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Cultural

Waria

An Indonesian word for people born male who live as women or femininely. It belongs to Indonesia, and it is not a synonym for trans woman.

  • One of twenty-two Cultural identities
  • No settled flag
  • 4 min read
A character with a cup of tea in a shop full of plants and pottery

A word that belongs to a people. This identity is held within a specific culture. The page is here to understand it, not to adopt it.

A shorter entry: the essentials, written to the same standard. The fuller guides are on the main identities.

What it is

Waria is Indonesian. The word is a blend of wanita, woman, and pria, man, and it belongs to Indonesians, at home and in the diaspora. Wikipedia records that the government introduced the term in 1978 as a politer replacement for older words like banci and bencong, which many waria find offensive. It was not made on a forum and it is not on offer to people outside that life.

What it covers. The community wiki describes an assigned-male person who presents femininely or as a woman, roughly equivalent to a trans woman, and adds that few waria medically transition, often for religious reasons. Wikipedia records the argument among scholars: most describe waria as trans women; Tom Boellstorff argues they are better understood as male femininity, pointing to toilet signs reading pria/waria and to waria who say they will be buried as men. Other researchers note waria who take hormones, want women's names and see themselves as women. Both are in the record, and waria themselves say both.

The texture of the life is specific. Salons and wedding work, hair, make-up, running the ceremony, are so associated with waria that Wikipedia treats them as the emblematic trades. Most waria are Muslim, and many describe being waria as takdir or kodrat, God's will or fate, not a choice. Visibility on television has never meant safety; the record describes a hardening after 2016 and violence in less tolerant places. If you are not Indonesian, read on, but what you are looking for is probably trans woman or non-binary, and those pages will fit you better.

Pronouns

Indonesian pronouns carry no gender; dia is dia for everyone. What carries gender is names and forms of address. In English most waria use she and her; some, following the older understanding of the word, accept he in certain settings. Use the name and the form the person in front of you uses.

Does this sound like you?

You learned the word as an insult in the playground before you learned it as a job title.
You can do a bride's hair and make-up faster and better than anyone in the family, and you are not in the wedding photo.
You have prayed as a woman and been told you must be buried as a man, and you carry both without needing them reconciled.
Whether your street is safe depends on which street it is, which city, and who won the last local election.
You know exactly what banci sounds like from a stranger and what waria sounds like from a friend.
Relatives call it kodrat when they are kind and a shame on the family when they are not, sometimes in the same week.
You have seen a waria host a national talk show and still been told to keep your ID card face down.

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Nearby identities

The distinction is the useful part.

Transgender Female

The international word, and the one most researchers reach for. Narrower: it says woman and stops. Waria drags a whole social position along with it, the salon, the wedding, the mosque, the joke, that trans woman does not.

Compare Waria and Transgender Female →
Kathoey

Thailand's parallel word, with its own history and its own arguments. Not a translation and not interchangeable; neither is available to borrow.

Compare Waria and Kathoey →
Bakla

The Filipino word that also bundles gender and desire together. Comparable position, different country, different rules.

Compare Waria and Bakla →
Hijra

South Asia's category, with a household structure and a ritual role that waria do not have. Often lumped together by outsiders as one Asian third gender. They are not each other.

Compare Waria and Hijra →
Third gender

The outside category waria are often filed under. Useful in law and anthropology; not what most waria call themselves.

Compare Waria and Third gender →

It might not be you if…

  • You are not Indonesian and have no life in Indonesia. Reading about it is fine. Wearing it is not.
  • You were assigned female at birth. Whatever you are, this is not the word.
  • You are an Indonesian man who is feminine and clear that you are a man. People will aim banci at you; you do not have to accept waria either.
  • You want the glamour of the pageant without the salon hours, the family arrangement and the street. That is a look, not a life.

Questions people ask

Is waria the same as transgender?

Overlapping, not identical. Most researchers describe waria as trans women, and many waria would agree in either language. But the word also covers people who do not call themselves women, and Boellstorff's male femininity reading is in the record for a reason. Waria decide for themselves, and they do not all decide the same way.

Is waria a polite word?

It was introduced in 1978 precisely to be politer than banci and bencong, and most waria prefer it. From a stranger, tone still matters. If you are not Indonesian, use the person's name.

I'm not Indonesian. Can I be waria?

No. It is a word belonging to a place and to people who pay its costs. If the description felt like you, the honest names for that are trans woman, transfeminine or non-binary, and those pages are here.

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Guide · 10 min readAm I Non-Binary? 15 Signs You Might Be, and What to Do Next

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Last updated · How these pages are written and checked

No flag is shown because none is settled. Text: written from how people who use the word Waria describe it.

Sources:

  • Waria — LGBTQIA+ Wiki — Fetched. Definition (Indonesian third gender; assigned male, presents femininely or as a woman; roughly equivalent to a trans woman; few medically transition), etymology wanita + pria, and notes on visibility and violence.
  • Waria (person) — Wikipedia — Fetched. Term introduced by the government in 1978 (first in Kompas, 7 June 1978) replacing banci/bencong; salon and wedding work; religion (takdir, kodrat, pilgrimage); the Boellstorff male-femininity debate versus researchers who describe waria as trans women; the 2016 events.

This is not a clinical instrument, not a diagnosis, and not evidence of anything about anyone. It describes experiences so you can recognise your own — or rule them out.