A community of education: Nepalese children living and learning religious ritual

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This paper expands and extends the existing qualitative literature on the relationship between children and the social environment. With reference to a group of Nepalese children I highlight how children learn about religious ritual, and specific rituals in which they engage during their childhood years. I also explore the differences and similarities of children's religious ritual experiences between religious affiliation, castes and gender. Analyses of ethnographic and interview data revealed four important points. First, the children equated religious ritual learning in the forms of daily puja and the coming‐of‐age ceremonies. Second, both Hindu and Buddhist children engaged in these rituals and did not differentiate how Hindu worship differed from Buddhist worship. Third, the children identified their social world—their immediate and extended family and friends—as the primary place where they learned about religious rituals. Finally, children from the low castes, when socialised with children from higher castes, participated in religious ritual more often than children who did not socialise with children from the higher castes.