I. Dressing
Historically, men of the Wa wore short black clothes and wide-mouthed pants. Women wore guandao and short skirts with horizontal stripes of flowers, and ornaments such as collars, necklaces, bracelets, waist bands and ankle bands, most of which were made of silver or bamboo and rattan, or were coated with natural coloring or depended on the natural coloring, and were loved by almost all men and women of all ages **** with each other.
With the development of the society, the costumes of the Wa have also begun to change, with the emergence of long skirts, tube skirts, and some more contemporary clothes and decorations, but the areas inhabited by the Wa still maintain their traditional ethnic characteristics, and most of the clothes are made of home-grown cotton and hemp, processed in accordance with their traditional way, and woven with patterns such as peacocks, white pheasants and other plumes, and some of them are like fur patterns of ling cats and pangolins. The pattern is like the plumes of peacocks and pheasants, or the fur of cats and pangolins.
II. Residence
Villages of the Wa ethnic group are mostly built on hillsides or hilltops. Some villages in the Ximeng area have a history of hundreds of years and have gathered hundreds of families in large villages. The Wa like to live in bamboo buildings, and some of them have changed to live in adobe houses, which is a new form of residence that has been changed later. The bamboo buildings can be divided into two floors, the upper floor for people and the lower floor for livestock.
The furnishings in the room are simple and bright, the essential thing is a fire pit for people to use and a fire pit for rituals or a fire pit for rituals and livestock feed heating.
Third, Diet
The Wa mostly use bamboo tubes to cook rice, and when they eat, the housewife divides the food according to the number of people, and the food is divided evenly at one time. The Wa like to chew betel nut and drink wine, and there is a saying that "no wine is a rite of passage, and words do not count". Water wine is made from fermented small red rice, and it is mostly sown in large bamboo tubes and inserted into thin bamboo tubes to be sucked. Wa people also have the custom of drinking strong tea, and eating chili peppers is the same hobby for men, women and children.
Fourth, Marriage
The Wa family is monogamous and small, and property is inherited by the youngest son, while the daughter has no right of inheritance. The Wa name the family with a reverse form of father-son hyphenation system, tracing back their ancestors from themselves. The name of the earliest generation of all Wa families is "Sigang", meaning gourd or cave, which is a symbol of the worship of matriarchal power.
Men and women are free to socialize before marriage, which is called "stringing girls", where young men and women gather in groups, sing love songs, and express their love by giving betel nut and tobacco. However, parents make the decision to enter into a marriage, and the man has to pay a bride price of several cows, called "milkmaid's money" and "buying girl's money". Sometimes, if one of the parents does not agree with the marriage, both parties will run away from the marriage and the parents will not pursue the matter. In the past, the Wa people had popularized the marriage of aunts and uncles, but now there is a big change.
V. Burials
The Wa practise thin burials, and villages and cottages have the same cemeteries. Some areas retain the custom of burying the dead under or near bamboo buildings.
Expanded Information:
Overview of the Wa People:
1. The Wa, one of the ethnic minorities in China and Myanmar, whose national language is Wa, belonging to the Va German branch of the Mon-Khmer language family of the South Asian language family, do not have a common script, and people use physical objects and wooden carvings to remember things, count, or transmit There is no common writing.
2. The Wa mainly live in Cangyuan, Ximeng, Menglian, Gengma, Lancang, Shuangjiang, Zhenkang, and Yongde counties in the southwestern part of China's Yunnan Province and in the Wa and Shan States in Myanmar, while a part of the Wa in China live in the city of Baoshan, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Kunming City, and Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, among other places.
3. The origin of the Wa people is generally characterized by the myth and legend of Sigangli. According to the interpretation of the Cangyuan Wa, "Sigang" is "gourd" and "Li" is "out", meaning the person who comes out from the gourd; according to the interpretation of the Ximeng Wa, "Sigang" is "gourd" and "Li" is "out", meaning the person who comes out from the gourd. According to the interpretation of the Wa of Ximeng, "Sigang" is "stone cave" and "Li" is "come out", meaning "people come out from the gourd"; according to the interpretation of the Wa of Ximeng, "Sigang" is "stone cave" and "Li" is "come out", meaning "people come out of the stone cave". According to the Wa interpretation, "Sigang" means "stone cave" and "Li" means "come out", which means "people come out from the stone cave".
4. There are three kinds of religious beliefs among the Wa, namely, primitive religion, Buddhism and Christianity.
5. According to the 2010 Sixth National Population Census, the total population of the Wa in China is 429,709.
China.com-Dietary Customs of the Wa People
Baidu Encyclopedia-Wa People