles. The Indonesian government is trying to undermine this system by getting more government appointed people and popularly elected people in positions of power. ~
According to anthropologist Christian Pelras, Bugis culture emphasizes the equality and complementarity of the two genders overall, despite the fact that Islamic influence often appears to put men in the foreground and women in the background. Early European observers were struck by the freedom and power of women in Bugis society. Many instances are known of female rulers, including one who ruled her kingdom without interference from her husband, who was the ruler of another kingdom. There were also female warriors who participated in the Indonesian struggle for independence, and female squads fought in the rebellions of the early post-colonial years. The rigid class barriers in traditional Bugis society allowed a female ruler to have male vassals or retainers of lower rank who could never marry her. Although village leadership tends to be male, these leaders are called "mothers of the people," which is another indication that political power and womanhood are not considered incompatible.[Source: A. J. Abalahin, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life,” Cengage Learning, 2009 ^^]
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Bugis Family and Kinship
Bugis domestic life centers around the stem family (a multigenerational household where one married child lives with the parents, although at various stages most households consist of independent, established nuclear families. It is common for the youngest daughter to remain in, or later return to, the parental household in order to care for aging parents. Many households also include retainers — often impoverished relatives, but sometimes unrelated children from client families — who carry out domestic work in exchange for food, shelter, and, in urban settings, assistance with schooling.
Childrearing is a shared responsibility of both parents, with older siblings—particularly sisters—frequently assuming caregiving roles. Fathers are often responsible for administering corporal discipline and may encourage assertive behavior in sons through teasing and mock combat. Relationships between brothers and sisters tend to be especially close, while same-sex sibling relationships are more likely to involve rivalry and tension. It is common for elderly or childless relatives to raise some of a couple’s children, and for children to live with urban relatives in order to pursue higher levels of education.
Inheritance generally follows Islamic law, under which women receive half the share of their brothers. In practice, however, these shares may be adjusted by circumstances such as which child—often a daughter—remains with the parents and assumes responsibility for their care, a factor that can strongly affect rights to the parental house. Both men and women are eligible to inherit rice fields and other agricultural land.
The Bugis follow an Eskimo-type kinship system with bilateral descent, tracing relationships through both parents. Kin groups are flexible and centered on personal kindreds (siajing) that become important on specific occasions. Groups such as the kapolo of Luwu’, often described as ambilateral ramages, function more as entourages of followers than strict descent groups, including both related nobles and unrelated supporters, especially during elite marriages.
Bugis kinship terminology does not distinguish between cousins but does differentiate older and younger same-sex siblings and opposite-sex siblings. Aunts and uncles are not distinguished by sex or parental side, nor are siblings’ and cousins’ children. Terms for grandparents and grandchildren can be finely graded to indicate increasing generational distance. Rank and age strongly shape forms of address: nobles use titles such as puang (“lord”), while commoners often extend kin terms to non-relatives and commonly use teknonyms (e.g., “father/mother of a child”).
Bugis Marriage and Weddings
Marriages among the Bugis have traditionally been arranged especially among the noble classes where first-cousin marriages have been preferred. Girls are expected to marry young and marriages generally involve the payment of a bride price with the amount being a sign of status for the family of the bride. Big weddings are sign of status among nobles. Polygyny is allowed by Islamic law but is rare. In the past it was fairly common among aristocrats who sometimes had dozens of wives. Many couples live with the bride’s family after marriage. Divorce is common especially among couples united in arranged marriages. ~
Marriage among the Bugis and Makassar follows a clearly defined sequence of customary steps. The process begins with a formal visit by the man’s family to the woman’s family to explore the possibility of a marriage. If the proposal is welcomed, a representative from the man’s family is sent to negotiate the bride-price, set a wedding date, and agree on wedding expenses and feast arrangements. Once these matters are settled, the marriage is formally announced to the extended families of both sides. [Source: A. J. Abalahin, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life,” Cengage Learning, 2009]
On the wedding day, the groom arrives at the bride’s house in a ceremonial procession accompanied by relatives of all ages and genders. He brings the agreed bride-price, women’s clothing, and various kinds of food. The wedding ceremony then takes place, followed by a reception in which guests are welcomed into the house. Guests present gifts or money—formerly including paddy fields, gardens, or livestock—in what is often seen as a symbolic competition between the families of the bride and groom.
