The real story
An ondel-ondel stands about two and a half metres tall: a woven bamboo frame, a carved mask, a crown of paper 'kembang kelapa' flowers, and one person inside carrying the whole thing on their shoulders. They come as a couple. The red-faced male stands for courage and the white-faced female for purity. For the Betawi, the people native to Jakarta, they were tolak bala, a way to drive off disease and bad spirits, before they became the stars of weddings, circumcisions and festivals.
Today many ondel-ondel walk the streets as buskers, pushed along with a speaker cart, and very often it is teenagers inside. Jakarta lawmakers have proposed banning ondel-ondel busking under the city's Betawi culture regulation. Their argument is that a cultural symbol shouldn't have to beg, and they want proper stages for performers instead. Critics answer that for many families the street is the only stage left.
