Comprehensive detailed information on the Long Neck Tribe

The Long Neck Tribe is composed of a branch of the Padaung Tribe of the Karen Tribe, an ethnic minority on the border between northern Thailand and Myanmar. They can only be seen in Mae Hong Son Town. . Long-necked people regard long necks as their beauty. From the age of 5-6, children wear copper rings around their necks, one copper ring a year, to lengthen their necks. The person with the longest neck has a neck of 70 centimeters. When bathing, the long-necked man could only stuff straw into the copper ring and scrub it like a saw. In order to survive, they put on heavy shackles and showed the cruel beauty to the world. Basic introduction Chinese name: Long neck's people Foreign name: long neck's people Nature: An ethnic group in Thailand Distribution: Mae Hongshun Town on the border of northern Thailand and Myanmar Population: less than 30,000 Source: Myanmar mountainous ethnic minorities Customs: Women are all here Overview of the ethnic group wearing a copper collar around the neck, the history, history, legends, customs, and tourism development of the long-necked tribe. Overview of the ethnic group Mae Hong Sung Town Mae Hong Sung, a small town with a population of less than 30,000 , you need to transfer from Chiang Mai, but all the flights are 737 aircraft, which shows that there are many tourists. The Long Neck tribe lives in Nai Suo Village, about 30 kilometers away from Mae Hong Son. Mae Hong Son means a small town shrouded in mist in Thai. This mountain town at an altitude of 3,000 meters has fresh air at night, as cold as water, and is as quiet as poetry. Therefore, some people have translated it as Song of Night Breeze. Mae Hong Son was connected to the outside world only after the road connecting it to Chiang Mai was completed in 1965. Before that, there seemed to be only one river connecting the two places. The History of the Long-Necked People The Karen people were originally an ethnic minority in the mountains of Myanmar. They have lived in eastern Myanmar for several centuries. They have always lived in the deep mountains and dense forests and are self-sufficient through farming. Women in the tribe have always kept neck collars. The traditional custom of wearing a brass ring. In 1948, they were invaded and oppressed by the Rakhine people. In order to avoid the civil war and seek a more stable and beautiful land, more than ten years ago, a group of twenty or thirty long-necked people walked over the mountains and ridges for several days. I came to northern Thailand and settled down for a few nights, and regarded the mountain nest in Mae Hong Son as my second home. Although they live in refugee camps in northern Thailand, they still strive to maintain their language and traditions. It is a typical custom of the long-necked people to let women wear copper collars around their necks. Long Neck Tribe Legend Some people say that Long Neck Tribe women dress like this to make themselves look like a long-necked dragon, which is regarded by the Long Neck Tribe as the father of all things in the world. Others say the bizarre attire is meant to scare away hungry tigers wandering around the forest. Others say that Kayan men deliberately lengthen the necks of their wives to prevent them from being kidnapped by rival tribes. Another theory is that this costume is a legacy of patriarchal thinking, because a man can easily kill his wife instantly by simply removing a copper ring. But most people think this statement is wrong. Nowadays, the long-necked people live in a matriarchal society, and no one is exploring the origin of this custom anymore, because people have mainly regarded it as a symbol of beauty and wealth. It is for this reason that the long-necked people continue to wear copper collars on little girls when they reach the age of 5. However, there is another theory. According to legend, in the past, residents angered the gods and sent tigers to eat women. So they decided that all girls would wear brass neck rings for self-defense. However, there are also legends that these Karen people originally lived in eastern Myanmar, making a living by farming and living in peace with the world. However, outsiders intentionally annexed the area's natural resources, triggering war. When men went out to fight, women would cast precious metals into gold, silver or copper rings and wear them around their necks or feet. This custom was passed down. Every long-necked woman knows how to use herbs to clean her neck. They only take off the copper ring from their neck a few times in their life, that is, when they get married, give birth to a child, and die. Usually they don't easily let outsiders see them taking off the copper ring, even if they are as close as their husbands. Although historians and folklorists have different opinions on the origin of the custom of "long-necked women" wrapped in copper coils. But one thing people have reached a consensus: the reason for the continuation of "long-necked women" is money.

