Kayan people (Borneo)
The Kayan are a group of the Karen people, a Tibeto-Burman ethnic minority of Myanmar (Burma). They are also known as Padaung. In the 1990s, due to conflict with the military regime in Burma, many Kayan tribespeople fled into neighbouring Thailand. There they live with an uncertain legal status in the border area, in villages set up to display them to tourists willing to pay to admire their particular body modification, which consists of coiling lengths of brass around the necks of the women. There are around 7,000 members of the Kayan tribe.
An unrelated tribe in central Borneo are also called the Kayan, similar to, and neighbors of, the Kenyah tribe. They are part of a larger grouping of people referred to collectively as the orang ulu, or upriver people. They are known for being fierce warriors, former headhunters, adept in dry-rice cultivation, and having extensive tattoos and stretched earlobes amongst both sexes.
Brass coils
The following information refers only to the Kayan tribe of Burma.
The coils are first applied when the girls are about five years old, and the coil is replaced with longer coils as the weight of the brass pushes down the collar bone and compresses the rib cage. This results in the striking appearance of a very long neck.
There are several mythical ideas, some likely formed by some visiting anthropologists. Some think the coils protect from tiger bites, while some think the coils made the women unattractive to neighbouring tribes, and so protected them against slave trade, another, more likely, reason is that it reflects the neck of a dragon.
The origin of the tradition is not known. Kayan women, when asked, usually know of these myths, but their own reason for wearing the coils, is that it is a tribal identity, one associated with beauty, and because their mothers wore the rings.
The rings, once on, are seldom removed, as it is a somewhat lengthy procedure. Contrary to myth, the women do not suffocate when the rings are removed. It was believed that women cheating on their husbands could have the rings removed as punishment, and thus had to lie down the rest of her life, to avoid the long neck breaking, but this is nonsense. Many women removed the coils when they became unfashionable in Burma, as the military government decided this tradition was unwanted, as Burma / Myanmar struggled to appear a more modern and developed world. Also, many women have removed the rings for medical examinations. Most women, once their necks are elongated, prefer to wear the rings, as their necks and collar bones are often bruised and discolored from being hidden behind brass for so long, and of course also because the collar after ten years or more of continuous wear, feels like an integral part of the body.
The practice has seen a surge in recent years because the custom draws tourists who buy their handicrafts. The biggest Kayan village of Nai Soi receives an average of 1,200 tourists annually and collects an entry fee of 250B per person. Unfortunately, tour operators and tourists themselves often treat these people like zoo animals.
The picture below of a Kayan man must be considered the result of artistic freedom, as no males of the Kayan tribe have been seen wearing neck coils.
An ethnic group in South Africa has a similar practice. The Ndebele people of South Africa start wearing neck rings when they are married, around 12 years of age. However instead of brass coils, the Ndebele people wear individual rings closed around their necks.
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Kayan man
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Kayan woman
Sources and references
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