On northern Nias a complete stop was put to native dancing at tile instigation of the missionaries. Only in the southern half of the island did some of the old war dances, snake dances, and graceful round dances survive.

In our survey of music we have already mentioned that the musical Culture on the island of Flores is particularly varied. and here the dances arc also quite different in type. In addition to masculine war dances and ritual sacrificial dances there are several round dances, and also dances performed by young girls, which are characterized by an exquisite grace.

As mentioned before, dancing, like music, was greatly modified by external cultural influences, both in form and in manner of execution. This is very evident, for instance, in south -eastern Borneo. The instruments which are common there belong to the ancient eastern Javanese gamelan; and we find the same Javanese influence, dating from the Madjapahit era, in the dance,; performed by young girls.

On northern Nias a complete stop was put to native dancing at tile instigation of the missionaries. Only in the southern half of the island did some of the old war dances, snake dances, and graceful round dances survive.

Through a strange freak of history Bali, this like the neighboring island of Java had adopted so much from Indian culture, and was certainly no 'forgotten area. remained almost certainly untouched by Islam. In the whole of Indonesia it is only an this small island, some 2100 square miles in area, that Hinduism has survived up to the present day. Without doubt this was to large extent due to the fact that the kingdom of Balarnbangan oil eastern Java, with its Hindu. Javanese culture, was for a long time able to resist the pressure of tile Mohammedan kingdom of Mataram.

Please access this web site for more Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Bandung, Surabaya and all Indonesia Hotels bali-lombok-yogyakarta-jakarta-hotels.com - and Indonesian Holidays Information, hotels and travel reservation indonesia-hotels-travel-holidays.com