Any member of a group of tribal peoples occupying parts of northeastern Myanmar and contiguous areas of India (Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland) and China (Yunnan).
Numbering more than 700,000, they speak a variety of languages of the Tibeto-Burman group of Sino-Tibetan languages . Traditional Kachin society largely subsisted on the shifting cultivation of hill rice, supplemented by the proceeds of banditry and feudal warfare. The traditional Kachin religion is a form of animistic ancestor cult entailing animal sacrifice.