The population of the Khyeng (Chin) in the districts of Arakan as it stood at the census of 1872 was as follows: (JASB for 1875 Vol. XLIV Pt l).

1. Akyab          3,917
2. Ramree      10,324
3. Sandoway  4,715
.            Total    18,956

“The Khyengs call themselves HIOU or SHOU (zo, yo) and state that the Shindoos, Khumis, and Lungkhes, are members of the same race as themselves. They have a tradition that they came down from the Kyendweng (Chindwin) river, but they possess no written record of their descent; they are fond, however, of singing rude ballads, which portray the delights of their ancient country”.

In his “Mission to the Court of Ava”, Henry Yule recorded the surveys made about the occupied and unoccupied parts of Burma:

Of large tracts we have still no accurate description. Such are the eastern parts of Burma Proper from the Irawadi to the Shan states, though on this Major Allan has collected a good deal of native information; the Yau (Zo) country, west of the mouth of the Kyen-dwen; the interior of the Doab, between the Irawadi and Kyen-dwen, from Mout-shobo (Muksobu) upwards; and the whole of the hill country east and north-east of the capital, towards the Rubymines, the upper course of the Myitnge, and the Chinese frontier.

Seven races are recognised by the Burmese as of the Myamma stock; viz. the Rakain, or people of Aracan; the proper Burma; the Talain; the Kyen of the Aracan mountains; the Karen of the forests of lower Burma, Pegu, and Tennasserim; the Yau; and the Tavoyer. There are traces, however, in the Burmese history, of even the proper Burma having been amalgamated from various races. Yule’s Mission to Ava.

Still further westward in the Naga country, between longitude 93° and 95°, and a great multiple mass of mountains starts southwards from the Assam chain. Enclosing first the level alluvial valley of Munnipoor, at a height of 2500 feet above the sea, it then spread out westward to Tipura and the coast of Chittagong and northern Aracan a broad succession of unexplored and forest-covered spurs, inhabited by a vast variety of wild tribes of Indo-Chinese kindred, known as Kookis, Nagas, Khyens, and by many more specific names. Contracting to a more defined chain, or to us more defined because we know it better, this meridian range still passes southward under the name of the Aracan Yuma-doung, till 700 miles from its origin in the Naga wilds it sinks in the sea hard by Negrais, its last bluff crowned by the golden Pagoda of Modain, gleaming far to seaward, a Burmese Sunium. Fancy might trace the submarine prolongation of the range in the dotted line of the Preparis, the Cccos, the Andamans, the Nicobars, till it emerges again to traverse Sumatra and the vast chain of the Javanic isles.

Between these two great meridian ranges that have been indicated, the one eastward of the Irawadi and the Sitang, the other westward of the Kyen-dwen and the Irawadi, lie what have been characterised above as the first three divisions of the Burman territory, and these before the detachment of Pegu might have been considered as forming the kingdom of Burma.

A little below the Shwe-li, each side of the Irawadi, at Myadoung on the east and at Thigyain on the west, there are the remains of old stone forts. That at Thigyain is said to have been in ancient times the capital of the Kados, a tribe now scattered over the interior of the Monyeen district and that of Pyenzala, west of the river.

(“A private note from Colonel Hanny speaks of the Kados as being the most interesting of the northern tribes, “like the Yos, one of the old Burmese races, and similar in type to what we see of the Bhurs and Rauje Bhurs of the present day, a race known by tradition as the oldest of Indian races”).

Yule’s “Mission to Ava” mentions the YAU (ZO) country.

West of the river, between the parallels of 22°30′ and 24°30′, stretches from north to south the valley of Kabo. (Kabo is the name applied to the Shans in the Munnipoori language). This valley, the northern part of which was long a bone of contention between Ava and Munnipoor, was in 1833 made over to the former by the authority of the British Government, at the instance of Colonel Burney, compensation being made to Munnipoor. It is a long strip, not more than ten to fifteen miles in greatest width, separated from the Kyen-dwen by a range of uninhabited and forest-covered hills, called Ungoching. The northern portion of the valley, called by the Burmese Thoungthwot, by the Kathes, or Munnipoories, Samjok; and the southern, called Kale, are still under the rule of the native Shan Tsaubwas tributary to Ava; the only such who have ‘maintained their position under the Burmese Government on this side of the Irawadi. The central portion, Khumbat, is under a Burmese Governor. Kale is much the most populous part of the valley, and it has an exit for its teak by the Narenjara, or Munnipoor river, which ‘passes through it into the Kyen-dwen. It also produces rice and cotton, with wax and ivory. Kale is one of the sites to which Burman history or legend attaches the dynasty of ancient Hindoo immigrants. And the classic name of the Kabo valley is Maureeya. The hills on the west of Kale are occupied by the Khyens, a race extending southward throughout the long range of the Yoma-doung to the latitude of Prome.

(“Colonel Hanny identifies the Khyens with the Nagas of the Assam Mountains. They must also be closely allied to the Kookis. In Trant’s account of the Khyens, on the Aeng pass, he mentions their worship of a divinity called Passine (Pasian); and Lieutenant Stewart, in his notice of the “new Kookis” of northern Kachar, says that they recognise one all-powerful God as the author of the universe, whom they term “Puthen” (Pathian) Trant’s Two Years in Ava, and Jour. Asiatic Society Ben. 1855, p. 628).

Of the YO or Yau country, lying along the river of that name, between the barren Tangyi hills that line the Irawadi, opposite Pagan and the base of the Aracan Yoma-doung, nothing more is known, I am sorry to say, than was recorded long ago by Dr. Buchanan. The people are believed to be of the same race with the Burmese, but, from their secluded position, speak the language in a peculiar dialect. There are paths from the Yau country into the Kaladan valley in Aracan, which King Thawawadi made some talk of rendering passable for troops, when he was breathing war in 1839. They must traverse the country of some of the wildest tribes of the Yuma, and nothing of them is known. The Yaus are great traders, and are the chief pedlers and .carriers of northern Burma.

South of the Yaus comes the district of Tsalen, a rich alluvial valley between the skirts of the Yuma-doung, and the river, and considered one of the most productive districts of the empire.

Tribes under a great variety of names, and in every stage from semi-civilisation to deep barbarism, inhabit the broadest part of this great western mountain boundary of Burma. The most extensively-diffused of these tribes, extending from lat. 28°, perhaps, to the Assam frontier, is the race of the Khyens.

From Travels in South East Asia by the Rev. Howard Malcom, of Boston 1839: “Towards the hills is the Mroo or Mroong tribe, about five thousand. Beyond these, on the lower hills, are the Kyens, amounting to fifteen thousand; and beyond these, on the Yomadong Mountains, are the Arungs or Arings, amounting to ten thousand.

“The Yaws (Zo) are on the lower waters of the Kyendween (Chindwin), not far from Ava. The district is sometimes called Yo or Jo. The language is essentially Burman, but spoken with a dialect intelligible only to themselves. They are an agricultural and pastoral people, enjoying a country of extreme salubrity and fruitfulness. They manufacture sugar, and export it to other parts of the empire; and often resort to Ava for the purpose of trade.

“The Kyens are sometimes called Na-gas, and by the Burmans Chins. <Click here to read page 3>