Arts of Asia Sdn. Bhd. is a gallery unlike any other in Penang. A walk through this gallery brings one to different parts of Asia. Tuck in the northwest corner of Penang, at Teluk Bahang, the gallery is situated in the most unusual of places. As a subsidiary of the Penang Butterfly Farm, the gallery sits adjacent to butterflies, insects, reptiles and rainforest. For the uninitiated, the gallery offers a respite from the exotic nature species to a world of art, culture and education from the Asian continent.

From its earliest beginning as a repository of tribal artefacts from Southeast Asia, the collection gradually expanded to include a fascinating array of Southeast Asian, Chinese, Tibetan and Nepali artefacts.

Tribal art still features prominently at the gallery, with perhaps the best and largest collection of its kind in the country. The lifestyles of tribal communities in Southeast Asia are fast disappearing, with pressure from their respective host countries to assimilate and contribute to their mainstream economies. The tribal section is a must for those who are attracted by the raw beauty of their art, and a feast for anthropologists who may wish to study their lifestyles through the material culture that these tribes produced.

The tribal section is arranged along tribal lines from different communities for easy identification. By far the largest section consists of items, both ceremonial (spiritual) and domestic from Papua New Guinea. Masks, story boards, food hooks, statues and personal adornments are displayed alongside shields and dance masks from Irian Jaya. There are also superb carvings of spirits and ancestors from the Nias Island off Sumatra. Another large section consists of items from the Batak tribe of north Sumatra. Peninsula Malaysia is represented by the orang asli tribes of Mah Meri and Jahut, whereas the Dayaks (a collective term for most tribal peoples of Borneo) represent Sarawak, East Malaysia. Life-like effigies called tau tau from the Toraja people of Sulawesi sit comfortably amongst other ancestral carvings and statues from the region.

On the opposite spectrum, the cultural world of Southeast Asia offers a diversity that is unmatched anywhere else in the world. The range of merchandise on offer at the gallery provides a glimpse of that diversity.

Southeast Asia sits at the crossroads of the maritime trade route between India and China. From early times, traders from both regions and beyond had converged along riverine principalities and kingdoms here. Besides goods these traders brought with them their belief, systems and material culture. That Southeast Asia became a repository of outside influences came as no surprise. Over centuries, these influences were grafted on to indigenous cultures, producing in each locality unique characteristics that were later identified with their respective national identities.

The gallery showcases the region's diversity through the myriad items on display. As any emporium in the region would testify, the choices available are mind boggling. There are ikats, tapestries and embroideries, woodcarvings, brass and silverware, bronze figurines and animals, puppets, bone carvings, keris', ceramics and much more. The list is just endless. There is a large collection of Buddhist and Hindu icons from the Buddhist countries of mainland Southeast Asia and Nepal to choose from. Styles, age and the materials from which they are made also vary.

The other compelling section in the gallery is from China and Tibet. Chinese traders had long traded in Southeast Asia and historical evidence indicates that commercial contacts with its southern neighbours may have commenced from Han (2nd century BC to 3rd century AD) times. To focus on the long history of the Chinese civilisation, the gallery's collection has expanded to include a range of artefacts from China. Showcasing its long history the gallery's exhibits range from bronzes of China's pre-history; to Han and Tang style pottery; to Chinese religious icons in wood and stone; to stone images of Buddhas and lohans. Recently, Ching dynasty ancestral paintings, cloisonne vases and incense burners, ceramics and contemporary Chinese crafts have been added.

The collection of Tibetan items include thangkas, prayer wheels, scriptures and other religious paraphernalia.

By the end of one's visit to the gallery, the visitor would have been mesmerized by the richness of the Asian cultures. No where else in the world would he be amazed by such vast multi-ethnicity being juxtapose alongside one another. On a micro scale, Penang represents that mixture, in that from its inception in 1786 onwards, it has continuously receive peoples from all over the world and embrace their cultures. In a similar fashion, Arts of Asia attempts in a minuscule manner to highlight and display the diversity of the region through its collection of the region's material culture.