Sukaphaa, the leader of the Tai group and his 9,000 followers established the Ahom kingdom (1228–1826 CE), which controlled much of the Brahmaputra Valley in modern Assam until 1826.

The local people of different ethnic groups of Assam that took to the Tai way of life and polity were incorporated into their fold which came to be known as Ahom as in the process known as Ahomisation.

Ahom people are found mostly in Upper Assam in the districts of Golaghat, Jorhat, Sibsagar, Charaideo, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia (south of Brahmaputra River); and in Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, Bishwanath, and Dhemaji (north) as well as some area of Nagaon, Guwahati.

The Tai speaking people came into prominence first in the Guangxi region, in China, from where they moved to mainland Southeast Asia in the middle of the 11th century after a long and fierce battle with the Northern Han Chinese.

[9] Sukaphaa, a Tai prince of Mong Mao, and a band of followers reached Assam in 1228 with an intention of settling there.

[13] Sukaphaa, the leader of the Tai group and his 9,000 followers established the Ahom kingdom (1228–1826 CE), which controlled much of the Bramhaputra valley until 1826.

In the initial phase, the band of followers of Sukaphaa moved about for nearly thirty years and mixed with the local population.

He made peace with the Borahi and Moran ethnic groups, and he and his mostly male followers married into them, creating an admixed population identified as Ahoms[8] and initiating the process of Ahomisation.

The Borahis, a Tibeto-Burman people, were completely subsumed into the Ahom fold, though the Moran maintained their independent ethnicity.

[15] As a result, the Ahom polity initially absorbed Naga, Borahi and Moran, and later large sections of the Chutia and the Dimasa-Kachari peoples.

[17] Since the Ahoms married liberally outside their own exogamous clans and since their own traditional religion resembled the religious practices of the indigenous peoples the assimilation under Ahomisation had little impediment.

[16][18] In the 16th and 17th centuries, the small Ahom community expanded their rule dramatically toward the west and they successfully saw off challenges from Mughal and other invaders, gaining them recognition in world history.

[27] The Tai-Ahom people's traditional social structure, called Ban-Mong, revolved around agriculture and centered on irrigation methods.

Poi cheng ken is the traditional spring festival of the Tai-Ahom people, celebrated during the Ahom month of Duin-Ha in the Sexagenary cycle.

[43] The festival includes rituals such as washing, particularly bathing household cattle, honoring ancestors, and worshipping the insignia Chum Pha Rueng Sheng Mueang.

[44] At one time, the Ahom built their house on stilts called Rwan Huan[44] about two meters above ground level.

[44] They consume "Khar" (a form of alkaline liquid extracted from the ashes of burned banana peels/bark), "Betgaaj" (tender cane shoots), and many other naturally grown herbs with medicinal properties.

However beef for the general hindus and, pork for the Vaisnavites are avoided [46] During Siva Singha's reign, the people abandoned the free usage of meat and drinks.

Like the Thais, the Ahoms prefer boiled food that have little spices and directly burnt fish, meat and vegetables like brinjal, tomato, etc.

[57] Ahom people today are categorised in the other backward classes (OBC) caste category; there is longstanding discussion and demand for Scheduled Tribe status.

[59][60][61] According to Anthony Van Nostrand Diller, possibly eight million speakers of Assamese can claim genetic descent from the Ahoms.

[56] Historian Yasmin Saikia contends that during pre-colonial eras, the Ahoms didn't constitute an ethnic community; instead, they formed a relatively inclusive social group.