The ceremony marks the start of the planting season in South Sulawesi, where the androgynous Bissu community to whom Puang belongs once held divine status but is now fighting against extinction.

Less than 40 Bissu remain in just a few areas across South Sulawesi, according to anthropologists, and they now perform cultural and shaman-like roles to prevent their traditions from dying.

Nani, a Bissu in their 60s who was born male, said they faced opposition from their family when they experienced a gender identity crisis as a child but were now at peace with who they were.

"My family disliked it, especially my older brother," they recalled. "He kept beating me to force me to be a real man. "I've tried to change but I could not." 

In the 1950s, a rebellion led by the Islamic State of Indonesia group sought to create a caliphate in the country, leading to many Bissu being accused of violating Islamic principles and facing persecution. 

They were hunted, murdered or forced to behave as masculine men.

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