Our next sight was something I didn’t really expect to see here in Inle Lake. We visited a hut with a few Padaung Women. Padaung women gained fame through their custom of wearing heavy brass coils around their necks giving the appearance of an elongated neck. The Padaung is actually a bit of a misnomer since they prefer to be call Kayan or Karen people. This group of people are predominant here in the Shan state of Myanmar, however they are also found in the northern areas of Thailand.
The tradition of wearing the neck rings is only for women, and customarily, the kids as young as five start to wear their neck rings and are regularly replaced with bigger, longer and heavier coils as the girl grows up. Contrary to popular belief, the necks do not really become longer, but rather the collar bones are deformed downwards by the weight of the coils giving the impression that the neck has grown longer. It is also not true that the women will die of suffocation when the rings are removed.
Perhaps the most intriguing part of the story of the Padaung women is why they wear them in the first place. Some say it is to enhance their beauty. Others say to tone down their beauty. Others say it was for phsyical protection against tiger bites. The women themselves say it is for beauty but probably the real reasons have been lost to antiquity. Whatever the reason is, the tourists love it.
I got a chance to hold one of the coils of a Padaung woman and it was really heavy. It was amazing how anyone would carry that much weight on their shoulders every moment of their lives. With the influx of modernity, less and less Kayan women wear the neck rings. Others however continue wearing them, primarily for the tourist trade. My companion wasn’t really keen on seeing the women. Probably out of pity for them, with good reason. These women are shown to tourists in some sort of freak show. Well, if this is the way they choose to earn their living, then I guess it works for them. In the end, tourism will be the one to preserve culture.
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