Editing Wa people (section)

== Geographic distribution ==
[[File:Wa5303.JPG|thumb|180px|left|Young Wa people from Pyinghsai, near [[Kengtung]]]]
[[File:SAZs & SAD of Burma.png|thumb|250px|A map of Burma showing the Wa Self-Administered Division, coloured brown.]]
The land where the Wa have been traditionally living is divided between Burma and China. The international border cuts the ancestral Wa region roughly in half.
{{Further|Awa mountain}}

===China===
The Wa are one of the [[list of ethnic groups in China and Taiwan#Ethnic groups recognized by the People.27s Republic of China|56 ethnic groups]] officially recognized by China.
In China, the Wa live in compact communities in the [[Ximeng Va Autonomous County]] (in Wa: ''Mēng Ka'' or ''Si Moung''), [[Cangyuan Va Autonomous County]], [[Menglian Dai, Lahu and Va Autonomous County]] (''Gaeng Līam''), [[Gengma Dai and Va Autonomous County]] (''Gaeng Mīex'' or ''Gaeng Māx''), [[Lincang]] (''Mēng Lām''), [[Shuangjiang Lahu, Va, Blang and Dai Autonomous County]] (''Si Nblāeng'' or ''Mēng Mēng''), [[Zhenkang County]], and [[Yongde County]] in southwestern Yunnan. Their population in China is estimated at 400,000.

====Benren====
The "Benren" ({{lang|zh|本人}}) of Yongde County and Zhenkang County, Yunnan are officially classified as Wa by the Chinese government, but consider themselves to be a separate ethnicity from the Wa.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Zhao |first1=Mingsheng (赵明生) |last2=Gao |first2=Honghui (高宏慧) |date=2012 |url=http://www.doc88.com/p-212753943335.html |script-title=zh:佤族支系“本人(佤)”的产生及其特征 |access-date=2012-10-17 |archive-date=2016-03-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304042858/http://www.doc88.com/p-212753943335.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Their autonym is "Siwa" ({{lang|zh|斯佤}}). The Benren are distributed in:

*Menggong Township {{lang|zh-Hans|勐汞佤族乡}} (recently incorporated into Dedang Town {{lang|zh-Hans|德党镇}}), Yongde County:<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vdefault.aspx?departmentid=100276 |title=Yonde County |access-date=2012-10-17 |archive-date=2014-10-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141018232314/http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vdefault.aspx?departmentid=100276 |url-status=live }}</ref> in Menggong {{lang|zh-Hans|勐汞}}, Daba {{lang|zh-Hans|大坝}}, Songlin {{lang|zh|松林}}, Dapingzhang {{lang|zh-Hans|大平掌}}, Hunai {{lang|zh-Hans|户乃}}, Xiaodifang {{lang|zh|小地方}}, Lielie {{lang|zh|列列}}. There are 10,289 Benren in the township as of 2010.
*Desili Township {{lang|zh-Hans|德思里彝族佤族乡}}, [[Fengqing County]]
*Mangka Township {{lang|zh-Hans|芒卡镇}}, Cangyuan Va Autonomous County

===Burma===
[[File:Wa-cicadas5515.JPG|thumb|left|[[Cicada]]s caught by Wa people in order to crush them with chilies in a mixture similar to the Thai ''[[Nam phrik]]'']]
The Wa are one of the 135 [[list of ethnic groups in Myanmar|officially recognized ethnic groups of Myanmar]]. Their proportion to Myanmar's total population is 0.16.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.economonitor.com/analysts/2012/04/25/myanmar-and-chinas-complex-relationship/ |title=Economonitor – Myanmar and China's Complex Relationship |access-date=2012-05-02 |archive-date=2012-05-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120507125125/http://www.economonitor.com/analysts/2012/04/25/myanmar-and-chinas-complex-relationship/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Although little is known about the ancient history of the Wa, they are acknowledged by other dominant ethnic groups in Shan State, such as the Tai Yai, to be the original inhabitants of the area.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

In Burma, the Wa live mostly in small villages near [[Kengtung]] and north and northeastwards close to the Chinese border, as well as a small area east of [[Tachileik]]. The Wa Special Region 2 of the Northern Shan State or [[Wa State]] was formed by the [[United Wa State Army]] (UWSA) and the remains of the former Burmese Communist Party rebel group that collapsed in 1989. The Wa State and the UWSA are in a fragile cease-fire agreement with the Burmese military government.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/wa-03252010115930.html |title=Tensions Rise in Wa Region |access-date=2014-03-27 |archive-date=2021-01-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117223858/https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/wa-03252010115930.html |url-status=live }}</ref> They have been accused by Western governments of involvement in drug trafficking but have banned opium production since 2005 and have received United Nations aid in improving legitimate agriculture.

As stipulated by the 2008 Burmese Constitution, on 20 August 2010 the [[Wa Self-Administered Division]] has been established.<ref name="2008constbur">{{cite web |script-title=my:ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံအခြေခံဥပဒေ (၂၀၀၈ ခုနှစ်) |language=my |url=http://www.irrawaddy.org/election/component/filecabinet/?ask=download&cid[0]=1 |trans-title=2008 Constitution PDF |format=PDF |access-date=2021-12-02 |archive-date=2011-05-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501121420/http://www.irrawaddy.org/election/component/filecabinet/?task=download&cid |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |script-title=my:တိုင်းခုနစ်တိုင်းကို တိုင်းဒေသကြီးများအဖြစ် လည်းကောင်း၊ ကိုယ်ပိုင်အုပ်ချုပ်ခွင့်ရ တိုင်းနှင့် ကိုယ်ပိုင်အုပ်ချုပ်ခွင့်ရ ဒေသများ ရုံးစိုက်ရာ မြို့များကို လည်းကောင်း ပြည်ထောင်စုနယ်မြေတွင် ခရိုင်နှင့်မြို့နယ်များကို လည်းကောင်း သတ်မှတ်ကြေညာ |newspaper=[[Weekly Eleven|Weekly Eleven News]] |date=2010-08-20 |url=http://www.news-eleven.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4375:2010-08-20-12-39-51&catid=42:2009-11-10-07-36-59&Itemid=112 |access-date=2010-08-23 |language=my |archive-date=2018-12-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226114038/https://news-eleven.com/?option=com_content&view=article&id=4375%3A2010-08-20-12-39-51&catid=42%3A2009-11-10-07-36-59&Itemid=112 |url-status=live |title=Eleven Media Group Co., Ltd }}</ref> It is set to be administered by the Wa people and its territory is between the gorges of the Mekong and Salween, in the east part of the Shan State, near the border with the Chinese province of Yunnan.

===Thailand===
In recent times some Wa communities from Burma have crossed the border and settled in [[Thailand]], where they have no official status as a [[Hill tribe (Thailand)|Hill Tribe]]. The Wa live mainly in the [[Mae Sai District]] and [[Mae Yao]] subdistrict of [[Chiang Rai Province]], as well as in [[Wiang Pa Pao District]] in southern Chiang Rai Province and [[Chiang Dao District]] in [[Chiang Mai Province]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.joshuaproject.net/peoples.php?peo3=15759 |title=Wa, Parauk |access-date=2014-02-28 |archive-date=2014-03-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140304032813/http://www.joshuaproject.net/peoples.php?peo3=15759 |url-status=live }}</ref> In Thailand the Wa having come recently from Burma are often referred to as '[[Lawa people|Lawa]]', although they do not strictly belong to the latter ethnic subgroup.