This species occurs in the Himalayan foothills in eastern Nepal, Bhutan and northern India, northeastern Bangladesh, across Myanmar to northern Lao PDR and northern Viet Nam, northern and northeastern Thailand, and through southern China (south of the Chiangjiang) to Hainan and Taiwan. The limits of its range are poorly known, and complicated by high levels of exploitation. The species exists at high altitudes, especially in the southern and western parts of its range, possibly occurring at much lower altitudes in northeast. Its latitudinal range is thought likely to overlap considerably with that of Manis javanica, with Manis pentadactyla tending to occur in hills and mountains and the latter more generally found at lower altitudes, though recent interviews with in Viet Nam suggest that the two species can be found in the same areas of forest, and that the differences between them are ecological, relating to diet and habitat use, rather than altitude (P. Newton pers. comm.).

The species has been recorded in northeastern India from Sikkim eastward (Tikader 1983). The species occurs in eastern Nepal and Bhutan at the foothills of the Himalayas, apparently confined to elevations below approximately 1,500 m in Nepal (Frick 1968; Mitchell 1975).

The species has been recorded in north and central Lao PDR, however, there are too few locality records to determine the geographic and altitudinal range of the species in the country with any accuracy (Duckworth et al. 1999; Timmins and Evans 1996).

The species occurs throughout southeast China from the southern border as far north as Changjiang (the Yangtze River), including on the island of Chusan at the mouth of the Changjiang (Allen and Coolidge 1940). This species is distributed widely in China in the provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, and Fujian, and in the Autonomous Regions of Hainan Island, Guangxi Zhuang, and Tibet (Zhang et al. 1997). It is recorded in several sites in central and northeast New Territories, as well as on Hong Kong (Lantau Island), although not on the smaller outlying islands (Reels 1996).

On Taiwan, the species occurs on the periphery of the Central Mountain Range, the Western Foothill Range, the Taoyuan Tableland, the Ouluanpi Tableland, the East Coast Mountain Range, the Tatun Volcano Group, Taipei Basin, Puli Basin, and the Pingtun Plain (Chao Jung-Tai 1989; Chao Jung-Tai et al. 2005). The upper limit of occurrence is around 2,000 m asl (Chao Jung-Tai 1989).

The species is probably widespread in northern Myanmar, although there are few records and the exact distribution is not well known (Salter 1983; Corbet and Hill 1992; J.W. Duckworth pers. comm. 2006).

The only records of the species in Thailand are from: Doi Inthanon (formerly Doi Angka) in Changwat, Chiang Mai (northern Thailand), sometime in 1937 and 1939 (Allen and Coolidge 1940); Doi Sutep, Chiangmai (northern Thailand) in 1901; and Mukdaharn in northeastern Thailand.

All records of the species in Viet Nam are from the northern half of the country, as far south as Quang Tri Province, up to 1,000 m asl (Bourret 1942; Peenen et al. 1969; Do Tuoc pers. comm. 2006; P. Newton pers. comm.).