WA

also called Lawa, Va, Hkawa, Kawa, or Kala, hill-dwelling peoples of eastern Myanmar (Burma), where they are generally called Lawa, and southwestern Yunnan province of China, where they are generally called Va, or Wa. They speak an Austro-Asiatic language related to Mon-Khmer. The pagan, or "wild," Wa are concentrated in the isolated northern and central Wa states of Myanmar; they are known as headhunters who believe that the skulls of the dead are an assurance of good crops and good health. The so-called tame Wa have acculturated to neighbouring groups, sometimes intermarrying with them, and are mainly Buddhists.