Wednesday, January 05, 2005
A WAROK AND HIS GEMBLAK
This story comes from TIME and is copyright 2002. It was sent in by a reader.
Homosexuality is a delicate topic in conservative, Islamic Indonesia. But until recently that wasn't the case in Ponorogo, a small town east of Yogyakarta. One of the more prestigious occupations in the area has traditionally been that of warok, a man believed to have mystical powers who stages ritual dances in order to bring good fortune to the community. His dancers were once attractive boys aged 10 to 16. The warok himself maintained his mystical powers by sleeping with the boys, who had their own title: gemblak.
But the warok of Ponorogo are becoming a thing of the past. As modern times bring a new openness to gays in Indonesia's big cities, they have almost shut down one of the country's longest-running homosexual traditions. Warok still live and work in Ponorogo, but they're not encouraged to live with gemblak anymore. Girls have replaced boys in the ritual dances, which themselves have evolved from meaningful rites into gaudy exhibitions for visiting tourists. Nowadays the warok is any man who has enough money to keep a dance troupe. "First they brought in the bright lamps," mourns Kasni Gunopati, 71, one of the oldest warok in town. "Then the radio, and now the television. Nowadays boys are ashamed to be known as a warok's gemblak."
