Akha - History and Cultural Relations

The indigenous oral tradition recounts their southward migration across numerous rivers. Scholars concur with the Akha view that they originated in China; they disagree, however, about whether the original homeland was the Tibetan borderlands or farther south and east in Yunnan Province, the northernmost residence of present-day Akha. The existence of established relations with the Shan prince of Kengtung indicates that Akha were ensconced in eastern Burma by the 1860s and perhaps earlier. They first entered Thailand from Burma at the turn of this century.