Bending Time, Theory and Gender in Java and Bali (With Reflections for a Documentary Treatment)

I am here to talk to some local transvestites - bunci as the locals call them - regarding the sexual orientation of a group of men in Ponorogo known as gemblak and warok. The topic is certainly salacious enough by today's publishing standards. Too salacious I suspect, especially as it involves old, powerful men relating to much younger men and boys in what may not be exactly a fatherly fashion. Can I deal with this, I ask myself? Can I write about this? What ethical standard and whose ethical standard do I bring to bear on this topic? It is so easy to judge and moralize on such an issue and for many of us dialectical judgements seem to come as second nature. So many of us love to judge and moralize, even when we know that it is not our place to judge and moralize.

If I am to avoid this tendency towards divine judgement, I will have to search my mind for Kali again, for that nomadic 'middle' space that swarms with possibilities, the conceptual space that avoids extremes but does not negate them. I tell myself that my place in all this is to listen, to write and to show in ways that let others judge.

If and when all this finally comes out in a story with words and images, it will no doubt be another inclusive disjunctive synthesis in which it will be necessary to play the double game with oppositions that is customary with so many public narratives today: namely, to negotiate all the 'judgements' that arise with such an explicit topic, on the one hand, while holding fast to and fore-grounding its content, on the other. In my thoughts I rehearse a summary of my official and ethically detached position.

Gemblak - Reyog Ponogoro Festival
Reyog Ponogoro Festival


Ponogoro (Pak Haji Irondaru Mardi)

Gemblak are young men in the town of Ponorogo that participate in a masked dance known as Reyog as the hobby horse cavalry. Reyog is one of the best-known folk dances in East Java and each year there is an annual Reyog Festival in Ponorogo which attracts much attention.[5] At the centre of the Reyog dance is Singa Barong, the mythical half-man, half-animal, Lord of the jungle. The Singa Barong dancer carries in his jaw a huge headdress consisting of a tiger's head surrounded by peacock feathers. Symbolically, Singa Barong combines the characteristics of three royal animals: the peacock, the mythical lion [singa], and the tiger. Other dancers may be present, masked as dwarfs clowns, king and demons.




The narrative of the Reyog performance revolves loosely around the struggle between Singa Barong and King Kelono Sewondono for the hand of Princess Kilisuci of Kediri. As with Balinese Rangda/Barong ritual drama, the struggle between the king and Singa Barong may involve supernatural powers, trance and spirit possession. After a long battle, and with the support of his cavalry of soldiers and his loyal, if somewhat crude and clownish looking friend Pujangganom, the king prevails over Singa Barong. His victory is celebrated with the Reyog parade during which Singa Barong is led captive through the crowd by King Klono Sewondono and his supporters, with Princess Kilisuci riding in the Singa Barong's peacock plumes in some of the parades.
The leader of the dance troupe and the person that usually carries the Singa-Barong mask is the warok, renowned for his strength. But, undoubtedly, one of the most spectacular elements of the Reyog dance are the warok's companions, the handsome gemblak soldiers, riding their hobby-horses to the rhythm of the accompanying music. If warok bring to Reyog connotations of excessive masculinity, gemblak, in contrast, bring to their military role connotations of grace and femininity. In popular discourse gemblak are often described as being transvestites and warok as homosexual, which they politely deny. Instead, they claim their relationship to be a part of a long-standing tradition, which has little if anything to do with transvestitism or homosexuality. Some of this tradition is narrated in the literary version of the Reyog story itself.

The story of Reyog usually commences with the son of the king of Ponorogo (Kelono Sewondono) leaving home and going to one of the temples up on Mt.Lawu to learn all about martial arts under the guidance of a holy man. Here he meets (Pujangganom) the son of the king of Kediri and the brother of Princess Kilisuci. Subsequently, the two young men become trusted friends.

This type of filial and sexual exile within a religious and martial arts context, is a common and a recurring element in Javanese and Balinese narratives. The exile of Arjuna in the Mahabarata is a good fictional case in point, as is the near-fictional and much quoted story of the millenium Javanese king Airlangga. Both Arjuna and Airlangga end their exile and abstinence with a military victory over their enemy, and both do so by using supernatural powers.[6]




In broad terms, warok follow the same tradition. It is said that the warok accumulates his power by abstaining from sexual activity with women.[7] Gemblak help the warok maintain the state of abstinence by providing companionship and a kind of woman substitute. For this reason, gemblak are selected for their grace, pose and beauty. While, publicly, sexual activity between warok

and gemblak is not condoned, some petting and kissing is allowed. There is usually an intense relationship between warok and gemblak and there have been many instances when different warok have fought one another over the possession of their favorite gemblak. This reputation has given Reyog performers and performances somewhat risque, anarchical and rebellious connotations.

The flamboyance and expressiveness intrinsic to the Reyog tradition and performance stands in contrast to the reserve normally practiced by Javanese and, in a wider Indonesia context, Reyog tradition is considered to be crude and unsophisticated. It is certainly held to be crude compared, for example, with kebatinan, the mystic tradition which exhibits some similarities with Reyog and which is popular with the better-educated urban middle class. Kebatinan is a sophisticated regime of Hindu and Muslim mystical traditions, which aims at emotional self-control and flattening of desire. As with the warok tradition, its purpose in the end is the acquisition of spiritual power and worldly influence.