It is found primarily in open areas in southern China, Taiwan, Cambodia and India, but is also widely cultivated throughout Southeast Asia.
The plant is used as a herb in cooking in Indonesia, where it is called kencur, and especially in Javanese and Balinese cuisines.
Its leaves are used in the Malay rice dish, nasi ulam.
Kaempferia galanga is not commonly used in Thai cuisine, but can be bought as a dried rhizome or in powder form at herbal medicine stalls.
It is also used in Chinese cooking and Chinese medicine, and is sold in Chinese groceries under the name sha jiang, while the plant itself is referred to as shan nai.
Kaempferia galanga has a peppery camphorous taste.
It is one of four plants known as galangal, and is differentiated from the others by the absence of stem and dark brown, rounded rhizomes, while the other varieties all have stems and pale rosebrown rhizomes.