In the days following the wedding, the newly married couple pays visits first to the groom’s family and then to the bride’s, distributing gifts to relatives on both sides. Initially, the couple resides with the bride’s parents before eventually establishing an independent household.
If the woman’s family rejects the proposal or demands excessively high wedding expenses as a subtle form of refusal, the couple may choose to elope. Such an elopement brings shame upon the woman’s family, and her male relatives may pursue the man with violent intent. In these cases, the man typically seeks the protection of a powerful intermediary who attempts to calm the woman’s family. If the family later signals acceptance of the union, the man’s family may initiate a formal reconciliation meeting to restore social harmony.
Bugis Character, Etiquette and Customs
The Bugis are regarded as fighters. Many other Indonesians don’t trust them. Describing a Bugis knife fight, the Blair brothers wrote: “It 'was clearly to the death...the milling throng which surrounded the two furious combatants who rolled around like snakes in the dust attempting to stab each other with their 'badiks,' the seaman's dagger." [Source: "Ring of Fire" by Lawrence and Lorne Blair, Bantam Books, New York, ♢]
Bugis have a strong sense of honor and shame (siri’) that is manifested in the punishment for couples who elope and fights that defend insults to family honor. Islamic officials and nobles often try to mediate such disputes. Social order is based on deference to leaders of higher rank, though authority traditionally had to be proven through military success and the distribution of wealth. Provincial authorities still seek the approval of customary law experts (pallontara’) to legitimize public initiatives.
The Bugis have a long history of conflicts between themselves and other groups. In the old days there were often disputes between nobles, who used entourages, militias and armies to defend their claims. Bugis enslaved groups like the Tojada and rioted against the Chinese. Corporal punishment is common among Bugis. Sons are encouraged to be tough and are challenged, taunted and mocked to make them tougher. Same sex siblings often fight a lot.
Although linguistic etiquette is simpler than in Java or Bali, speech is adjusted according to the addressee’s social status, with different levels of politeness and indirectness used for superiors, equals, or inferiors. Greater respect may be shown through euphemistic phrasing, and toward high-status figures such as religious teachers or royalty, greeting rituals include bowing and kissing the hand. [Source: A. J. Abalahin, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life,” Cengage Learning, 2009 ^^]
Contact between unrelated members of the opposite sex without elder supervision is strongly discouraged, despite increased opportunities through schooling and work. Traditionally, a young man might signal interest by secretly taking a girl’s underwear while she bathes and later returning it privately; if the act becomes public, the girl’s family loses face and may retaliate against him.
Bugis Houses and Village Life
In Luwu, Sulawesi, houses contain central posts, which are considered points of power. The local word for "spirit" or "liveliness," sumange, is similar to the Indonesian word semangat. These posts are regarded as "navels," paralleling the point of power in humans. These posts must be guarded from harm. Thus, houses—most notably the clan homes of nobles—possess potency. However, where Bugis have formed settlements on other islands, the concept of sumange is less invested in clan homes. This reflects that the Bugis in these settlements were not likely migrants from the nobility of Sulawesi. In simpler homes and far from their homeland, a person's sumange may be centered individually or within separate parts of themselves and can be volatile and fly off. [Source: “Culture and Customs of Indonesia” by Jill Forshee, Greenwood Press, 2006]
The Bugis have traditionally been organized in municipal villages (“desa”) with 2,000 to 10,000 inhabitants that were set up in fishing, trading, and rice-growing areas. Each desa usually contained two to five hamlets with houses clustered around roads. [Source: Greg Acciaioli, “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 5: East/Southeast Asia:” edited by Paul Hockings, 1993 ~]
Traditional Bugis homes are raised on stilts up to three meters off the ground and have plank walls and floors. Roofs are made of corrugated metal. Only the poorest poor live in houses with thatch for walls or roofs. The number of tiers on the front gable indicates the rank of the homeowner. In the growing season they often set up field huts among their fields and stay there to protect their crops.
