How do the Wa people pass on the history and culture of the Wa?

The Wa is a nation that worships the cow as a totem. The cow is a symbol of auspiciousness, sanctity, nobility and solemnity in the minds of the A Wa people. The Wa people's worship of the cow has given rise to a series of cultural phenomena related to the cow. Through these cultural phenomena, we can perceive the cultural psychology of Wa people's cow worship.

In the Wa creation epic "Sigangli" and the ancient myth "Dajagamu", the legend that the cow is the ancestor of mankind is recounted. In another Wa ancestor's legend, it is told that the ox is the savior of the Wa. The story goes: "A long, long time ago, a young Wa man and woman named Aina and Yeble were herding cattle on Gongming Mountain. As they were going down to the foot of the mountain, thunder suddenly broke out, heavy rain fell from the sky, and flooding occurred. The flood waters overwhelmed everything, and Aina and Yeble rushed to drive the cattle back up the mountain. The higher the flood went, the higher they drove the cattle, and finally Gongming Mountain was flooded. The flood drowned the birds and animals as well as the human beings, leaving only a buffalo and the two of them. Luckily Aina and Yebul were riding on the back of the buffalo. After three days and three nights, the flood waters receded and the buffalo died, but they survived. As a result, the ox became the life-saver of the Wa tribe. Since then, the Wa tribe would worship the buffalo first in every New Year's festival. Later, Aina and Yeble married and had children, who are the ancestors of the Wa."

According to the Cangyuan cliff paintings, which were made more than 3,000 years ago today, numerous images of cows are depicted, including various kinds of drawings such as holding cows, yelling at cows, riding cows, eating cows, drinking cows, fighting cows, plagiarizing cows and so on, and there are also made-up cows' horns dances and portraits of people holding cows' horns (weapons), which show the importance of the cows in the Wa people's life at that time. In the long history of hunting and gathering of the Wa people, cattle were the main object of capture, an important source of food to sustain people's survival, and inseparable from the survival of human beings.

In the center of Wa villages, there is an earthen platform planted with a "ya"-shaped cow's horn stake, and the embroidered cow's head pattern on the Wa women's tube skirts and the cow's head pattern on the Wa men's tops decorated with silver bubbles or cloth have all y imprinted the Wa's cow worship.

In 1991, the Wa compatriots decided to designate August 14 of the lunar calendar as the traditional festival of the Wa, the New Rice Festival, and the emblem of the festival was composed of a wooden drum, a bull's head and ears of grain, which also reflected the importance of the bull in the minds of the Wa.

The Wa worship the ox, which is the god that protects them in their minds.

The Wa people worship the cow, which is a deity that protects them in their mind, and it is this supreme reverence that has given rise to the custom of plagiarizing the cow, which has the meanings of celebrating, praying for blessings, making alliances, and good luck.In 1995, a plagiarism ceremony was arranged for the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Wa National Autonomous County of Ximeng, and in April 2000, during the Lincang Wa Cultural Tourism Activity of the Kunming International Tourism Festival of China, the Wa National Autonomous County of Canyuan held a solemn plagiarism ceremony in the Banhong Village, where they had made an oath to fight against the British. The plagiarism ceremony was also held at Banhong Dazhai in the former anti-British alliance.