The Wa nationality has its own language, which belongs to the Wa language branch of the South Asian language family and is divided into three dialects. In the past, the Wa people had no characters. In 1957, they created a script scheme in the form of Latin letters.
influenced by the Dai people, they believed in Hinayana Buddhism, and Christianity was introduced to some areas.
The Wa people are mainly engaged in agricultural production.
Young Wa people propose a toast to girls to celebrate the Spring Festival. It's an ancient custom of Wa people to worship bamboo tube wine. Every New Year, Wa men and women should respect bamboo tube wine and wish each other well.
taboo: you can't ride into the village, you must dismount at the gate of the village; Avoid others touching their heads and ears; Avoid giving people peppers and eggs; Avoid entering the wooden drum room at will; Taboo to give girls decorations; Taboo guests sitting in the drum pier where women sit or counting money at home; If you put a wooden pole in front of the door, it means that there are patients at home and outsiders are forbidden to enter.
On June 16th, 1954, Yunnan Menglian Dai, Lahu and Wa Autonomous County was established. On October 16, 1955, Yunnan Gengma Dai and Wa Autonomous County was established; On February 28, 1964, Cangyuan Wa Autonomous County was established in Yunnan. On March 5, 1965, Ximeng Wa Autonomous County was established in Yunnan. Lahu-va-blang-dai autonomous county of shuangjiang was founded in 1985.
Wa women are making a new fire. On the annual "New Fire Festival", the Wa people put out the old fire, and then the venerable old people lit a new fire in the form of drilling wood to make a fire. Every household in the stockade went to the place where the new fire was made and took it home to rekindle it, indicating good luck and well-being in the new year.
The man's father (first from left) is tying the soul line for the groom (first from right) and the bride (second from right). In the traditional wedding of Wa nationality, tying the soul line means tying the soul of the bride and groom.
The Wa people live on rice. Wa people in Ximeng area like to cook vegetables, salt and rice into thick rotten rice. The Wa people in other districts eat more rice. Eat three meals during the busy farming season and two meals at ordinary times. Chicken porridge, such as camellia porridge, is the top grade of home-cooked food. The upland rice is often eaten now, and all men, women and children eat peppers. There is a saying among the people that "there is no shortage of food in chili pepper". The meat of Wa people mainly comes from family rearing, including pigs, cows and chickens. In addition, there are habits of preying on rats and insects. After catching rats, first burn the hands with fire, remove the internal organs, wash them, and cook them with rice as meat to eat. Some also use a fire pit to dry the rat meat and make it into a dry bar for storage. The rodents hunted are bamboo rats, squirrels and voles. In some areas, the Wa people also have the habit of preying on insects. According to the special fish of the season, they have replaced more than ten species, such as edible bamboo pupae, red caterpillars parasitic on vegetation, broom worms and wax gourd worms parasitic on wax gourd trees. Generally, edible insects and rice are cooked into porridge, and vegetables, salt and pepper are added, which is spicy and delicious. Bee-keeping in low ethnic groups is common, but the method of bee-keeping is very special. First, a hollow log is used, both ends are sealed, and several small holes are left for wild bees to enter and leave, and they are placed under the rafters of forests or houses to breed and make honey. They are cut 2 or 3 times a year and eaten together with the pupae. Wa people generally like drinking and drinking bitter tea. All the drinks are home-brewed "soaking wine". The method of making soaked wine is simple. Most of them are sliced millet, sorghum, sweet potato and canna taro, fried and dried, or sealed in a jar or bamboo tube for as little as 7-8 days and as many as several months (the longer the time, the better the alcohol). When you need to drink, uncover the wine jar and pour it into the mountain spring water, and filter off the residue before drinking. Soaked wine contains a small amount of alcohol and yeast, which can help digestion. Drinking soaked wine often is not only harmless to the body, but also beneficial to health. In recent decades, low-income people began to drink burnt liquor. Besides drinking, Wa people prefer to drink bitter tea. To drink bitter tea, you should choose big leaf and coarse tea, put it in a tea jar or sand pot and boil it slowly on the fire pit until the tea is cooked thoroughly and thickened. It is called bitter tea, and some bitter teas are cooked so badly that they almost become tea cream. Although bitter tea tastes bitter, it has a cool feeling after drinking. For the Wa nationality in the hot climate area, it has a magical thirst quenching effect. Chewing betel nut is a common hobby of Wa people, men, women and children. They usually chew a piece of betel nut in their mouths when they are resting or chatting. The betel nuts chewed are all substitutes cooked with Quercus acutissima leaves and lime. It is said that chewing betel nuts has the function of strengthening teeth. Wa people are used to having meals with the whole family around the fire pit. Housewives put the rice into wooden bowls and distribute it to all members. Generally, they will finish it at one time according to their appetite. If outsiders are present, they can also share it.