The rhythm of Bugis agricultural and maritime life is influenced by the monsoon seasons. Many Bugis believe that illnesses have their roots in uniquely Bugis causes and are only cured by traditional Bugis healers, many of who employ techniques such as blowing, massaging, uttering poems, throwing holy water or extracting foreign objects. ~
Five Bugis Genders
"The Bugis have words for five genders," Sharyn Graham Davies, an anthropologist at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, told the BBC "that map onto five ways of being in the world." Two are analogous to normal male and female and the remaining three are not easily comparable to Western ideas of gender: 1) makkunrai (“female women”), 2) oroani (“male men”), 3) calalai (“female men”), 4) calabai (“male women”) and 5) bissu (“transgender priests”). Bissu, calabai and the calalai, are authorized to enter the women’s parts of the dwellings and villages in addition to the men's. [Source: BBCm Wikipedia +]
Daniel Stables of the BBC wrote: Although their religious rituals and conception of gender are infused with pre-Islamic ideas, most Bugis are Muslims, many devoutly so. "There were complex interactions between Bugis values and Islamic teaching," explained Nasir. "This led to forms of Islamic-Bugis syncretism." [Source: Daniel Stables, BBC, April 13, 2021]
For example, as Davies explained, Bugis people often seek out bissu to bless a forthcoming hajj to Mecca. Many calalai and calabai struggle with their sexuality and sense of self, she also noted, believing that their lifestyle (which may include same-sex relations) is sinful according to Islamic belief, but also that they are the way they are because it was prescribed by Allah. For the same reason, they do not have a concept of being born in the wrong body; even though some calabai may undergo cosmetic procedures to make them look more feminine, they will not consider themselves to be women, as Davies discovered in her fieldwork.
Islam began to predominate across Indonesia in the 1400s, but for centuries the local people reconciled their variegated perception of gender with the new faith. "European sailors were writing about their reflections on gender diversity in South Sulawesi since at least the 1500s," Davies explained. In 1848, the British colonialist James Brooke wrote in his journal: "The strangest custom I have observed is that some men dress like women, and some women like men; not occasionally, but all their lives, devoting themselves to the occupations and pursuits of their adopted sex." Upon visiting South Sulawesi, Brooke was further surprised by the social equality he observed between women and men, a sentiment shared by his fellow imperialist Thomas Stanford Raffles.
Calabai — 'False Women' Wedding Planners
In the Bugis gender system, calabai are individuals who are typically assigned male at birth but take on roles and identities associated with women. They are sometimes described as “false women,” though this term reflects a traditional classification rather than an act of impersonation. Calabai express a distinctly feminine gender identity, but their appearance and behavior do not fully conform to those expected of conventionally feminine Bugis women. [Source: Daniel Stables, BBC, April 13, 2021]
By contrast, calalai are individuals assigned female at birth who adopt roles traditionally associated with men. They often dress in shirts and trousers, keep their hair short, smoke cigarettes, and work in physically demanding or manual occupations. Calabai, meanwhile, usually dress in women’s clothing, wear makeup, and grow their hair long. Many calabai work in beauty salons, assist in wedding preparations, and perform ceremonial roles at weddings.
Calabai are not seen as imitating women but rather as expressing a recognized form of femininity with its own norms. Their behavior may include actions—such as wearing miniskirts, smoking, or displaying overt sexuality—that would be considered inappropriate for makunrai (conventional women). Although calabai and calalai may face disapproval in some segments of Bugis society, they are generally tolerated and often regarded as socially valuable. They are rarely subjected to violence or persecution within their own communities and are understood to occupy a distinct and accepted place in Bugis social life.
According to Sharyn Graham Davies, an expert of the Bugu gender system and who studied in the 1990s for her Ph.D.: "If there is to be a wedding in Bugis society, more often than not calabai will be involved in the organization. When a wedding date has been agreed upon, the family will approach a calabai and negotiate a wedding plan. The calabai will be responsible for many things: setting up and decorating the tent, arranging the bridal chairs, bridal gown, costumes for the groom and the entire wedding party (numbering up to twenty-five), makeup for all those 0involved, and all the food. Rarely did I attend a village wedding with less than a thousand guests. On the day, some calabai remain in the kitchen preparing food while others form part of the reception, showing guests to their seats."
Bissus — Bugis Transvestite Priests
Bissus (bisus) are an unusual sect of transvestite, hermaphroditic Bugis priests that are considered neither male nor female, but rather representative of the full gender spectrum. Like calabai and calalai, bissu express their identity through dress. They often wear flowers, a traditionally feminine symbol, but also carry the keris dagger, which is associated with men. While many bissu are born intersex, the term has implications beyond biology. [Source: "Ring of Fire" by Lawrence and Lorne Blair, Bantam Books, New York, ♢]
Although Bugis gender is often described as a spectrum, the bissu are considered to transcend this classification. They are spiritual beings who embody the power of both genders simultaneously. "It is said that on their descent from heaven bissu did not split and become male or female, like most people," Davies told the BBC, "but remained a sacred unity of both." As such, they are perceived as intermediaries between worlds and occupy a shaman-like role in Bugis religion.
