page_title: Karen people
section_title: Political history
hierarchical_section_title: Karen people / Political history
caption_attribution_description: A Burmese refugee in Thailand. From Big Ear Karen (a Hill Tribe).
context_page_description: The Karen are an ethnolinguistic group of Sino-Tibetan language-speaking ethnic groups. The group as a whole is heterogeneous and disparate as many Karen ethnic groups do not associate or identify with each other culturally or linguistically. These Karen groups reside primarily in Kayin State, southern and southeastern Myanmar. The Karen, approximately five million people, account for approximately seven per cent of the Burmese population. Many Karen have migrated to Thailand, having settled mostly on the Thailand–Myanmar border. A few Karen have settled in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India, and other Southeast Asian and East Asian countries.
  The Karen groups as a whole are often confused with the Padaung tribe, best known for the neck rings worn by their women, but they are just one sub-group of Red Karens, one of the tribes of Kayah in Kayah State, Myanmar.
  Some of the Karen, led primarily by the Karen National Union, have waged war against the Burmese government since early-1949. The aim of the KNU at first was independence. Since 1976 the armed group has called for a federal system rather than an independent Karen State.
caption: A woman of the Karen ethnic group
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