Lohja (tribe)

Albanian bayraks as of 1918 from Franz Seiner. Lohja located in section 38, between Kopliku, Reci, Rijolli. Name does not appear on the map, but inside the legend.

Lohja is a minor North Albanian Tribe and it refers also to the traditional region that the tribe covers. It is part of the Malësia region,^[1] also in wider term as Malësia of Shkodra.^[2] Lohja is also used as a surname, for people claiming ancestry from it.

Geographically, Lohja is a small region situated in the Malësia e Madhe District, near Dedaj, north of Koplik. It borders on the traditional tribal regions of Kastrati to the west and north, and on Reç and Rjolli to the south. Many families from Lohja are located in the town of Koplik and they are referred as autochtones even though they have settled around 200 years later than the founders.^[3]

The Lohja tribe had a population of some 2,500 in the last years of the 19th century.^[4]

References

1. Prele Milani - Shala, Shoshi, dhe Merturi: Themeluesit e Dukagjinit te ri (in Albanian)
2. Buda, Aleks (1985), Fjalor enciklopedik shqiptar, Akademia e Shkencave e RPSSH, p. 61, OCLC 15296028
3. Koplik, a brief historical view - Municipality of Koplik (in Albanian)
4. Robert Elsie (2010), Historical Dictionary of Albania, Historical Dictionaries of Europe 75 (2 ed.), Scarecrow Press, p. 282, ISBN 978-0810861886