ALMOST everyone ignores it. The ondel-ondel (giant puppet representing benign spirits and deceased ancestors in the Betawi culture—Ed.), which people say used to be part of high-class ceremony in old Jayakarta, is nowadays part of the life of the impoverished, who know they are not in the limelight.

But, like many things in life, the ondel-ondel’s appearance before us is not one-sided. 

It marks ongoing tradition but also