RELIGIOUS CHARACTER EDUCATION FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD THROUGH "NADOMAN": ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDIES ON SUNDANESE ETHNIC

Abstract

Religion and beliefs are an essential part of national culture and daily life in Indonesia. Religious values ​​are essential things to be transformed in Indonesian society at every level of education to build a nation's religious character. Therefore, this research aims at analyzing how the process of transforming religious values ​​in early childhood through religious poetry (nadoman) in the Sundanese ethnic community. To address these objectives, an ethnographic research involving six children in the age range of 7-8 years old was designed. This research resulted in several findings including; 1) nadoman is a Sundanese ethnic tradition in early childhood character education in addition to tetembangan (humming) and kaulinan (games), besides, nadoman is also a form of anti-thesis of the reak tradition in the Sundanese ethnic community, 2) nadoman activities represent theistic, ethical, and aesthetic values ​​of the Sundanese ethnic originating from Islamic values, both in the credial, ritual, and moral dimensions, 3) of the six types of places of worship for Muslims that include tajug (langgar), musalla, congregational mosque, community mosque, grand mosque, and great mosque, nadoman activities are only carried out in musalla and mosques, 4) in early childhood, the nadoman activity represents behavior that reflects beliefs, obedience, sacredness, intelligence, cleanliness, holiness, togetherness, and politeness. From these findings, this research can conclude that nadoman activities for early childhood in Sundanese ethnic can form religious characters.