14. ‘* The A-ch’ang (Maingtha) Tribe of Hohsa-Lahsa, 
iinnan.’’ ! : 
By J. Coeain Brown, M.Sc., F.G.S., 
Geological Survey of India. 
[With Plate IX.] 
The A-ch’angs are one of the smaller groups of the lesser 
known tribes of the Burma-China frontier, whose exact position 
a matter of controversy. In view of the growing tendency of 
some Indo-Chinese anthropologists to include them with one or 
other of the various branches of the Tai family, it appears to 
me to be desirable to collect the scattered references we have 
regarding this interesting group of people, and to reconsider the 
question of their origin in the light of later knowledge gained 
during a short residence in their headquarters, the twin States 
of Hohsa and Lahsa. 
These twin States are situated about Lat. 24° 27’, Long. 
97° 56’; ata height of some 4,500 feet above the level of the sea. 
They lie across the Burma border and are governed by semi- 
independent chieftains who own allegiance to the Chinese Re- 
public, being in the days of the late Manchu dynasty under the 
direct jurisdiction of the T’ing of Téng-yiieh, whose immediate 
superior was the prefect, or Fu of Yiing-ch’ang Fu. This pre- 
fecture formed part of the ‘‘ J-hsi-dao’’ or western division of 
the province of Yiinnan. Both States are in the valley of the 
Nam-hsa, a tributary of the Ta-ping which breaks through the 
Kachin frontier hills in a narrow gorge, and enters the Irra- 
ever, include tracts of country in the surrounding hills, though 
the true A-ch’ang population is confined to the plain. High 
bounding ranges rising to 6,000 and 7, feet, separate the 
States on the north from the Chinese-Shan State of Kanai 
(Méng-na), and on the south from Mong-wan. It would be 
forest-clad slopes of the almost uninhabited frontier ranges 
further west. ‘ The whole of the plain is devoted to rice cultiva- 
1 Published by the permission of the Director, Geological Survey o 
India. . 
