It was an outlying territory, located by the Mali River, north of Myitkyina District, away from the main Shan State area in present-day Kachin State.

The name means "Great Place of Gold" in the Hkamti Khamti language.

[1] It gathered seven small principalities: Lokhun, Mansi, Lon Kyein, Manse-Hkun, Mannu, Langdao, Mong Yak and Langnu which were under the Hkamti Long was beyond the borders of the British Mandalay Division and was never brought under direct British rule, after the Shan states submitted to British rule after the fall of the Konbaung dynasty.

Hkamti Long was visited by traveller Thomas Thornville Cooper, British Agent at Bhamo, where he was murdered in 1878;[2] later also by colonels Macgregor and Woodthorpe in 1884-1885, by Errol Gray in 1892-1893, and by Prince Henry of Orleans in 1893.

[4] The rulers of Hkamti Long bore the title of Saopha.