Which ethnic group picks betel nut and plays wooden drums?

The betel nut picking and wooden drum dance is of the Wa ethnic group. The Wooden Drum Dance is a traditional dance of the Wa Autonomous County of Cangyuan, Yunnan Province, Taijiang County, Guizhou Province, and belongs to one of the national intangible cultural heritages. The wooden drum dance is part of a large-scale ritual activity in which all the ethnic groups participate.

The Wooden Drum Dance is said to have originated from a pair of ancient siblings who learned to dance from birds and insects, and the Wooden Drum Dance has been inherited from generation to generation in the village of Antipai since ancient times. It is said that at the beginning of the earth's opening, a huge flood swallowed up almost all the life on the land, and it was the god Muyi Ji who saved the A Wa people by putting a wooden groove on it, so that the A Wa people could be reproduced, strengthened and survived until today. Since then, the A Wa people have regarded the wooden trough as the mother of the nation and have given it the highest worship. The A Wa people believe that the wooden drum is not only the wooden groove that saved their ancestors, but also the embodiment of the strong mother body, and the dwelling place of the soul of Muyi Ji, but also the heavenly artifact that enables all things to flourish and grow. Therefore, the Wooden Drum Dance, which expresses in dance form from the making of the wooden drum to the final beating of the wooden drum to communicate with the gods and achieve the purpose of heavenly blessings, is an indispensable dance in the ritual activities.