Karenni people
ꤊꤢ꤬ꤛꤢ꤭ꤜꤟꤤ꤬-ꤖꤢꤨ | |
|---|---|
Figurines representing the nine Karenni subgroups | |
| Total population | |
| c. 358,000 (est.) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Myanmar and Thailand | |
| Languages | |
| Karenni | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity (Roman Catholic, Baptists and Seventh-day Adventists), Folk religion, Theravada Buddhism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Karen people, Pa'O people |
The Karenni (Burmese: ကရင်နီ, lit. 'red Karen'), also known as the Kayah (Burmese: ကယားလူမျိုး) or Kayah Li (Karenni: ꤊꤢ꤬ꤛꤢ꤭ꤜꤟꤤ꤬), are a Karen people native to the Kayah State of Myanmar (Burma).
According to a 1983 census, the Karenni consist of the following groups: Kayah, Geko (Kayan Ka Khaung, Gekho, Kayan Kadao), Geba (Kayan Gebar, Gaybar), Lahwi (Kayan Lahwi), Bre, Manu-Manau (Kayan Manumanao), Yintale, Yinbaw kayan kangan, Bwe and Pa'O. Several of the groups (Geko, Geba, Padaung, Yinbaw) belong to Kayan, a subgroup in region of Karenni. The groups Bre and Manu-Manau belong to the Kayaw subgroup.
Karenni represent Kayah and the term Karennies is used to represent all nine tribes native to the Kayah state. Karennies consist of nine sub-tribes namely Kayah, Padaung (Kayan)(Burmese: ပဒေါင်/ကယန်း), Geko(Burmese: ဂေခို), Geba(Burmese: ဂေဘား), Zayein(Burmese: ဇယိန်), Bre(Burmese: ပရဲ), Manu-Manau(Burmese: မနု-မနော), Yintale(Burmese: ယင်းတလဲ) and Yinbaw(Burmese: ယင်းဘော်).