The population of Wa nationality is about three hundred and fifty thousand persons, most of them live in Yunnan province. They have their own language and writing language.
Wa people believe in Nature Religion(Primitive Religion) which believe all things on earth have souls. Wa respects wooden drum as their sacred thing, "wooden drum dance" are their favorite dance , it is a bit similar to Disco accompanied by the cheerful drumbeats .
Most Wa are engaged in agriculture, the mountain area they are living are abound of economical woods, and there are thousands of precious animals in the forests.
Wa females love long hairs, they think long hairs means beauty, they show their long black hairs during dance. And they also enjoy wearing silver bracelets which are width about 3-5cm and carved with kinds of decorative patterns. On the other hand they enjoy large earrings and wearing rattan rings on their waists or shanks according to their ages, so you may know their age by this.
Wa males always take long knives , bows and arrows with them ,or they may be regarded as sloppily dressed because long knife and bow is the symbol of strength and virtue of males in Wa.
Wa love wine so much that all their festivals can't be without wine. They also like chewing arecas so that most of them with dark teeth and red tips and they regard these as beauty.
All Wa like dancing and most of them are good at singing and dancing.
The favorite festival of Wa is " New rice festival" , it is in the middle of lunar August. It is for celebrating the first mature period of paddy. They pick the first handful ripe unhusked rice home , get rid of the shells at once , then cook the new rice to offer sacrifices to ancestor , after that, the aged people and children taste the new rice. At night , there are still many activities for this festival, of course , they get together and drink, sing , dance...
Here is a picture showing how Wa get rid of the shells of unhusked rice.
