Long Necks!

After our rather wet and restless night at our Home Stay, we got up bright and early and set out to see the local hill tribes.  While we saw several different tribes, none were as memorable as the Long-neck Karen.

As told by the long-necked Karen leader, the Padaung tribal people only began wearing neck rings when they began being attacked by tigers.  They devised these rings to prevent death – mainly because tribe members were killed when tigers mauled their necks.  This worried the tribe so much that they ordered tribal girls and unmarried women to wear neck rings to prevent themselves from “bad luck.”  Golden rings were originally worn, but when gold became too expensive, brass was substituted and is still used today.

It might be hard to read - but that says 4.5 kilos!

 

The longest neck brass has been recorded as 25 loops weighing around 8 kilograms.  Padaung people start putting neck rings on their girls at 5 years of age.   At the first time, the girl wears around 8 neck rings.  In general, the first set of rings weighs approximately 1 kilogram.  Every three years, another 3 rings are added until the woman becomes 25 or gets married.  Once the neck rings have been put on, they will be there through the wearer’s life – without taking them off.  This is due to the fact that because the women wear neck rings, their neck muscles are not used – taking off the neck rings can be extremely dangerous, which is why Karen women do not take the rings off until death. 

In addition to neck rings, the women of the Karen tribe display their status as married women by wearing carved elephant tusks in their ears. When a woman is married, her ears are pierced and an elephant tusk of one to four centimeters in length is inserted. 

Karen kids in school

During the early stages the ear pieces are quite small, especially for younger women. The weight of the tusks gradually weighs down on the ear lobe and the ear gets larger and larger, and longer and longer. Then larger tusks are inserted and the process repeats itself until the woman's ears become extremely elongated and floppy. The married woman wears these ear pieces for life.

Originally I joked that my strategy would be to get married at age 10 to avoid having so many neck rings, but I think that would only mean that my ear lobes are a lot longer…yikes!