Rings on her neck

G. V. JOSHI

The long necked women, once referred to as the "giraffe women" by explorers, belong to the Padaung sub-group of the Karen ethnic minority. Their homeland is Kayah State in Eastern Myanmar.

The 200 residents of Nai Soi include about 30 long-necked women and girls. Poverty and abuses by the Myanmar's military rule have driven them into neighbouring Thailand.

These women use rice, straw and lime to polish the brass or copper rings on their necks. Tourists pay as much as $ 10 to 12 to see these women, who in turn receive $ 60 a month to be on show. While in Myanmar, they had to work long hours, and yet did not earn enough, there is plenty of money in Nai Soi. The men on the other hand do not work. They spend their days swinging in their hammocks, smoking hand made cigars and sipping rice beer.

The women do not seem to know the origin of this strange custom. They wear the rings because their mothers and grandmothers used to. Various legends are told about the origin of the metal rings or coils. Some guides say that they are worn to keep tigers from attacking them and biting off their head while they worked in fields.

According to others, it is like taking your savings bank account on your person... much like wearing jewellery in India. The initiation, which starts when the girls are as young as four or five, does not involve any religious ceremony nor is it the beginning of womanhood.

The first coil of brass or copper weighs about a kg. A second coil of the same weight is added at the age of eight, a third at 12 and, if the girl's neck is strong, the last coil weighing two kg is added when she is 15. The girls take some time to get used to the rings. Sometimes the coils are removed to relieve chafing on the shoulders.

They feel that they look most beautiful when their necks are long. The pushed-up chin gives an elegant impression of a tiny head floating on a golden stem. Many of them never remove the rings, put up with the occasional chafing, and prefer to be buried with them.

In addition, they wear similar rings round their calves and wrists. The coils do not stretch the neck but push down the collarbones and ribs. After years of use, the neck becomes too weak to support the head without the coils.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the maximum extension of the neck by the successive fitting of copper coils is 40 cm. When the coils are removed, the muscles developed to support the head and neck shrink to their normal length.

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