 <p>If you want to select a Node by default, you can do it by setting the node's <code>selected</code> property to <code>true</code> when you initialise the dataSource. Another option would be to call the TreeView <code>select()</code> method after the TreeView completed the data loading. (See the <a href="http://docs.telerik.com/kendo-ui/api/javascript/ui/treeview#events-dataBound" rel="nofollow">dataBound</a> event for more details since the TreeView initialization may be completed before the data gets fully loaded)</p> <p>For the selection, there's a <a href="http://docs.telerik.com/kendo-ui/api/javascript/ui/treeview#methods-findByUid" rel="nofollow">findByUid</a> method that can be used in the TreeView. The <code>findByUid</code> function will return the jQuery nodes matching the specified <code>uid</code>. You can then use the results to select a node programatically by using the <code>select()</code> method:</p> <pre><code>var dataItem = treeview.dataSource.get(10); var node = treeview.findByUid(dataItem.uid); treeview.select(node); </code></pre>