Population Distribution and Indigenous Status
Akha live in villages in the mountains of southwest China, eastern Myanmar, western Laos, northwestern Vietnam, and northern Thailand. In all these countries they are an ethnic minority. The population of the Akha today is roughly 400,000. A decline in village size in Thailand since the 1930s has been noted and attributed to the deteriorating ecological and economic situation in the mountains.
The Akha are often classified by the Chinese government as part of the Hani people who are an official national minority. The Akha are closely related to the Hani but consider themselves a distinct group and often resist being subsumed under that identity. In Thailand, they are classified as one of the six hill tribes, a term used for all of the various tribal peoples who migrated from China and Tibet over the past few centuries and who now inhabit the dense forests on the borders between Thailand, Laos, and Burma. Few Akha in Thailand are citizens and most are registered as aliens. There is an oft cited lack of political or state infrastructure to address Akha, or any indigenous issues in Thailand.
The Aka are not always treated or addressed as equals by the people whose countries they now inhabit. Speakers of Tai languages in Myanmar and Thailand refer to them as "Gaw" or "Ekaw" (Ikaw/Ikho) a term which the Akha view as derogatory. In Laos the colloquial term used by Tai speakers to refer to the Akha is "Kho" (Ko), often prefaced by the word kha, which means "slave."
Read more about this topic: Akha People
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