Wa tribe - Wazok (English spelling)

They live from the area east of the Salween River on the Shan Plateau in eastern Upper Burma to the area west of the Lancang River (upstream of the Mekong River) in Yunnan Province, China. No detailed population survey has been conducted in Myanmar (Burma) recently, but the population is estimated at just over 300,000. There are also about 352,000 people living in China (1990). Their languages ​​belong to the Austroasiatic, Mon-Khmer, and Palaung families. As of the first half of the 20th century, in areas living adjacent to the Thai people, some people practiced Theravada Buddhism, and in areas with a lot of contact with the Han people, they lived in flat-story houses instead of the traditional dwellings on stakes, which was different from the relatively isolated areas in the interior that had maintained headhunting until that time. For example, in China, people influenced by Buddhists or Han people were classified as "mature" and those who were not were classified as "raw." Similarly, on the Shan Plateau, there were also two types of names used to divide people based on the degree of interaction with the outside world.

Since ancient times, upland rice, beans, corn, etc. have been cultivated in slash-and-burn fields using few agricultural tools, mainly long swords carried by young men. As cultural change progressed, ploughing and paddy field cultivation also came into use. In the past, poppies were produced as a trade item, and tea is still an important product today.

Villages that practiced slash-and-burn agriculture were relatively large in scale, and it was not uncommon for them to have several hundred houses. The villages were surrounded by earthworks and thorns, and two tunnel-like entrances had heavy doors to protect against enemy attacks. Each village had a hut where a cracked drum was placed, and various signals were sent to the villagers with the drum. A new head was needed to ensure a fertile crop each year, and the heads obtained during headhunting were kept in this hut until they were finally moved to the forest outside the village. In their animistic religion, the sacrifice of cows was important, and every time a cow was slaughtered, a Y-shaped wooden pole resembling a horn was erected around the house. Regarding the Wa people in China, there are reports of patrilineal kinship groups in which the nuclear family, the smallest living unit, gather together, centering on ancestor worship, and a kind of patrilineal joint name system in which each individual traces his or her ancestors back.

[Hiroko Yokoyama]

"Ethnic Minorities of Yunnan" edited by Obayashi Taryo (1990, NHK Publishing Association)" ▽ "Asia Reader: Burma" edited by Tamura Katsumi (1997, Kawade Shobo Shinsha)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

上ビルマ東部のシャン高原のサルウィン川以東地域から、中国雲南省の瀾滄江(らんそうこう)（メコン川上流）以西にかけて居住する人々。ミャンマー（ビルマ）では最近、精密な人口調査は実施されておらず、その人口は30万人余りと推定される。また、中国国内には約35万2000人（1990）が居住している。言語はオーストロアジア語族、モン・クメール語系、パラウン語派に属す。20世紀前半の時点で、タイ系民族と隣接して居住する地域では、上座部（小乗）仏教を信仰する人々もおり、また漢民族との接触の多い地域では従来の杭上(こうじょう)家屋ではなく平家家屋に住むなど、奥地にあって当時まで首狩りなどを保持してきた比較的孤立した地域とは違いがみられた。そこで、たとえば中国では仏教徒や漢民族の影響を受けた人々に「熟(じゅく)」、そうでない人々に「生(せい)」を冠して分類したが、シャン高原でも、外部社会との交流の度合いの違いにより二分する呼称があった。

　古来、焼畑で陸稲、豆類、トウモロコシなどが、青年男子が携帯する長刀を中心とするわずかな農具を使って栽培されてきた。文化変容の進展とともに犂耕(りこう)や水田耕作も行われるようになった。交易品としてかつてはケシが生産され、また、茶は現在も重要な生産品である。

　焼畑耕作を行うかつての村落は規模が比較的大きく、数百戸に上るものも珍しくなかった。村の周囲は土塁や茨(いばら)で囲まれ、二か所のトンネル状の出入口には重い扉がつけられ、敵の襲撃に備えていた。各村には割れ目太鼓が置かれる舎屋があり、太鼓で村人に種々の合図が送られた。毎年の作物の豊穣(ほうじょう)には新しい首が必要と考えられ、首狩りで獲得した首は最終的に村外の森に移されるまで、この舎屋に置かれた。アニミスティックな彼らの宗教においては、牛の供犠(くぎ)が重要で、一頭ほふられるごとに家の周囲に角(つの)を模したY字型木柱が立てられた。中国内のワ族については、祖先祭祀(さいし)を中心として、最小生活単位である核家族が集合する父系親族集団や、各個人から祖先にまでさかのぼる一種の父子連名制が報告されている。

［横山廣子］

『大林太良監修『雲南の少数民族』（1990・NHK出版協会）』▽『田村克己編『アジア読本・ビルマ』（1997・河出書房新社）』

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