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.