Wa
Wa people inhabit in eastern Shan State of Myanmar, Southwestern Yunnan Province of China and some part of Thailand. They speaks a language belongs to Mon-Khmer of the Austroasiatic family. Many of the Wa are animists, and a small proportion of the population follows a derivative of either Christianity or Buddhism. The Wa are famous for their former headhunting and involvement in the opium trade. The Wa regarded the skulls they collected as protection against evil spirits. Without a skull, they believed that their families would die and their crops fail. The heads of strangers were highly prized because, the Was believed, the ghost of the dead man would be unable to find his way out of the hills. The Wa value their independence and tend to live at high altitudes, away from other tribes. Their name means "mountaineer," indicating that from ancient times they have dwelled in the mountain areas along the border of China and Burma (Myanmar).
There are about 351,000 Wa in China, where they are known as Va. The Wa (Va) form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. An estimated 10,000 Wa are also found in Thailand
The majority of Wa live in Myanmar, where about 700,000 are found in the Wa autonomous region in the northeast. Wa State in Myanmar is made up of many different ethnic groups, of which Wa and Lahu are the major groups. There are also Bouyei and Han Chinese.
Wa State can be divided into two parts, Northern and Southern Wa. Northern Wa is in the northeast of Myanmar and is located near the China border. It has a population of around 700,000 people, who live in a large region of about 15,000 square miles. South Wa is located near the Myanmar and Thailand border. It is in a mountainous region called Doi Larng, which controls the major commercial flow of the Golden Triangle. The population here is around 60,000 people.
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