The Balinese orchestra is called a gamelan. The Bali-Hindu religion requires the gamelan for the success of the thousands of ceremonies performed every year. There are more than two dozen distinct types of gamelan, each with their own traditions, repertoire and social or religious functions. There are a number of different sized instruments, metallophones that look like xylophones, called gangsas, which have bronze keys that are hit with little wooden hammers which causes bamboo resonators below the keys to vibrate. They may have 4 to 14 keys and are grouped in pairs. After the keys have been hit by the hammer in the right hand, the left hand immediately grasps the key to stop the sound merging in the next note.

On 15 December 2021 Gamelan was added to the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage .

Gamelan is one of the most representative traditions of Indonesia, along with Wayang shadow puppet and batik making, already on the UNESCO list