 A Burmese depiction of the Akha in the early 1900s | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 680,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Myanmar, China, Laos, Thailand | |
| China | 240,000[1] |
| Laos | 112,979[2] |
| Thailand | 80,000[3] |
| Languages | |
| Akha, Lao, Thai | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity,[4] Akhazah (Animism),[5] Buddhism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Hani, Karen | |
The Akha are an ethnic group who live in small villages at higher elevations in the mountains of Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Yunnan Province in China. They made their way from China into Southeast Asia during the early 20th century. Civil war in Burma and Laos resulted in an increased flow of Akha immigrants and there are now 80,000 people living in Thailand's northern provinces of Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai.[6]
The Akha speak Akha, a language in the Loloish (Yi) branch of the Tibeto-Burman family. The Akha language is closely related to Lisu and it is thought that it was the Akha who once ruled the Baoshan and Tengchong plains in Yunnan before the invasion of the Ming Dynasty in 1644.
- ^ "Akha". Ethnologue. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
- ^ "Results of Population and Housing Census 2015" (PDF). Lao Statistics Bureau. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
- ^ "The hill tribe with Chinese roots: Akha tribe, Chiang Rai". 3 January 2018.
- ^ "Christian conversion threatens hill tribe culture", Asia Times
- ^ The Akha Heritage Foundation
- ^ Chiang Mai's Hill Peoples in: Forbes, Andrew, and Henley, David, Ancient Chiang Mai Volume 3. Chiang Mai, Cognoscenti Books, 2012.