A Wa warrior plunged a sharp rake into the soft underbelly of a cow at the Wa's "Bovine Festival". The Wa people are a people who revere cattle. Every year, whenever there are major festivals and sacrificial activities, the Wa people hold cattle-hunting ceremonies to express their desire for a bumper harvest and pray for peace.
Wa people are performing a wooden drum. The wooden drum is the Wa people's heavenly artifact and a long-standing inheritance. Wa people go to the mountains every year to find the hardest and most knocking-resistant tree species by throwing eggs, and the whole village people sing and dance back to the stockade and make wooden drums. Wooden drums are usually placed in wooden drum rooms where ordinary people are forbidden to get close, and only when there are large religious activities and major disasters do they bang drums to gather people.
Festivals, Sacrifices, Etiquette and Food Custom The Wa people generally believed in animism in the past, and in some areas, the Wa people believed in Buddhism, and almost all festivals were accompanied by sacrificial activities. In addition to killing chickens and pigs, traditional sacrificial activities also require unique cattle-hunting. For example, on the sowing festival (March in Gregorian calendar), people in the whole village gather together to carry out cattle racing, and the cattle racing ceremony is presided over by the owner who donated cattle. At that time, the owner will stab the cow's heart with an iron handle to kill it, and then divide the beef equally among customers to worship their ancestors. Cow bones belong to their owners, and cow head bones are regarded as a sign of wealth. After the ancestor worship ceremony, the whole family had lunch and began to sow dry valleys. "Collapse of Nanni" is a new year's festival, and it should be held on the last month of the year in the calendar (Houli). On the fourth watch of that night, the leaders and young men of the whole village will gather at the Wangs' house, and collect money to buy a pig and a chicken for slaughter. Each family will take a pot of glutinous rice and a piece of rice cake with a small table. After that, they gave each other Baba and congratulated each other. At dawn, they worship the sacred tree and start hunting and fishing for fish and shrimp in order to make good luck in the new year. Other festivals, such as catching new water festivals, lighting new fires, pulling wooden drums and other activities, should be sacrificed by killing chickens and pigs. Among them, Lamuye's sacrifice is large in scale, and the whole process takes more than ten days. It needs a cloth for several cattle festivals, and the whole family buys wine to celebrate. Before and after Lamuye, ginger is not allowed to be eaten, banana leaves can be used to hold rice, and bowls and chopsticks can be used. Wa people are generous and hospitable, welcoming guests with wine first, thinking that no wine is a gift. Wa people have diverse customs of entertaining guests and toasting. One is that the host of the toast first takes a sip from himself to dispel the various warnings of the guests, and then hands it to the guests in turn. Guests must drink the wine offered to them, and try their best to dry it to show their honesty, otherwise it will be considered disrespectful to the host; Another form is that the host and guest are all squatting on the ground, and the host hands the wine to the guest with his right hand. After the guest takes it with his right hand, he falls to the ground a little or bounces the wine on the ground with his right hand, which means to respect the ancestors. Then the host and the guests drank together. Wa people have the habit of not knowing their hearts and not toasting those who are not kind. Whenever the son goes out and the guests leave, the host will also give a "farewell gift". That is, toast relatives or guests. At that time, the host will fill the wine with a gourd (wine container), take a sip first, and then send it to the mouth of the guests or relatives far away. The guests need to drink the gourd to the bottom to show their affection and friendship will never forget.
Typical foods mainly include camellia porridge, which is cooked with camellia chicken and rice, roasted snake meat, fried ant eggs with green peas, fried firewood worms and so on.