Wa States

Coordinates: 22°30′N 98°45′E / 22.500°N 98.750°E / 22.500; 98.750
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the historical region. For the present-day autonomous region in Myanmar (Burma), see Wa State.
Wa States
ဝနယ် / 佤邦
Meung Vax
Before 500 BC–c. 1950
Native States under nominal control of the British Empire
GovernmentPetty kingdoms and village fiefdoms
History 
• Wa ancestral territories
Before 500 BC
• Incorporation into Shan State (Yunnan Prov. areas annexed by China
earlier) 		c. 1950
 Succeeded by
Shan State
Yunnan
Today part ofChina
Myanmar
A Wa Khaox Si Gang y-shaped post where the ceremonial sacrifice of a buffalo was performed in special occasions
A Wa woman carrying her child
Traditional Wa female dress and bangles. Yunnan Nationalities Museum.
Rope knot writing system of the Wa.
Manglon
in a map of the Shan States.

The Wa States was the name formerly given to the Wa Land, the

Pu'er Prefecture, Yunnan, China
.

Practically the whole Wa region is rugged

Manglon, one of the Shan States. Sir James George Scott visited the Wa States around the turn of the century and wrote about the place, taking pictures of the people and the houses of the area as well.[1] Considered a distant and inaccessible border area by former empires, the British census of 1901 did not include the Wa States, so statistics regarding a population over 50,000 in 1911 are estimates.[2]

The oral tradition of the Wa people claims that their territory had been much larger in the distant past,[3] an assertion that is confirmed both by Shan and Yunnan Chinese sources.[4] The Wa also regard their ancestral territory as being at the centre of the inhabited world.[5] Nowadays part of the area of the former Wa States is included in Wa State, an autonomous polity within Myanmar.

History

Ancient lore

There are no historical records on the Wa States before the 19th century.

Lanna territory was founded by nine Wa clans.[6] According to Wa oral tradition the area where they live, with the Nam Hka flowing across it, as well as the areas further to the south between the Mekong and the Salween down to Chiang Mai, had been their ancestral territory since time immemorial.[7] This view is supported by remains of fortified towns on the hills now covered by jungle,[1] as well as by the traditions of the Shan, according to which the territory of Kengtung State further to the south had formerly belonged to the Wa people who were displaced around 1229 and were later defeated by King Mangrai.[3]

Around Kengtung there are dispersed groups related to the Wa, such as the Tai Loi, En, Piying and Hsen Hsum, living in small villages, likely remnants of the former Wa population.[3] The Vingngun (Pakkatè, Shan: Wiang Ngoen) historical area of the Wa —where silver was said to have been worked— was included in the Wa States.[8] By the 18th century, during Qing dynasty rule in China, the Wa area became separated from the tribal military control of the Dai people.

19th century

Main article: Pan Lon

In the 19th century the

British Burma
.

The population of the Wa States included other ethnic groups such as the

Tai Yai, Lisu and Kachin people. There were also enclaves of Lahu at Mongkha and Lao Shan in Mongshaw within Wa territory.[2]

The inhabitants of the Wa States were traditionally

Buddhist doctrine of the neighbouring Shan people, although mostly only superficially. The Wa who abandoned their traditional animistic ways became known as the 'Tame Wa'.[1]

In the late 19th century the Wa ruler of Son Mu welcomed the

Pan Long
a safe base for their commercial operations out of reach from their Chinese persecutors. The Wa, on the other hand, expected to gain from the trade that the Muslims they had sheltered would generate in their new mountain abode. However, neither side trusted the other, and it was the more sophisticated Panthays who eventually profited most from the assistance they had been given. They carried out their commerce on mule caravans across the mountains, becoming skilled muleteers and seeing their trade in the Burma-Yunnan frontier region flourish. Sir Hugh Daly, British superintendent of the Northern Shan States, described the Panthay colony at Pan Long as 'powerful' during a visit to the Wa States in 1891. At that time there were between 300 and 400 houses in the place and it had become the largest settlement of Chinese Muslim expatriates in the region. The community owed its growth to a high birthrate and the intermarriage with women of Chinese and Shan descent. Daly also commented that the Panthay muleteers were well-armed.[10]

The Wa-Panthay War

In the first fifty years of their presence in Wa territory the Hui Muslim settlers had gradually extended their influence from their base at

Fengqing and Yuxian, and were all merchants, mule-owners and "Men of substance". They used both Chinese and Arabic names and were the de facto upholders of the law in the unadministered Wa State. By the early 20th century the Panthays had increased their economic and military control in the area to such an extent that the relations between the Muslim settlers and their Wa hosts turned sour.[10]

Finally in 1926 the tensions erupted into the local "Wa-Panthay War" in which the Panthays at Pan Long would boast to a group of British visitors that "... neither the Chinese nor the British mean anything to us. It is we who rule here."[10] The war lasted throughout 1926 and 1927 and eventually the less organized Wa were defeated by the Muslim traders.[11]

Despite their victory the Panthay population of the Wa States declined from 1,517 (1,076 males and 441 females) in 1921

Yunnanese refugees and Kuomintang troops following the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949 brought a flood of predominantly non-Muslim Han Chinese, but almost no Huis, to the area of the Wa States and Shan State. In the wake of these developments many Panthays left the Wa territories and chose to migrate to Northern Thailand, where they became part of the community known as Chin Haw.[10]