Bissus have traditionally guarded royal regalia and overseen some rituals directed at traditional deities. One priest told Blair, "These people, our people, don't know who we are anymore. They treat us worse than our women. Our job has always been to stand just between heaven and earth—to be neither pain nor joy, man nor woman, but to stand beyond the dualities which rule this world. We can remain sensitive to the voices of the spirits, and can dream of events to come—though few people listen to us now." You're born a Bissu and you realize it very soon. You dream and feel things like a girl as well as like a boy, and you desire to dress and behave like both. It is then that you join the Bissus to learn the old ways of magic. Sometimes you make a mistake, and you are not a Bissu at all, but simply what they call all anyway, just 'lady boys." ♢
Bissu Ceremonies
Describing a Bissu ceremony, Lawrence Blair wrote, "Though shoved and pinched and taunted unmercifully by the spectators, the Bissus quietly drummed themselves into a glassy-eyed state, drew their kerises from the their sarongs, and proceeded to whirl furiously about the room while trying to twist the blades into their own throats and stomachs. There were certain crescendos when a particularly macho spectator would sweep a Bissu off his feet and kiss him furiously before throwing him back into the circle again. It was an alarming and not very attractive event in which the Bissus were treated more like circus whores than like priests." [Source: "Ring of Fire" by Lawrence and Lorne Blair, Bantam Books, New York]
On his experience at a bissu ceremony, Daniel Stablesof the BBC wrote: As darkness fell, we arrived in the town of Segiri, where I followed a throng of locals into a large wooden house. Five bissu were gathered in the centre of the room around a pile of rice. Fragrant incense smoke swirled in the near-darkness, and the sound of drums and chanting quickened to fever pitch as the bissu danced jerkily into a trance-like state. In unison, they unsheathed their keris daggers and began to stab the wavy blades into their own temples, palms, even their eyelids — seemingly not feeling any pain or barely even drawing a drop of blood. To undergo this ritual, known as ma'giri', and come through it unharmed is seen as proof that the bissu have been possessed by the gods and are ready to give blessings. This ceremony, like the parade in the rice field, was geared towards ensuring a bountiful harvest; good health and successful pregnancies are among other outcomes hoped for from a bissu blessing. [Source: Daniel Stables, BBC, April 13, 2021]
"Becoming bissu is a call of the soul," Eka, the head bissu in Segiri, told the BBC. "We travel at an early age to study with a senior bissu, and learn our secret language, Basa To Ri Langiq (Language of the Heavens), which only we can understand." In addition to granting blessings, Eka officiates at weddings. "The Bugis treat us very well," Eka said. "They have to, because we oversee all the Bugis customs." [Source: Daniel Stables, BBC, April 13, 2021]
Threats to the Bugis Five-Gander System
Daniel Stables of the BBC wrote: Since the mid-20th Century wider Indonesian society has become less tolerant of non-binary ideas of gender, which has resulted in persecution towards calabai and bissu people in particular. Beginning in the 1950s, a wave of violent attacks started against the LGBTQ community. [Source: Daniel Stables, BBC, April 13, 2021]
"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," said Nurhayatai Rahman Mattameng, a Bugis philologist. Some bissu had their heads shaved so they could be publicly shamed; some were killed. "During the New Order era under President Suharto (1967-1998), there was an initiative called Operation Repentance," Mattameng added. "All bissu people were forced to [renounce] To Latang, the ancestral religion of the Bugis, and choose one of the officially recognised religions in Indonesia instead."
In 2001, Islamic extremists burned down the Makassar headquarters of GAYa Celebes, a gay rights organisation. In 2018, the Jakarta Post reported that transgender women were being rounded up and placed in detention centres in Indonesia's capital city, as a "deterrent" to people identifying as waria.
"Bissu, calalai and calabai are experiencing a lot of stigma and discrimination, which is sadly increasing alongside the growing assertiveness of political Islam," said Nasir. "At the societal level, there is a strong tendency towards an increased piety and puritanism, which could be compared to that of born-again Christians in the West. The future for these persecuted people is not very promising." Eka agreed that the future looks bleak. "The number of teachers with knowledge of the bissu ways is decreasing. So is people's interest in living as calabai," said Eka. "In the future, bissu will be threatened with extinction."
