majestic carved gates of temples, wood and stone sculptures, traditional architecture of houses, beautiful offering on the head of women, musical processions toward the sea or other sacred sites. It is easy to hear the sound of shimmering gamelan music, on rehearsal in Balai Banjar or community halls, on religious event in the temples or they just coming to the ears through the trees or rice fields.   

It is therefore understandable to hear statement such as no Balinese word for arts, which is true, and that all Balinese are artist, which is arguable.  

Arts in Bali flourish centuries ago, even before the warring but artistic Balinese kingdoms of the 16th century. Inscriptions said that in around 1000 AD Bali already had puppet master, poetic singer, and musician. These artistic activities and endeavors further patronized by the feudal lords and sustained by their religious rituals. Economic stability of the people thanks largely to the successful of agriculture had given the Balinese plenty of leisure time to practice and develop the arts.  

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.