Modernization of the Wa States

Christian missionaries went into the Wa region in the early 20th century, reaching first the Burmese and later also the Chinese areas of Wa territory. William Young, from Nebraska, studied in depth the Wa language and was instrumental in putting it into writing using a script based on the Latin alphabet. The first publication in the Wa language, a compilation of Wa hymns, was printed in 1933.[13]

In the 1940s, during the

post-independent Burma, but the administration of the Burmese government was not reaching the Wa region and the Shan nationalist armed groups left the area alone as well.[14]

After decades of negotiation between the Chinese and the British, the

China-Burma border was finalized in 1960.[15][16]: 13  The border ran through the Wa region, cutting it in half, although the border had little practical effect on the Wa people.[16]
: 13 

From 1966 to 1969, various Wa chieftains formed guerilla bands to defend their land.[16]: 105  These groups were threatened by raids from Chinese nationalist guerillas and pressured to disarm by the Tatmadaw.[16]: 105 

The Communist Party of Burma arrived in the Wa region in the late 1960s.[16]: 13  It built alliances with several Wa guerilla leaders in 1969 and incorporated them into its struggle against the Burmese state.[16]: 13  During the Communist Party of Burma era, the Wa region had little internecine warfare and there were few Burmese attacks.[16]: 106 

Some towns experienced a modern administration for the first time during local communist rule. Throughout that period

drug trafficking increased and the ancient Wa traditional life became disrupted. However, for the first time in history 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.[14]

In 1989, a mutiny by Wa soldiers within the Communist Party of Burma Armed Forces ejected the Party and resulted in immediate ceasefire with the Myanmar government.[16]: 13  After the ceasefire, the Myanmar government began to call the region "Shan State Special Region No. 2 (Wa Region)"[16]: 111–112  (Parauk: Hak Tiex Baux Nong (2) Meung Man[17]). Academic Andrew Ong writes that this name was used by the government in order to indicate that it was subordinate to the Shan State government. [16]: 112  The United Wa State Army was formed after the mutiny and April 17, 1989 is viewed as the beginning of the autonomous Wa State polity.[16]: 13  The UWSA continued to refer to the area as Meung Vax in Wa or wabang in Chinese.[16]: 112 

States

There were many historical Wa states, but there is hardly any information about them; some of the 'states' were little more than small villages and their surrounding territory. Usually these villages were roughly fortified and were built on hilltops or slopes.[2] Occasionally these small states formed confederations, but since the vision of the Wa was restricted to their immediate surroundings, these alliances were neither far-reaching nor long-lasting.[1]

A great number of the communities living in the mountain villages had difficulties regarding water supply. The Wa used to build ponds to collect water and a system of bamboo pipes that brought water from the surrounding hills.[1]

States ruled by Saophas

See also: Mang Lon and Panlong Subtownship

The saopha of

saophas[1] who adopted some of the manners of the rulers of the Shan States and were assisted by amafs or ministers in the various departments:[2]

Other Wa States

Culture

The biggest celebration in the Wa region is the New Harvest Festival.[16]: 163  It occurs annually in either August or September after the conclusion of rice harvests.[16]: 163  General, festivals are held at the regional or district levels of government, although some wealthier townships of Wa State also host their own festivals.[16]: 163 

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Sir J. George Scott, Burma : a handbook of practical information. London 1906, p.
  2. ^ a b c d Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 24, p. 344.
  3. ^ a b c d Donald M. Seekins, Historical Dictionary of Burma (Myanmar), p. 251
  4. ^ Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy, Opium: Uncovering the Politics of the Poppy, Harvard University Press. p. 44
  5. ^ M. Fiskesjo, On the Ethnoarchaeology of Fortified Settlements in the Northern part of Mainland Southeast Asia
  6. ISBN 981-3035-57-9
    . "While in northern Thailand it was believed that Lanna was established by nine Wa clans, this myth was told with the variation that there were nine sons, who established themselves in the nine Wa valleys, mostly in the west ... The ten daughters settled on the fells."
  7. ^ A thousand miles on an elephant in the Shan states
  8. ^ Wa Area Placenames_百度文库
  9. ^ N Ganesan & Kyaw Yin Hlaing eds. Myanmar: State, Society and Ethnicity Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, February 1, 2007, p. 269
  10. ^ a b c d Andrew Forbes & David Henley, Traders of the Golden Triangle, Cognoscenti Books,
  11. ^ a b Harvey, G E, 1932 Wa precis, Rangoon 1933
  12. 1921 Census of India
  13. ^ The Young Family’s Work with the Wa People
  14. ^ a b Ronald D. Renard, The Wa Authority and Good Governance, 1989 – 2007
  15. USDOS. 30 November 1964. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 31 January 2020. Retrieved 17 September 2020. Agreement on the Question of the Boundary signed on January 28, 1960...(d) the Panhung-Panlao tribal area would be exchanged; and (e) with the exception of d, the 1941 boundary in the Wa states would be accepted...
  16. ^
    JSTOR 10.7591/j.ctv2t8b78b
    .
  17. ^ Wa Local News Publications (8 November 2013). "Lox tat cub caw kuad song meung vax plak lai wa 04". Archived from the original on November 18, 2023. Retrieved November 18, 2023.
  18. ^ Dorothy Woodman, The Making of Burma, Cresset, London 1962. p. 450
  19. ^ Census of India 1901 - Burma
  20. ^ The Imperial gazetteer of India, p. 241

External links

22°30′N 98°45′E / 22.500°N 98.750°E / 22.500; 98.750

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