page_title: Wa people
section_title: Post World War 2
hierarchical_section_title: Wa people / Cultural history / Post World War 2
caption_attribution_description: English: Wa woman feeding a little girl
context_page_description: The Wa people are an ethnic group that lives mainly in Northern Myanmar, in the northern part of Shan State and the eastern part of Kachin State, near and along Burma's border with China, as well as in China's Yunnan province.
  Historically the Wa have inhabited the Wa States, a territory that they have claimed as their ancestral land since time immemorial. It is a rugged mountainous area located between the Mekong and the Salween River, with the Nam Hka flowing across it. The Wa traditionally practiced subsistence agriculture by cultivating rice, peas, beans, poppies and walnuts. They bred water buffaloes, which they used mainly for sacrificial purposes. Generally, the traditional customs of the Wa, as well as their lifestyle, are very similar to those of the Naga people further to the Northwest.
  Many of the Wa are animists and a small proportion of the population follows a derivative of either Buddhism or Christianity. The Wa were once known as the "Wild Wa" by the British due to their practice of headhunting.
context_section_description: The international border that had been defined between Burma and China made that the Wa people were divided between the two countries. The Wa regions in Burma were largely left alone until the 1950s, when remnants of Chiang Kai-shek's National Revolutionary Army fled the 1949 communist revolution in China. A decade and a half later, the region was under the influence of the Communist Party of Burma, which was very active in the area. During that time opium cultivation and sales grew and the ancient traditional life became disrupted, but also 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.
  In 1989 the Wa authorities expelled the Burma Communist Party and negotiated a cease-fire with the then leader of Burma's military junta Khin Nyunt. They founded the United Wa State Army and United Wa State Party with a centralized command. In return for agreeing to the ban of poppy cultivation and opium production the region experienced a massive influx of international development aid. The Wa Special Region 2 was created within the northeastern Shan State, with its de facto capital in Pangkham.
caption: Wa woman feeding a little girl
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "NIKON", "Image Model": "S2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image Software": "S2v1.0", "Image DateTime": "0000:00:00 00:00:00", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2234", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "5/488", "EXIF FNumber": "3", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "0000:00:00 00:00:00", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "0000:00:00 00:00:00", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "16/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "29/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2592", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1944", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "35", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4168"}