Wa (Myanmar, Thailand, China)

Introduction

The Wa People are a tribal people in Southeast Asia who have existed in the rugged mountainous region between Myanmar/Burma, Thailand, and China for several thousand years, according to oral tradition. When the British administered Burma, the Northeast area that the Wa enhabited was never fully administered by the British, and Chinese rule never extended into the area the Wa inhabited either. This contributed to an ongoing sense of Wa identity and Wa territory being very distinct from Myanmar, British Burmese, or Chinese identity.

Traditionally, like many hill tribes of Southeast Asia, the Wa were animists, worshiping and appeasing the spirits they perceived inhabiting rocks, trees, and nature. Buddhist and Islam made inroads into the region and people. William Marcus Young, a young missionary from Nebraska, first came to Shan State, Myanmar in 1892 and introduced Christianity to the Wa. William, his wife, his son Marcus Vincent, and other members of the Young family devised a writing system for the Wa and Lahu languages, translating Christian material and books of the bible in the early 19th century as they built up the indigenous Wa church.[1]