Bissu

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The Bissu flag, consisting of a red background and a horizontally aligned diamond with a yellow side and a white side.

Bissu, a metagender originating from the Bugis society in Indonesia, is described as a gender that "embodies the totality of masculinity and femininity" and is considered to be "a combination of all genders." It is one of the five genders that the Bugis recognize and is said to play a spiritual role in Bissu culture, said to "bridge the worldly and the divine." Many Bissu are intersex, but not all are.

History

For at least six centuries, Bissu have been an important part of the spirituality of the Bugis. As noted below, in Bugis mythology, Bissu comes down from heaven to help humanity.

" ‘You ask how this world came to be? Well let me tell you. Up there in the heavens, the gods decided they would bring life to this lonely planet. They therefore sent down one of their most aspiring deities, Batara Guru. But Batara Guru was not good at organizing things. To do all of this, two bissu were needed. So the gods sent down two bissu who flanked Batara Guru as he descended. And when they arrived, the bissu set about making everything blossom; they created language, culture, customs [adat], and all of the things that a world needs if it is going to blossom. That’s how the world began you see’ (Haj Bacco’). "