Wa States

Wa States
Meung Vax
Self-governing group of States, then Native States under nominal control of the British Empire
Before 500 BC–c. 1950 →   →
View of the rugged mountains of the Wa country with the valleys covered in mist.
The Wa States in an Imperial Gazetteer of India map. Note the border with China marked with a discontinuous darker pink line —unlike Kengtung State to the south and North Hsenwi to the north.
Capital		Not specified
Government		Petty kingdoms and village fiefdoms
History
•	Wa ancestral territories	Before 500 BC
•	Incorporation into Shan State (Yunnan Prov. areas annexed by China earlier)	c. 1950
Area
•	1901 (estimate)	8,000 km² (3,089 sq mi)
Population
•	1901 (estimate) est.	50,000
Density		6.3 /km²  (16.2 /sq mi)
Today part of		China  Myanmar

A Wa Khaox Si Gang y-shaped post where the ceremonial sacrifice of a buffalo was performed in special occasions

A Wa woman carrying her child

Traditional Wa female dress and bangles. Yunnan Nationalities Museum.

The Wa States and Manglon in a map of the Shan States.

The Wa States was the name formerly given to the Wa Land, the natural and historical region inhabited mainly by the Wa people, an ethnic group speaking an Austroasiatic language. The region is located to the northeast of the Shan States of British Burma, in the area of present-day Shan State of northern Burma (Myanmar) and the western zone of Pu'er Prefecture, Yunnan, China.

Practically the whole Wa region is rugged mountainous territory with steep hills and deep valleys. There were no urban areas. A section of the historical Wa territory was included in the state of Manglon, one of the Shan States. Considered a distant and inaccessible border area by former empires, the British census of 1901 did not include the Wa States, so statistics regarding a population over 50,000 in 1911 are estimates.^[1]

The oral tradition of the Wa people claims that their territory had been much larger in the distant past,^[2] an assertion that is confirmed both by Shan and Yunnan Chinese sources.^[3] The Wa also regard their ancestral territory as being at the centre of the inhabited world.^[4] Nowadays part of the area of the former Wa States is included in Wa State, an unrecognised state within Burma.

History

Ancient lore

There are no historical records on the Wa States before the 19th century. Northern Thai legends claim that before the advent of Buddhism the Lanna territory was founded by nine Wa clans.^[5] According to Wa oral tradition the area where they live, with the Nam Hka flowing across it, as well as the areas further to the south between the Mekong and the Salween down to Chiang Mai, had been their ancestral territory since time immemorial.^[6] This view is supported by remains of fortified towns on the hills now covered by jungle,^[7] as well as by the traditions of the Shan, according to which the territory of Kengtung State further to the south had formerly belonged to the Wa people who were displaced around 1229 and were later defeated by King Mangrai.^[2]

Around Kengtung there are dispersed groups related to the Wa, such as the Tai Loi, En, Piying and Hsen Hsum, living in small villages, likely remnants of the former Wa population.^[2] The Vingngun (Pakkatè, Shan: Wiang Ngoen) historical area of the Wa —were silver was said to have been worked— was included in the Wa States.^[8] By the 18th century, during Qing Dynasty rule in China, the Wa area became separated from the tribal military control of the Dai people.

19th century

In the 19th century the British government considered the region a remote territory and did not administer the Wa States.^[7] The only Wa territory administered by the British was the State of Manglon, which was ruled by a Wa saopha and was populated mostly by Wa in the region that lay east of the Salween. The border with China was left undefined^[9] and the area was left alone, officially belonging neither to China nor to Great Britain. Consequently, the Wa States were never fully incorporated into British Burma.

