Brown Girls In The Ring - The Long Neck Karen

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Due to the conflict of the military regime in Burma in the 1980s – 1990s, the Karen hill tribe fled to the Thai Borders. The Government of Thailand had accepted them and located the Long Neck Karen in the Ban Mai Nai Son refugee village, 15km from the Mae Hon Son Province in the North of Thailand. Since then the Long Neck Karen became the attraction to the tourist in this region. There are about 600 Karens todate in the northern Thailand. They are also known as the Padaung.

The Long Neck Karen started at a very tender age. They started at the age of five years old. As they grew older they kept adding the rings until they could not do so. They will solder the brass rings to add the length they chose. It could weigh very heavy, a few kilograms on their shoulders. Thus making the shoulders, collar bones collapsed lop-sided and compressed the rib cage. I can feel the pain in them, the long suffering rings added the weight on their shoulders, the discomfort around their necks can easily bruise or caused discoloration on the necks and what if summer comes? There are few reasons they had to wear this ring; firstly to avoid bitten by the tiger, secondly being made into slaves by other tribes, which also a “turn-off” less attractive to other tribes men and according to my tourist guide, something I cannot accept but listened, “a step nearer to heaven”. What about the men? Don’t they want to go to heaven? If YES! Where do they put the rings on?

Don’t laugh…….

Most of the new generations of the Karens do not put on rings as they have come to terms with modernization, to be educated and mingle with people with no extra burden and awkwardness anymore. The older generations are still in their surviving world; still believe in traditions and customs, living on what nature can offer.

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Photos

Karen 1
she is 50 years old and has the longest ring around her neck

Comments

[liliram]

Got to see this...
How do you get there, by the way? I mean, can one go on his own or we need to register with some tourism office?

[TravelKlicks]

Brown Girls in the Ring
Dear Liliram Its about an hour plus drive from Chiangmai. You can hire a van from the travel agent to visit this group of people. Try to go in the morning, not so warm, less humid and mosquitoes.