Zaiwa in Myanmar (Burma)

People Name:	Zaiwa
Country:	Myanmar (Burma)
10/40 Window:	Yes
Population:	36,000
World Population:	156,000
Primary Language:	Zaiwa
Primary Religion:	Ethnic Religions
Christian Adherents:	7.00 %
Evangelicals:	5.00 %
Scripture:	New Testament
Ministry Resources:	Yes
Jesus Film:	Yes
Audio Recordings:	Yes
People Cluster:	Miri-Kachin
Affinity Bloc:	Tibetan-Himalayan Peoples
Progress Level:

Introduction / History

The Zaiwa are the largest subgroup of the official Jingpo nationality in China. The Zaiwa, who are called Xiaoshan, meaning "small mountain" by the Chinese, have a fearsome reputation. In 1911 James Fraser described the Zaiwa as "the wildest people around here by a long way. Inveterate robbers, their hand is against every man and every man's hand is against them. Dirty, unkempt, ignorant, everybody despises them. They are savages only and not cannibals."
The Zaiwa have forged a reputation for themselves as a local version of the Mafia. Their gumsa system encourages a "belligerent, competitive, authoritarian society whose chiefs are chosen by public consent."

What Are Their Lives Like?

The Zaiwa are enslaved by almost every kind of vice imaginable. Zaiwa young men "do not sleep at home. They usually spend the night flirting with young women at the youth club. Sexual relations are so disorderly as to have rendered them unfit for physical labor. A girl who gets pregnant without a proposal will not easily find another boy to marry her and will be considered a widow because of the heavy bride-price."

What Are Their Beliefs?

The Zaiwa are enslaved by evil spirits. In the past they even bullied Lisu households into paying a tax of three squirrels per year, to be used as an offering to the spirits. One tragic example of the Zaiwa's bondage is retold here: "Elder Dai's daughter-in-law died of fever after having a difficult labor. Before her death, several head of cattle were sacrificed to the demons. During the cremation, the firewood did not burn steadily due to its dampness. The sorcerer thereby proclaimed that the deceased's personal effects be thrown into the fire to annul her parsimony. As the fire still did not burst into a blaze, the sorcerer then attributed the cause to the deceased's reluctance to leave her newborn baby behind, thus resulting in the baby being thrown into the fire."

What Are Their Needs?

Despite living alongside strong Jingpo Christian communities, "the demon-worshiping Zaiwa never showed the slightest inclination to turn to Christianity." Moreover, Zaiwa who became Christians in some of the mixed villages were ostracized by their own tribe, "who would expel them from the village and confiscate their land and livestock, compelling them eventually to abandon their alien belief." Gospel radio broadcasts in Zaiwa started in 1996, and the New Testament is available in Zaiwa.

Prayer Points

Pray for a willingness to seek and find spiritual truth, even when it conflicts with one’s own honor and status.
Pray for a movement to Christ among the Zaiwa people to come soon.
Pray for the Lord to thrust out workers.