Paduang Long-necked woman
The famous Paduang women or giraffe women are of the "Karen Hilltribe" or as everyone knows them, "Long-necked Hilltribe" located near Ban Nam Phiang Din, in the province of Northern Thailand, just at the border of Myanmar (Burma), in a small secluded valley right outside the provincial City "Mae Hong Son" of the Mae Hong Son province.
Bronze and silver bracelets also cover the women's legs and arms, a custom likely to remain. The neck rings however, may very well become extinct within a generation or two as younger Padaung women are beginning to refuse to fit the rings around their children's necks. Photos of Long Necked Women in Tha Ton, Thailand
A tourist speaks of these women..."While I was looking at the souvenirs, a long necked girl came out and showed me more souvenirs. She was cute with beautiful, long black hair. She looked about my age and could easily have been a student at my school if she didn’t have the ring on her neck. I bought some postcards there and then asked her some questions about the ring. She told me it is one long ring like a spring and it is made from brass. Her one weighed about five kilograms and some people she knows had brass rings weighing as much as twenty kilograms!!! I asked her if her neck really got longer and she said that the ring pushes her collarbone down which makes it look longer. God!!!" Excerpted from p.3 My Holidays Around Thailand of a hilltribe's village in Mae Hong Son province in the north of Thailand.
The Padaung, or Ka-Kaung as they call themselves, are a subgroup of the Karen. Ka-Kaung means 'people who live on top of the hill'. Padaung women are often referred to as 'giraffe' or 'long-necked' because of the custom of placing brass rings around their necks from when they are young girls until they marry. The practice is fast disappearing. In fact it is not the neck which has stretched but the shoulders which have been forced down by the weight and pressure of the rings.
The long-necked people, the Padaung (a Karen subgroup from Burma). Some (not all) of the young girls start applying brass coils at an early age of 5-6 in order to elongate their necks. Legends suggest this custom may have to do with imitating dragons and presumably it is also considered attractive.
The exotic and unique tradition of putting rings around the Padaung women’s necks goes back to time immemorial and no one is able to fix the exact period of their history. However, this tradition has been kept studiously all through these centuries and it is very interesting to learn this peculiar convention of the Padungs, who are our brethren in the Union of Myanmar.
They said, “We started putting the brass rings on the girl’s neck
at the early age of 5 or 6 years of age.” When asked how it is done,
they said, “When the Padaung girl comes to that age, the elder called
“SHAMAN” is called upon to perform this ceremonious task. The
SHAMAN chooses an auspicious day and recites rituals and prayers for
the occasion. A Padaung man makes a brass ring resembling a big spiral
cord and then a skilled Padaung woman puts the said ring around the girl’s
neck using a toot like a pipe about 12 inches long. With that tool she
fits and places the ring around the girl’s neck. Not all Padaung
women are adept at this task but a few are capable of doing this. It
looks easy but it takes more than two to three hours to complete the
performance and more than an hour to take them out. This art is meticulously
kept in practice by the Padaungs from generation to generation and handed
down from their forefathers to posterity to date. It is in fact a very
exciting, interesting and invaluable tradition of our brethren Padaungs
in the far east of Myanmar.
It is told, the Padaung girls have to add to her neck brass rings every four years increasing the numbers up to nine times in her lifetime until the age of 45. That is the normal practice but additional rings may be supplemented at their choice. By the last round, the total weight of the rings will weigh approximately 5 kg altogether. From the medical point of view the human neck cannot be elongated and stretched. It is due to the pressure of the rings, that the shoulder blade and the ribs are pushed down gradually, making the necks look long. If the said rings are removed, the neck will return to normal position after 2 or 3 years.
From the Land of Green Ghosts
A Burmese Odyssey
by Pascal Khoo Thwe
Pascal Khoo Thwe writes from his growing up in the "Land of Green Ghosts" (an odd name except ET's are green and long-necked) writes of his grandmothers (a patriarchal society) and speaks of them as goddesses. He speaks of his grandmothers being:
"To us children they were by far the most powerful goddesses of the clan. Even their husbands consented to their absolute rule in domestic affairs. Mu Kya and Mu Tha had worn the neck-rings most of their lives, but gave them up in old age. They looked to us like mythical creatures, half-human and half-bird -- and yet it never occurred to us that the Padaung were different from other people.
We were descended from a 'zawgyi' - a male creature, half human and half angel -- and a beautiful female dragon did not seem odd, merely a source of pride. Our supernatural origins were also revealed in the klong, or 'drums of desire' (which we also called 'frog-drums') that were beaten on solemn and auspicious occasions. These had been bequeathed to the tribe by a supernatural being, called 'Big Ball' from his most obvious feature. He was a mischievous creature who delighted in destroying our trees."