Va people

Va
(Wa, Ava, Parauk, Ba rāog)

Burmese depiction of the Wa in the early 1900s
Total population
approx. 1.2 million
Regions with significant populations
Burma  (Shan State, Kachin State) 800,000[citation needed] China  (Yunnan Province) 400,000[citation needed]
Languages
Va language, Yunnanese Mandarin (both in Wa state of Burma and in China)
Religion
Animism, Christianity, Buddhism

The Va nationality (Va: Vāx, Burmese: ဝလူမျိုး [wa̰ lùmjóʊ]; Chinese: 佤族; pinyin: Wǎzú) lives mainly in Northern Burma, in the northern part of Shan and eastern Kachin States, near and along the border with China. Their defacto capital is Pangkham in the unofficial Wa State in North Eastern Shan state. The majority of the Va live in Burma. They were known as the 'Wild Wa' by British administrators.

In China, they live in compact communities in the Ximeng (in Va: Mēng Ka or Si Moung), Cangyuan, Menglian (Gaeng Līam), Gengma (Gaeng Mīex or Gaeng Māx), Lincang (Mēng Lām), Shuangjiang (Si Nblāeng or Mēng Mēng), Zhenkang, and Yongde counties in southwestern Yunnan Province of China. Their population in China is estimated at around 400,000.

The Va language belongs to Mon–Khmer group of the Austroasiatic family. In China, a written language was created for the Va people in 1956.

The Va are one of the 136 officially recognized ethnic groups in Burma. The Va are also one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by China.

In Burma, the Va have formed the Wa State, with the United Wa State Army, based on the remains of the former Burmese Communist Party rebel group that collapsed in 1989. The Wa State/UWSA is in a fragile cease-fire agreement with the Burmese military government. They have been accused by Western governments of involvement in drug trafficking but have banned opium production sine 2005 and have received United Nations aid in creating substitute agriculture.

See also

• Wa State
• Pangkham
• United Wa State Army

External links

• A Dictionary of the Wa Language with Burmese (Myanmar), Chinese, and English Glosses and Internet Database for Minority Languages of Burma (Myanmar)
• ワ語の発音と表記 (Pronunciation and spelling of Va; in Japanese)
• The Va ethnic minority (Chinese government website, in English)
• Wa page from China Style site
• Wa page from Ethnologue site

Bibliography

• A Bibliography of materials in or about Wa language and culture
• Harvey, G. E. Wa Précis. Rangoon, 1933.
• Lintner, Bertil. Burma in Revolt: Opium and Insurgency Since 1948. Chiang Mai, 1999.
• Marshall, Andrew. The Trouser People: a Story of Burma in the Shadow of the Empire. London: Penguin; Washington: Counterpoint, 2002. ISBN 1-58243-120-5.
• Mitton, Geraldine Scott of the Shan Hills. London: John Murray, 1936.
• Scott, J. G. Burma and Beyond. London, 1932.
• Scott, J. G. Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States. 5 vols. Rangoon, 1900-1901.
• Winnington, Alan. The Slaves of the Cool Mountains. Berlin: Seven Seas, 1959.
• Winnington, Alan. The Slaves of the Cool Mountains: The Ancient Social Conditions and Changes Now in Progress on the Remote South-Western Borders of China. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1959.
• Fiskesjö, Magnus. "The autonomy of naming: Kinship, power and ethnonymy in the Wa lands of the Southeast Asia-China frontiers." In Charles Macdonald & Yangwen Zheng, eds. Personal Names in Asia: History, Culture and Identity. Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2009, pp 150-74. ISBN: 9971693801.
• Fiskesjö, Magnus. "Slavery as the commodification of people: Wa 'slaves' and their Chinese 'sisters'." Focaal-Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology 59 (Spring 2011), 3-18.
• Fiskesjö, Magnus. "Mining, history, and the anti-state Wa: The politics of autonomy between Burma and China." Journal of Global History 5.2 (June 2010), 241-64.
• Fiskesjö, Magnus. "Participant intoxication and self-other dynamics in the Wa context." The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 11.2 (June 2010), 111-27.
• Takano, Hideyuki. "The Shore Beyond Good and Evil: A Report from Inside Burma's Opium Kingdom." Tokyo: Kotan Publishing, 2002. In English.
• Kramer, Tom. "The United Wa State Party: Narco-army or ethnic nationalist party?" Washington, DC: East-West Center Washington; Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2007.
• Kramer, Tom. "From golden triangle to rubber belt?: The future of opium bans in the Kokang and Wa regions." Amsterdam: Transnational Institute, 2009. http://www.tni.org/

Fiction

• Scott, J. G., and Mitton, Geraldine. In the Grip of the Wild Wa. London, 1913.
• Winnington, Alan. "Kopfjäger" [ins Deutsche übertragen von K. Heinz]. Berlin: Verlag Volk und Welt, 1983. Series: Roman-Zeitung; Heft 398. [German translation of the novel "Headhunters"].