Wa

The Wa are an Austroasiatic people of the hills between the Mekong and the Salween, spanning Yunnan and the Shan country of Burma. Chinese records trace them to a branch of the ancient Hundred Pu; their autonyms Wa, Ba Raog and A Wa mean mountain people.

They farmed rice, beans and poppies, kept buffalo for sacrifice, and honoured spirits through wooden drums and offerings, once taking heads to fertilise the rice fields.

The Wa of Kengtung were displaced around 1229 and later defeated by King Mangrai of Lan Na, after which many fell under Shan rule. Wa close to the Dai took up Theravada Buddhism, while remote hill villages kept their animist rites. Their Palaungic language had no traditional script, and literate Wa wrote in Chinese or Shan characters.