The Akha are an ethnic group who live in small villages at higher elevations in the mountains of Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and Yunnan Province in China. They made their way from China into Southeast Asia during the early 20th century. Civil war in Burma and Laos resulted in an increased flow of Akha immigrants and there are now 80,000 people living in Thailand's northern provinces of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.