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Home » Sunday » Now and Then

Drum a divine tool for dancing

By Zhang Qian | August 10, 2014, Sunday | Print Edition

LIVING high in the mountains of Yunnan Province dwells an ethnic group that regards the wooden drum as a divine tool, a symbol of life and prosperity. It is the Wa people, whose magnificent and grand dances to the beat of the wooden drum epitomize their vigorous vitality and their distinctive culture.

The Wa people have an estimated population of 430,000. It is widely believed that the Wa people are descendants of the “Pu” people who lived before the Qin period. They were named “Wangman,” “Gula” and “Kawa” in the Tang, Ming and Qing dynasties, respectively.

The Wa people living in different places of Yunnan Province give themselves different names. For example, those living in Ximeng, Menglian and Lancang counties call themselves “Ah Wa” or “Le Wa,” while in Cangyuan, Shuangjiang and Gengma counties “Ba Raoke” or “Bu Rao.” These names all mean “mountain dwellers” in their language, which reflects that the Wa people have been living in mountainous areas and in relative isolation from other groups for quite long time.

 The language of the Wa ethnic group, which includes four dialects, belongs to the Wa-Deang branch of the Mon-Khmer language of the Austro-Asiatic family. It is closely tied to the language of the Dai ethnic minority, from which 10 percent of the Wa words are borrowed. Some Dai people also speak Mandarin or Dai language. Before having their own written language, the Wa people kept records and accounts by bean counting, rope knotting, wood cutting and engraving bamboo strips. They also conveyed messages by some very common things. For example, sugarcane, bananas and salt signified friendship, while chilies symbolized anger. An alphabetic script was created for the Wa people in 1957.

The Wa people worship nature, believing that all mountains, rivers and other natural phenomena have their deities. “Muyiji” is the mightiest god in Dai culture. Four of his sons are gods that separate the heaven from the Earth and govern lightening and earthquakes. Some Wa people have become followers of Buddhism and Christianity since the 20th century.

The Wa are blessed with a mild climate, abundant rainfall and fertile land. This contributes to the growth of plants such as dry rice, millet, corn, potato and sugarcane.

The Wa people take rice as their staple food, while they also like kaoliang, buckwheat, maize and beans. Typical Wa delicacies include camellia congee, peas fried with ant eggs and grilled snake meat. Chilies are a great favorite with all Wa people, whether young or old, and a meal is deemed incomplete without spice. The Wa people are also known for their bitter tea, which is boiled in a pottery pot and brewed into a thick, dark brown paste. Bitter as it is, the tea is said to be remarkably refreshing and a great thirst-quencher.

Most Wa villages are quite compact, with dozens or hundreds of households. Most people live in two-story houses made of bamboo and straw. The upper floor is for family accommodation while the ground floor is reserved for livestock. Building a new house involves not only the owners but also the other Wa people in the whole village. The neighbors will all come to help and present timber and straw as gifts.

Traditionally, the Wa people prefer red and black homespun cloth for dress. Men usually wear short, black collarless jackets and loose trousers, preferring to walk around barefoot. Young men like accessorizing their shins with circular ornaments woven with bamboo strips or rattan. Their ears are also pierced, through which they thread red and black tassels.

Women usually dress in short, black collarless jackets and straight, long skirts with folds. They keep their hair long, which they coil against the back of their heads and hold in place with silver clasps. Their earrings are very distinctive, incorporating shining silver rings with bird bones and shells.

The Wa ethnic group prides itself on its rich and colorful folklore, vivid myths, and touching poems and legends. They have created many oral stories to praise goodness and justice, and to attack perfidy and hypocrisy. The Wa people boast sculptures and paintings of high artistic levels. This includes the cliff paintings in Cangyuan County, which depict the hunting, dancing and working scenes of the ancient Wa people with straightforward and uninhibited patterns.

The Wa’s most important festival is  “La Mugu” (Pulling Wooden Drum) Festival, which occurs in December. On the eve of the festival, the headman and the “moba” (priest) of the village lead several male villagers to a tall tree. They make offerings and chant incantations under the tree to expel evil spirits. The “moba” brandishes an ax, making a few cuts on the tree trunk before the other villagers chop it down and make a wooden drum with it. They place three stones on the tree stump as a token payment to the tree spirit. All the male villagers will come to pull the big wooden drum back to village the next morning, and the dancing begins.

Wa 佤

Population: 429,709 (2010 national census)

Distribution: In the mountains of Yunnan Province

Language: Wa language, Mandarin and Dai language

Religion: Animism, Buddhism, Christianity

Food: Rice, kaoliang, buckwheat, maize, beans, snake meat and chilies.

(Contributed by Maya Zhou)

 

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