Wa of China
Population and Location
According to the 1990 census, there are about 351,000 Wa in China. Most Was are distributed in the Ximeng and Cangyuan counties of the southwestern province of Yunnan. About 600,000 Was are also found in Myanmar and 10,000 in Thailand.
Ethnicity
Before 1962 the group was known as the Awa. They are related to the Drungs and Blangs. From the 2nd to 7th centuries, the three groups were considered one. The Dai peoples have also had a strong influence on the Wa, as seen in their farming, architecture and their shared customs of tattooing themselves and sheathing their teeth with silver foil. The Wa are one of the 55 minority people groups of mainland China.
Culture
The Wa are known as the Bamboo Culture. They live in bamboo homes, eat bamboo shoots and rice (cooked in bamboo tubes) from bamboo bowls, while sitting on bamboo stools, before sleeping in their bamboo beds. Their homes are two stories, with people on the second floor, while the pigs and chickens take the first. Most homes have two hearths, one for cooking and one for making offerings to the spirits. The monogamous family is the basic unit of Wa society. Family property is inherited by the youngest son, while daughters have been denied the right to inherit.
Silver jewelry is part of the Wa traditional costume. Women laden themselves with silver headbands, earrings and necklaces, many strings of beads, rattan hoops around their waists and large silver bracelets on their wrists and arms.
Language
The Wa language is part of the Cambodian group in the Southwest Asian languages. The three main dialects are mutually intelligible. Still, illiteracy is alarmingly high, and only a small segment of the population is educated.
Livelihood
The main economic activities are agriculture, forestry and hunting. Many still use slash and burn agricultural methods, burning out a piece of forest and farming the land until the soil is totally depleted. The mountainous area yields gold, silver, copper, aluminum and timber. The farms produce dry rice, maize, buckwheat, potatoes, cotton, hemp, tobacco, sugarcane and subtropical fruits.
Religion
Traditionally worshippers of nature, some Was have been led towards Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism by Dai neighbors. It is believed by most Wa that at death, men`s spirits become either ghosts or gods. The spirit, they believe, doesn`t depart at death, so it is "fed" through a bamboo tube for the first month.
The Wa believe their ancestors protect the living, and carefully worship departed relatives. They also worship the spirits of the earth, grain and some animals. So much of their time and money is spent on their many superstitions that it hinders their economic advancement.
To insure a good harvest the Wa used to sprinkle the ashes and blood of a human sacrifice on each of their fields. The headhunter used chicken bones to divine who the next victim should be, but it appears that victims were often chosen for revenge. Headhunting died away in the late 1950s.
Educationally, standards are still low. About half the population is illiterate or semi-literate, and as of 1982 only 153 Wa had graduated from university, and only 2,300 attended high school.
Openness to Christianity
The Was are strongly influenced by family, so that if one family member believes, the whole family converts, and soon the entire village. This often separates them into totally Christian and non-Christian villages.
Missions
1907: An American Baptist pastor was warmly received in Ankang where the first Wa convert was baptized in April of the next year. Wa Buddhist chiefs in Lanang, Gengma and Cangyuan were willing to accept Christianity, but the government threatened to fine any who changed religions.
1912: The first Wa/Lahu church and school were built, and 80 Wa and Lahu converts attended intensive training classes.
1936: The gospel spread to other regions through the ministries of the Baptist pastor`s sons. With over 100 churches and schools and 300 evangelists there were more than 20,000 Lahu and Wa converts.
1938: Missionaries published a Wa Bible in a newly created Wa script.
1948: A total of 22,369 Was had been baptized.
1956: Christianity was still thriving. Most churches were closed down during the Cultural Revolution and the number of worshippers dropped drastically.
1985: The Yunnan Christian Council printed 10,000 New Testaments and 6,000 hymnals in Wa inside China.
1992: About 13,000 believers meeting in 40 churches in Lanchang.
Today: Because the Wa live in such an isolated area of Yunnan Province, few outsiders have been allowed access to the area. News of the church is rather sketchy. It is believed that about 10-20% of the Wa are now Christian, according to one source in Hong Kong.