The Rawang people live around the conjunction of Burma, India, and China. There are only about 20,000 to 30,000 Rawang.

The Nung-Rawang people are an ethnic group who inhabit far northern Kachin State of Myanmar (Burma). They speak and write in their own language, Rawang (formerly called Mutwang); and have 30-40 sub-clans/tribes within their grouping.

Kachin legends variously record the Nung-Rawang were the first of six brothers from whom the main Kachin families are descended, or that they are a slave people brought into Myanmar. However, according to cultural research and their own oral traditions, the Nung-Rawang are most likely Mongolian descendants who moved south from the Mongolian steppes to the 3 river region (Mekong, Yantzi, Salween) of China.

During the second millennium, the Nung-Rawang migrated south west into the Himalayas at the top of Myanmar, seeking fertile farm lands. They settled in some of the most remote valleys and mountains in all of Myanmar. The Nung-Rawang are a proud, industrious, agriculturally based mountain people known for their stability, hospitality, and colourful traditions. Living in the beautiful and isolated regions of northern Myanmar, they have also become prosperous through the plentiful supplies of jade and gold in their region. The men mostly had a twig or thorn in the ear as ornament; the women sometimes a large silver ear-ring. The latter also were tattooed in green round the mouth.