Kachin People

An umbrella term for a large group of related peoples that includes the Jingpo, Lisu, Trone, Dalaung, Gauri, Hkahku, Duleng, Maru (Lawgore), Rawang, Lashi (La Chid), Lawa Atsi, and Taron, all of whom speak Tibeto-Burman languages. Hilltop dwellers, by tradition hunter-gatherers and swidden agriculturalists, the Kachin peoples gradually migrated south over the centuries from the mountains of Tibet into the hills of the upper Irrawaddy basin, displacing other peoples, including the Shan and the Chin. Many of them were converted to Christianity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; some remain animist.