The Kheng people are an ethnic group of Bhutan, found primarily in the Zhemgang, Trongsa and Mongar Districts of south-central Bhutan. They speak the Kheng language, a member of the extended Tibetan language family; it is mutually intelligible with the Bumthang language and Kurtöp language to the north. S. R. Chakravarty asserts that Kheng are one of the earliest inhabitants that language spread upwards from Kheng into Bumthang and Kurtöp. By all accounts the Kheng are more closely related to the people of central Bhutan than they are to their neighbors in eastern Bhutan, who are primarily Sharchops. The Kheng still retain special trade relations with the Bumthang, including providing winter pasture rights for Bumthang yaks. SIL International estimates there are 50,000 Kheng speakers.