We are deliberately dealing here only with southern Nias, since northern Nias lost almost everything indigenous as the result of the introduction here of a rigorous form of Christianity. All local cultural achievements were regarded from a one-sided European point of view, and were eliminated as quickly and thoroughly as possible. It was not, of course, the intention of the missionaries to impoverish the cultural life of the people; they merely believed that they could replace what they considered 'objectionable' elements by the values of their homeland. Trumpets thus took the place of the traditional instruments, and were used to accompany the hymns introduced by the missionaries from Europe.

Soon warning voices were raised within the missionary society itself which had selected Nias as its zone of operations. But for northern Nias the consequences of their activity had already proved disastrous. This very ancient instrument, the bamboo 'buzzer', dates from the early megalithic period. It probably reached Indonesia from Yunan by way of the Philippines. At present an instrument of this kind is still to be found on the Sangi and Talaud islands north of Celebes, on Celebes itself, in Borneo and even on tile islands to tile south-cast it, thus also exists in eastern Sumbawa.

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