Most of Museum Bali’s collections are ethnographical objects of Bali consisting of equipments and tools of religious ceremonies, sacred dances, parts of a sacred building such as temple, etc, similar to those which are still having sacred functions in the present society. In order to appreciate the sense of their sacredness, and to observe the local norms as well, that collections in Museum Bali are generally displayed following the existing concept of Trimandala, the three divisions of an area, i.e. utama mandala, the primary or the holiest part of the area, referring to the mountain direction (kaja), madya mandala, middle area (tengah), and nista mandala, the profane area (kelod) the ocean direction. This concept in Balinese society life is applied to the palemahan desa, a village layout, as well as to the palemahan pawongan, layout of a house compound. Besides horizontally, the concept also applies vertically.

Specially for the exhibition in Denpasar Building where we exhibit collections which do not have any sacred characteristics, besides the. concept of Trimandala we also use periodisation in displaying the collections.

In accordance with the concept, collections having the same shapes and types with those classified sacred in the society such as : the barong, rangda, equipments of sacred dances (tari wali) like sanghyang dedari, baris gede, topeng sidakarya (sacred mask), wayang kulit (shadow puppet), pratima (statuette of god), pralingga (divine vehicle) and various equipments of Panca Yadnya (the five main ceremonies) are all displayed in the exhibition buildings which are located at north side of the museum area, i.e. Tabanan and Karangasem Buildings.

Traditional cloth/textiles of Bali, considered to be in between, sacred and profane, are displayed in Buleleng Building which is supposed to be the middle of the museum area. While unsacred and common collections such as objects related to pre-historical funeral like a stone coffin, grave supplies, etc, pre-historical tools, historical equipments and fine arts are all exhibited in the Denpasar Building at the south side area.

In order to understand the exhibition more easily and chronologically, visitors are recommended to start their visit from the pre-historical and historical collections displayed in the ground floor of Denpasar Building located at south side area, and end at Tabanan Building at north area. The displays in all rooms are chronologically arranged clock-wise.

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