Not everyone is so pessimistic about the future, however. There is help at hand in the form of Halilintar Lathief, a Bugis activist, artist and anthropologist. Lathief's organisation, Latar Nusa, is fighting to revitalise bissu and calabai culture by preserving traditional literature and empowering them to harness the economic benefits of their traditional ritual roles by seeking paid work as bridal makeup artists, wedding planners and caterers and medicinal shamans. "In the early days, the trauma of persecution they had faced meant no-one wanted to become or claim to be bissu," Lathief said. "They were afraid of being arrested or killed; some were ashamed. Now, after several years, there are many more people who identify as calabai, and more who are proud to be called bissu."
Sureq Galigo and Bugis Culture
Bugis entertain themselves with regional dances, pencak silat (traditional martial arts) and raga (a sepak takraw ball game). The Buginese' diet consists mainly of rice, maize, fish, chicken, vegetables, fruit and coffee. On festive occasions, goat is served as a special dish. Traditional Bugis arts include Islamic decorative art, decorations on buildings, and the making of fine cloth and jewelry. Bugis music is influenced by Middle East music and features flutes and lutes like those found in West Java. Bugis “badiks” (daggers with curved handles) and prized possessions. Gold-threaded clothes are worn at weddings. Royal regalia is displayed in museums.
Running to thousands of pages, the Bugis epic Sureq Galigo is the most extensive repository of pre-Islamic mythology shared by the peoples of South Sulawesi, including the Sa’dan Toraja, though it is most closely associated with the Bugis. Also known as La Galigo, the work is an epic creation myth originating in South Sulawesi that was written down in Bugis between the 18th and 20th centuries, based on a much older oral tradition. In recent times it has reached a wider international audience largely through Robert Wilson’s theatrical adaptation, I La Galigo. [Source: A. J. Abalahin, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life,” Cengage Learning, 2009, Wikipedia]
Sureq Galigo recounts the deeds of the tomanurung, divine beings descended from heaven from whom the rulers of South Sulawesi claimed ancestry. The epic opens with Batara Guru, the eldest son of the supreme god of the upper world, descending to eastern Luwu through a bamboo tube. There he creates the earth’s flora and fauna and, after a fifteen-day fast, is joined by other heavenly beings who help cultivate the world. His cousin, a princess from the underworld, then emerges from the sea to become his wife. The narrative continues through six generations of descendants, beginning with their son Sawérigading, whose unfulfilled love for his twin sister drives him to undertake journeys through the upper, middle, and lower worlds before marrying the princess We Cudai’. Their son, La Galigo, becomes the central figure of the later sections, with his adventures in love and war occupying much of the epic.
Composed in pentameter verse, the poem not only recounts the origins of humanity but also functions as a practical almanac guiding everyday life. It developed primarily through oral transmission and is still sung on important ceremonial occasions. The earliest surviving written manuscripts date from the 18th century; earlier versions were lost to insects, climate, and deliberate destruction. As a result, no single complete or authoritative version exists. The surviving fragments, however, amount to roughly 6,000 pages or about 300,000 lines, making I La Galigo one of the longest literary works in the world.
The original Bugis language in which the epic was composed and performed is now understood by fewer than one hundred people. Only portions of the text have been translated into Indonesian, and no complete English translation exists. Most surviving manuscripts are held in Indonesia and the Netherlands. One of the most important collections is preserved at Leiden University Library, which houses the largest coherent fragment of La Galigo in the world. This twelve-volume manuscript, covering the opening sections of the epic, was written in Makassar in the 19th century at the request of the theologian and scholar B. F. Matthes (1818–1908), who worked for the Netherlands Bible Society and studied Bugis and Makassarese languages as part of his efforts to translate the Bible.
The Leiden manuscript was written by Colliq Pujié (Arung Pancana Toa), the queen mother of Tanete, a small kingdom in South Sulawesi. It forms part of the Indonesian manuscript collection of the Netherlands Bible Society and has been on permanent loan to Leiden University Library since the early 20th century. In 2012, this manuscript—together with another La Galigo manuscript held in Makassar—was inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register, becoming the second Indonesian document after Negarakertagama to receive this recognition. In 2017, the Leiden manuscript was made digitally accessible to the public.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 5: East/Southeast Asia:” edited by Paul Hockings, 1993; National Geographic; New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, AP, AFP, Wikipedia, BBC, CNN, and various books and other publications.
Last Updated January 2026