The Tanchyanga are a small ethnic community living in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. In terms of population they rank 5th among the ethnic communities of Bangladesh. According to the 1991 census, their number was 21,057 and the number of Tanchyanga households was 4,043.

Tanchyangas live in the Hill districts of Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachhari in Rangunia upazila in Chittagong district and in Ukhia and Teknaf areas of Cox's Bazar district. Like other tribals, Tanchyangas build their habitations on the forested slopes of hills.

Tanchyangas also live in the southeastern regions of Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur States of India, as well as in the Arakan region of Myanmar. In Arakan they are known as 'dounnak'. Anthropologically, they belong to the Mongoloid group. They speak Pali, Prakrit and ancient Bengali, all belonging to the Indo-Aryan group of languages.

Tanchyangas are modest in nature. They have seven clans. Agriculture is their main occupation. They cultivate crops and practise horticulture on hill slopes. Even today they do Jhum cultivation, but not to the extent they used to do before. Literacy among Tanchyangas is low. A few of them serve in government and nongovernmental organizations.

Tanchyangas wear traditional costumes. Their women look very attractive in their costumes. Tanchyanga women excel all other hilly women in wearing colourful clothes and ornaments. Among the variety of their ornaments are Rajjur and jhanga for ears, baghors and kuchikhadu for wrists, tajjur for arms, chandrahar, hachuli and sikichada for the neck. Usually these ornaments are made of silver. Tanchyanga women wear five kinds of clothes which are attractive and colourful. The men of this tribe wear simple clothes without designs. Tanchyanga men usually wear loincloth and long-sleeved shirts.

However, there have been changes in their attire and ornaments in recent years. They now use the same clothes as men and women of other communities of Bangladesh. For instance, their women wear sarees, blouse, salwar and kameez and their men wear shirt, trousers and lungi.

Tanchyangas are Buddhists and observe such religious rites as worshipping Gautam Buddha, listening to sermons, Kathin Chibor Dan, Maghi Purnima, etc. They have Buddhist Viharas in their localities. They celebrate 'biju' to mark the end and beginning of the Bengali year.

Their laws of inheritance reflect the values of a patriarchal society. The male children of a deceased Tanchyanga father divide the property including furniture and cattle equally among themselves,. The daughters cannot claim any share of the property except when they have no brothers.

There are 3 types of marriages among Tanchyangas - the groom is taken to the bride's house; the lovers elope and marry; and widows remarry. The wedding practices of the mugcha group of Tanchyangas are very colourful. Their word for marriage is Sanga.

After death, the body is covered with a white cloth after being bathed. People attending the ceremony pray for the departed soul and offer gifts and money. They offer chicken and rice to the guests and observe different vows before and after the funeral rites. The eldest son or a close relative of the deceased then shifts the body to the funeral pyre. On the next day, they collect the burnt bones in a pot and cover it with a piece of cloth. Finally they throw the pot into a river.