KIIYEN is the name given to several popula tions of Burma and Arakan. One tribe who tattoo their skins, dwell on the Koladyn river in Arakan ; another dwell on the Yoma mountains south of the Koladyn river ; the Mru are some times called Khyen. Khyen, indeed, as also Kha, are probably names given to most of the rude tribes of the Arakan and Burmese mountains. The name seems to be the soft Burman pronun ciation of Karen.
The Khyen or Kayn or Chin are a considerable tribe on the Yoma mountains that stretch from Arakan to the Naga Bills, and are scattered in small settlements on the north of Pegu as far as Tounghoo. Dr. Mason regards them as Karen, but Yule thought them Kuki, and Phayre regarded them as Burmese. They tattoo the faces of their women, to mar their beauty. They call them selves Shyou or Shyu or Sho, and the Burmese style them Pwo - meet Khyen, meaning river Khyen. They are interspersed among the Bur mese and Karen, from lat. 23° N., along both sides of the Arakan range, and southwards to the mouths of the Irawadi, and a few are found east ward. They are most numerous about lat. 20°N.
The eastern portion of the district from the Yomadoung to the Lemroo river is mountainous and hilly. The bill tribes living on the eastern frontier are Khyen, Mru-khyen, and Koo. The Khyen, who occupy both banks of the Lemroo river, from the 1Vah Kheong to the Khee Kheong, and the low hills west of the Jegaendong range visible from the plains, to the valley of the Tarooe Kheong, and the low hills and plains within the Tandan, Ganacharain, Prwanrhay, and Dainboong circles, are a quiet, inoffensive people. The most northern village occupied by the lira - khyen, paying revenue, is Sikcharoa, situated 14 miles north of the junction of the Sang Kheong with the Lemroo river. The Mru-khyen occupy the valleys of the With Kheong, Saeng Kheong, Mau Klieong, and that part of the valley of the Lemroo between Peng Kheong and Saeng Kheong.—Latham; Mason, Burma; Yule; Dalton, Eihn. p. 114.