ALT Nestled in the heart of Malaysian Borneo were the manang bali, a group of gender nonconforming shamans from the indigenous Iban tribe. They probably no longer exist due to mass conversions from animism to Christianity. Nevertheless, their historical presence holds present-day Malaysia accountable for its failure to recognise and appreciate its non-cisnormative and non-heteronormative past. The reality that the manang bali existed and were once lauded for their spiritual roles challenges and disrupts today's state-sanctioned transphobic and homophobic rhetoric. Spiritual intermediaries - such as shamans, mediums, witch doctors, ritualists and healers - who manifest gender non-conformity reside in many corners of Asia. These include the Ngaju Dayak basir of Indonesian Borneo, the bissu of the Indonesian Bugs people, the nat kadaw of Burma and the hiira of India.

ALT Pre-colonial records of trans masculinity in the region Hikayat Panji Semirang - Epic poem from the 14th century - (Princess) Galuh Candra Kirana who crossdresses and calls self Panji Semirang, known as a fierce warrior-prince Raja Ngah - Shaman from Perak royalty - Wore male clothing - Male familiar named Israng - Documented by Frank Swettenham in 1895 - Malay Sketches (pp 155-159)

ALT Two other categories of such legacies that existed in Malaysia well into the twentieth century merit brief consideration here even though but also because they are now largely defunct. The first consists of performers of mak yong theater and related dramatic and musical genres, many of whom, as noted earlier, enjoyed royal patronage, were linked to palaces in other ways, and engaged in transgender and explicitly same-sex practices. The second is composed of pawang or shamanic specialists, who might be seen as the "most lineal" of the legacies of pre-Islamic sida-sida, especially in light of the strongly animist and Hindu-Buddhist tenor of their most public, community-wide rituals.

ALT Continuation from previous excerpt. Pawang were formally associated with indigenously defined district-level and state poli-ties, were held to have "white blood" and extremely potent spiritual powers vested in and symbolized by their sacred regalia, and were depicted in nine-teenth- and early twentieth-century British accounts (e.g., Maxwell 1907 [1982]:214-22) as belonging to hereditarily defined groups like certain of the Borneo ritual specialists discussed earlier. In the nineteenth and twentieth cen-turies, some male-bodied pawang were possessed by female spirits or deities, clothed themselves in women's attire, wore their hair long like women, and were on occasion involved in other transgender practices (miming women's gait, etc.) (Winstedt 1961:59). Similarly, in the late nineteenth century at least some female-bodied pawang engaged in ritual transvestism, though unfortunately we do not know much more than that (Swettenham 1895 [1984]:153-54 passim).