The population of the Wa States included other ethnic groups such as the Tai Yai, Lisu and Kachin people. There were also enclaves of Lahu at Mongkha and Lao Shan in Mongshaw within Wa territory.^[1] In the late 19th century the Wa ruler of Son Mu welcomed the Panthay, a community of persecuted Hui Muslims to settle in his territory, but by the early 20th century the relations between the Muslim settlers and their Wa hosts turned sour. Finally in 1926 the tensions erupted into the local "Wa-Panthay War" in which the less organized Wa were defeated by the Muslim traders.^[10]

The inhabitants of the Wa States were traditionally animistic. But by the 19th century a minority of the Wa had been influenced by the Buddhist doctrine of the neighbouring Shan people, although mostly only superficially. The Wa who abandoned their traditional animistic ways became known as the 'Tame Wa'.^[7]

20th century

Sir James George Scott visited the Wa States around the turn of the century and wrote about the place, taking pictures of the people and the houses of the area as well.^[7] Christian missionaries went into the Wa region in the early 20th century, reaching first the Burmese and later also the Chinese areas of Wa territory. William Young, from Nebraska, studied in depth the Wa language and was instrumental in putting it into writing using a script based on the Latin alphabet. The first publication in the Wa language, a compilation of Wa hymns, was printed in 1933.^[11]

In the 1940s, during the Chinese Civil War, remnants of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army retreated to territory within Burma as the People's Liberation Army took over mainland China. Some troops remained in the area east of the Salween river, where in later years Wa insurgent groups controlled the region with the support of the Communist Party of Burma. The Wa States were officially merged into the Shan State in post-independent Burma, but the administration of the Burmese government was not reaching the Wa region and the Shan nationalist armed groups left the area alone as well.^[12]

Some towns experienced a modern administration for the first time during local communist rule. Throughout that period opium cultivation and drug trafficking increased and the ancient Wa traditional life became disrupted. However, for the first time in history an administrative system that collected revenue and maintained a significant armed force, as well as a rudimentary infrastructure, ushered the Wa region into the modern era.^[12]

States

There were many historical Wa states, but there is no information about them; some of the 'states' were little more than small communities living in roughly fortified villages, usually built on hilltops or slopes.^[1]

States ruled by Saophas

The saopha of Mang Lon was a Buddhist Wa. Besides Manglon, five Wa States were known to be ruled by saophas^[7] who adopted some of the manners of the rulers of the Shan States and were assisted by amafs or ministers in the various departments:^[1]

• Hrawng Nang
• Kang Hsü
• Kawng Maum
• Maw Mang
• Na Hpaw
• Ngek Hting
• Ngek Lek. The saopha of Ngek Lek sent a letter to Sir George Scott in 1897. He requested Scott not to pass through his territory because the sight of the British expedition would alarm the women and children.^[13]
• O Mu
• Sao Hin. The first chairman of the United Wa State Party (UWSP) was Zhao Ni-Lai, a former military leader of the Sao Hin saopha, who joined the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) in 1969.
• Son Mu. The saopha of Son Mu or Sonmu, who allowed the Hui Muslim Panthays to settle in his territory in exchange for a yearly tribute of 100 Rs, is mentioned in the records of the events that later led to the Wa-Panthay War.^[10][14]

Other Wa states

• Maw Hpa and Mot Hai are states mentioned by Scott to be inhabited by the 'Tame Wa', a named used to refer to the non-headhunting Wa influenced by Buddhism. Occasionally these states formed confederations, but since the vision of the Wa was restricted to their immediate surroundings, these were neither far-reaching nor long-lasting.^[7]
• Loi Lön and Santong, where allegedly lead was found, are two further Wa States mentioned in The Imperial Gazetteer of India.^[15]

See also

• Chinese Shan States
• Manglon
• Wa people

References

External links

• Media related to Wa region at Wikimedia Commons
• The Imperial Gazetteer of India
• "Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan states"
• Wa people (佤) - Native Cultures of Yunnan
• Wa customs
• Wa songs
• Wa states fb page
• Wa culture fb page

Coordinates: 22°30′N 98°45′E / 22.500°N 98.750°E / 22.500; 98.750