Discusses texts from both medieval times and the present day in which theories about the uses of gamelan and the connections between spirituality and gamelan music appear. Although no longer viable religions in Java, Buddhist and Shaivite Tantrism are reflected in the names of gamelan pieces and in the beliefs about music as a pathway to spiritual development that appear in treatises on gamelan music. Tantric interpretation of the court dance bedaya is implicit in the choreography and the contemporary interpretation of the choreography. Themes attributable to Sufi Islam are also frequently encountered in texts that include sections on the gamelan. Sufism and Tantrism have enough in common that they have assimilated to each other in writings about the gamelan tradition.