Since fleeing their homeland due to war more than 10 years ago, hundreds of Padang tribe members have been living in refugee camps on the border of northern Thailand and Myanmar. Although they are illegal immigrants, they have been able to gain a foothold in Thailand because of their unique tourism value, and their lives are much better than those of refugees from other tribes. The long-necked ladies sell all kinds of souvenirs and they rely entirely on tourism to survive. Customs According to their customs, when girls are 5 years old, they need to put copper rings on their necks and limbs with 1 kilogram of copper rings. This process is not complicated. After the girl received massage therapy for several hours, someone skilled in the art would wrap a copper ring around her neck. The cross-section diameter of the copper wire could be up to 1.5 centimeters. After the ceremony is completed, the girl's family invites the whole village to celebrate together. For the next few months, the girl would wear those copper rings and wait for her neck to change. After the long-necked people's necks get used to these copper rings, they should be replaced with tighter copper collars and a few more should be added. Long-neck women can wear up to 25 copper collars, weighing between 5 kilograms and 10 kilograms. These copper collars were used to elongate the neck with the support of the collarbone until the girl reached puberty and the body was fully formed. Starting from the age of ten, one more ring will be added to the neck every year until the age of twenty-five. The long-necked people believe that the longer a woman's neck is, the more beautiful she is, so starting from the age of five, these rings can only be added upwards, not taken down, and they must wear them throughout their lives. When going to bed at night, only the vertical ring at the back is removed, and the other rings are not removed. Take a bath every few days. Several people help each other and rub a cloth between the ring and the neck. Longneck women consider this custom perfectly acceptable. "It was painful and severe at first, but I got used to it in the end," said Mo Bo, a member of the long-necked tribe. "The most painful thing is when the weather is hot, and the copper ring is so hot that we can only soak in the river. A soak can cool down the copper ring. If you don't do this, even if the weather cools down, the copper ring heated by the sun will still spread waves of heat to the whole body. "Many books say that because of the support of these rings, it will gradually cool down. It is actually wrong to lengthen the neck. In fact, the length of the neck does not change much. The function of these rings is to use gravity to push the shoulders down, making the neck appear longer. So when they need to see a doctor and have to take it off temporarily, their necks will retract instead of dying as some books say. They believe that the long-necked people, the ancestors of human beings, had long necks in the past mostly because of superstition and custom. In addition to customs, it is mostly because of livelihood-attracting tourists. The Long Neck Tribe has three villages in Mae Hong Son. The largest one has more than 200 people. Their cultures are exactly the same, so just visit one when traveling. Tourism development The strange ornaments of long-necked women attracted curious European tourists. Every year from November to February of the following year, about 200 tourists visit the refugee camp set up by the Thai authorities for the Long Neck people every day. In Mae Hong Son province, just a few kilometers from the Thai-Myanmar border, tourists have to pay 35 francs per person to enter the refugee camp. Collecting visiting fees from tourists is the only source of income for these long-necked tribesmen, but they can only get half of the total money, and the rest falls into the pockets of Thais. This is a lucrative business for Thailand. In 1997, they even forcibly took some long-neck women to the Phayao refugee camp in northern Thailand for exhibition. According to the South China Morning Post: "Their families say they were sold like slaves, earning only 28 francs a month and having to dress up to please tourists..." There, tourists spend several dollars A small amount of money can satisfy one's curiosity, but no one really cares about the fate of these Burmese long-necked women. The bus ride from Chiang Mai to Mae Hong Son costs more than 100 B and takes 7-9 hours. The flight costs more than 800 B and takes half an hour. It is definitely possible to go to Mae Hong Son in one day and back, it will take at least 3 days by car. Flying is equivalent to spending money to buy time, which is still cost-effective for people traveling abroad.