The museum is part of Mengwi Temple as place of interest for tourist. The concept of the museum is the preservation of human circle-rites.
For Balinese, there are various rituals since a baby is still in the womb of the mother. The most important ceremony are birth ceremony, otonan ceremony ( every 210 days ), tooth filing ceremony, marriage ceremony, and ngaben ( burial ) ceremony. In this museum the materials and tools of these various ritual are preserved, and step by step to be developed to really represent the variations of the rituals.
That is why this museum is called Manusa Yadnya, literally means Ritual for Human. On 2 May 1980 started to exhibit the ritual from megedong-gedongan ( just born baby ceremony ) until marriage ceremony. In Jun 1981 completed with burial ceremony including Ngaben and mamukur. Ngaben ceremony is not always followed by cremation ritual. Some areas near the mountain and big temple usually do not complete the ritual with cremation.
Here is the step of life-circle rites of Balinese.
- Magedong-gedongan is a ritual for a baby when it is still in mother's womb
- Mabuhu-buhu ritual, is for the birth of a baby
- Ngaroras dina, a ritual of 12 days after the birth of a baby
- Macolong, a ritual of 42 days after the birth of a baby
- Nyambutin, a ritual of 105 days after the birth of a baby
- Pawetonan ( otonan ) a ceremony after the baby reached 210 days, and this ceremony will be regularly repeated every 210 days, such as the birth day
- Ngaraja Sewala, like initiation ceremony, when the boy or girl considered to get physically adolescent.
- Mapandes, is tooth filing ceremony
- Marriage ceremony
- Ngaben ceremony
- Mamukur ceremony
Those are the type of the physical aspect of the ritual of human being that are preserved in the museum, although in fact this activity is still living in Balinese society.
