Kayan Neck Elongations

Neck Elongation

Definition: Kayan females wear brass rings around their necks to make their necks look elongated (Ismail 2008: 5). “The rings are one long coil made from an alloy of silver, brass, and gold. Only girls born on auspicious days of the week and while the moon is waxing are entitled to wear them. These girls start wearing rings from the age of five, when the neck is circled only a few times. As they get older more rings are added (Mirante 2006).” (https://web.archive.org/web/20081212153427/http://www.guernicamag.com/features/229/the_dragon_mothers/)

Origins and Purposes:

There are many theories and explanations for the origin of the practice of neck elongation among the Kayan female population. Edith Mirante posits a few reasons for this practice. “One explanation for the neck-rings is that they were intended to make the women of the Kayan tribe distinctive, so they might be ransomed back from captivity in times of inter-tribal warfare. Some claim that the practice was meant to protect women from tigers, which are known to seize their prey by the scruff of the neck.” In any case, this practice has been around as long the Kayan has, and up until recently, all women in the area participated in the practice, and it has become like a standard of beauty for the women there.

Neck Elongation and Ethnic Tourism:

While this traditional practice has its roots in tradition. Nowadays, the practice has been used to attract more tourists to the region. As Jinranai explains; “In 1985, the then Governor of (the Mae Hae Son region of Thailand) MHS initiated a plan for tourism development for MHS. Government officials were sent to negotiate with the Kayah or Karenni leaders about opening Kayan cultural villages in MHS. Enterprising tour operators upon seeing that the government initiatives were lucrative, then made their own arrangements to go to Burma to bring Kayans to Thailand.” He goes on to explain the benefits of this idea. “With the assistance of Karenni leaders, private operators recruited Kayan long-necks for their own tourist villages. The Karenni leaders were paid good money which was then used to buy weapons for the Karenni rebels (Ismail 2008: 14).” In general, this practice has seen a resurgence in recent years for this purpose, people from all over the world come to see the long-necked individuals, thereby bringing large amounts of tourism revenue into Thailand. However, despite this, many women desire to remove the rings for good.

Changing for the Modern Era:

Despite this striving for tourism, many Kayan women nowadays advocate for the removal of these neck rings, and there have been many attempts to move away from this practice. Simply put: Their situation is forcing the Padaung (Kayan) to choose whether they should maintain the ring-wearing practice for its legend-based sacred meaning, or whether wearing the rings simply continues the exploitation of their cultural values for commercial gain. …. It is, therefore, time to consider other ways to maintain their exotic culture – such as giving them basic rights and providing education for the children; encouraging them to explore their other traditional practices such as weaving rather than emphasizing only their elongated necks (Myint Oo 2009: 6). The situation for the Kayan is another example of the desire for many cultures to break free of the rather limiting traditions of their mothers and grandmothers, in order to assert one’s own freedom. And like the paragraph above states, many people worry about the loss of such a culture, due to this desire to break free of tradition.

Learn More

A documentary film on the Kayan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL8ARB5FmsA

Wikipedia Article about a tribe in Africa with a similar practice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ndebele_people_(South_Africa)

Peoples of the World Foundation Article on the Kayan http://www.peoplesoftheworld.org/text?people=Karen

Another Shorter Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBPYDLYAXvE

Works Cited

Holasut, M. (2014). " As beautiful as you are told": A Critique on the Ideology of Natural Beauty in" The Body Project" Exhibition. Journal of Liberal Arts Thammasat University, 14(1), 52-67.

Ismail, J. (2008). Ethnic tourism and the Kayan long-neck tribe in Mae Hong Son, Thailand (Doctoral dissertation, Victoria University).

Edith, M. (2006). Guernica / The Dragon Mothers Polish their Metal Coils. online? Web.archive.org. Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20081212153427/http://www.guernicamag.com/features/229/the_dragon_mothers/

Oo, P. M. (2009). Commoditization of culture and tourism development in an ethnic community: a case study of The Long-Necked Kayan (Padaung) in Mae Hong Son Province= การ แปลง วัฒนธรรม ให้ เป็น สินค้า และ การ พัฒนาการ ท่องเที่ยว ใน ชุมชน ชาติพันธุ์: กรณี ศึกษา กะเหรี่ยง คอ ยาว (ปะ ด่ อง) ใน จังหวัด แม่ฮ่องสอน (Doctoral dissertation, Chiang Mai: Graduate School, Chiang Mai University, 2009).