Gamelan music is the sum of diverse foreign influences. Pitch relationships from China, bronze instruments from southeast Asia, drums and modal practice from India, bowed strings from the middle east, and even military styles from Europe contributed to the traditional music we hear in Java and Bali today.

In Bali today we can still find the overwhelming variety of traditional arts, from sculpture to painting, from architecture to music, from singing to dancing, and more important is that we can still find those mentioned arts that pervaded and supported by, what the Balinese call, taksu the divine soul of the arts. Painting as known in the West is not a very old art in Bali. In the old time the Balinese doing more wood or stone carving than painting.

Arts on Bali flourished already centuries ago, even before the warring but artistic Balinese kingdoms of the 16th century. Inscriptions say that already around 1000 AD Bali had puppet masters, poetic singers and musicians. These artistic activities and endeavors were further patronized by the feudal lords and sustained by their religious rituals. Economic stability of the people thanks largely to the success of agriculture gave the Balinese plenty of spare time to practice and develop the arts.

Untouched white sandy beaches, peaceful villages perched on green hills, and fertile valleys swarming with sculptured stone tombs, these were the breathtaking landscapes of Sumba island. The air filled with sweet smelling sandalwood and proud natives clad in their fine colourful woven costumes, their bodies glistening with beautiful ornaments, warmly greeting visitors, this was the image seen by the first European who set foot on the island centuries ago.