The Jingpo people, numbering 132,143, live mostly in the mountainous areas of Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. Half of them live in Longchuan County, Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture. Some of the Jingpo people also live in the Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture.

According to historical stories and records, the ancestors of the Jingpo ethnic group were ancient Di and Qiang people. They lived in the southern mountain area of the Qinghai- Tibet Plateau named "Muzhashenglabeng", which means mountain with a flat top. Then they moved to the northwestern part of Yunan Province, west of the Nujiang River. After that, they split up into two parts, the eastern Jingpo and the western Jingpo. The eastern Jingpo lived to the east of Lancang River and Jinsha River. And the western Jingpo distributed in the area of Magulang and Gangfang, which in history was called Xunchuan, and in Han Dynasty was under the jurisdiction of Yongchang County. So the western Jingpo, together with the local people, were called "Xunchanman" (Barbarian in Xunchuan area). In the Yuan Dynasty, the Xunchuan area was under the jurisdiction of the provincial administration of Yunnan, which was set up by the central government. During the Ming Dynasty, two big alliances, Chashan and Lima, gradually came into being. They were headed by hereditary nobles called "Shanguan". And the Shanguans of the Jingpo people were pointed as local administrators by the Ming court. In the Qing Dynasty, the Jingpo area was under the domination of county offices established by the Qing curt. Beginning from the 10th century, they migrated in large numbers to the Dehong area.