It's because the template file is no longer a tree; it's a forest (there are two top level nodes, a comment node and the real node). You can "goose" the widget system by setting dojoAttachPoint="domNode" on what you'd *like* to be the visible root of your widget. That'll work regardless of how many peers or parents that widget has. It's also a great way to implement state-only widgets (state1 -> state2 -> state3 -> etc.).