Why do these women have such long necks?

The reason why African women have long necks

The long-necked ethnic group is not in Africa. It is composed of a Padaung ethnic group of Karen, a minority nationality on the border between northern Thailand and Myanmar, and can only be seen in Meihongshun town. In fact, the neck length of "long-necked women" is no different from that of ordinary people, but their collarbone and shoulder bones are depressed by the copper ring.

Custom

According to their custom, girls should put a 1 kg copper ring around their neck and limbs when they are five years old, and add one more one around their neck every year from the age of ten until they are twenty-five. Long-necked people think that the longer a woman's neck is, the more beautiful it will be. Therefore, from the age of five, these rings can only be added up, not taken down, and they must wear them all their lives. When sleeping at night, only the vertical ring at the back is removed, and other rings are not removed. Take a bath every few days, and several people help each other and rub the cloth between the ring and the neck.

It is written in many books that it is wrong to lengthen the neck slowly because of the support of these rings. In fact, the length of the neck has not changed much. The role of these rings is to depress the shoulders by gravity and make the neck look long. So when they need to see a doctor and have to take it off temporarily, their necks will shrink back, instead of dying as some books say.

Once wearing the copper ring, these women will be chained for life, because their neck muscles will become very fragile, and they will be in danger of breaking without the copper ring neck. They believe that human ancestors, men are dragons, women are phoenixes, and dragons and phoenixes are the most noble and supreme, saying that people born in the world should pursue being dragons and phoenixes.

In the past, the long-necked people mostly got long necks because of superstition and customs. Now, in addition to customs, it is mostly because of livelihood-in order to attract tourists. The long-necked people have three villages in Mae Hong Son, and the largest one has more than 2 people. Their cultures are exactly the same, so just watch one.

it takes more than 1m to travel from Chiang Mai to Mae Hong Son by car, which takes 7-9 hours. More than 8 b by plane, half an hour. One-day round trip to Mae Hong Son is absolutely possible, and it takes at least three days by car. Flying is equivalent to spending money to buy time, which is still cost-effective for people traveling abroad. For thousands of years, those who have daughters at home have to put copper rings on their necks when they start to develop their bones at the age of five. At first, there are three and five, and then they will increase every once in a while, until a dozen or twenty copper rings stretch their necks and vertebrae to be deformed and lengthened.

Hundreds of Badong tribe members have been living in refugee camps on the border between northern Thailand and Myanmar since they fled their hometown due to war more than 1 years ago. Although they are illegal immigrants, they have a foothold in Thailand because of their unique tourism value, and their lives are much better than those of other tribal refugees. Long-necked girls deal in all kinds of souvenirs. They live entirely by tourism.

History

The Kayan people have lived in eastern Myanmar for centuries. In 1948, they were invaded and oppressed by the Rakhine people and had to flee to a foreign land. Although they live in refugee camps in northern Thailand, they are still trying to maintain their own language and traditions. It is a typical custom of the Keyang people to let women wear copper collars around their necks.

Some people say that Keyang women dress up like this to look like a long-necked dragon, which is regarded by the Keyang people as the father of everything in the world. Others say that this weird costume is to scare away the hungry tigers wandering in the forest. Others say that the Keyang men deliberately lengthen their wives' necks in order to prevent them from being abducted by hostile tribes.

There is also a saying that this costume is a legacy of male chauvinism, because a man can easily kill his wife immediately by taking off a copper ring. But most people think this statement is wrong. Nowadays, the Keyang people live in a matriarchal society, and no one goes to explore the origin of this custom, because people have mainly regarded it as a symbol of beauty and wealth. It is also for this reason that the Kayan people continue to put bronze collars on little girls when they reach the age of five.

There is another story. According to legend, the residents angered the gods before and sent tigers to eat woman. So they decided that all girls should wear bronze neck rings for self-defense. Every long-necked woman knows how to use herbs to clean her neck. Only a few times in her life have she removed the bronze ring from her neck, that is, getting married, having children and dying. Usually, they don't easily let outsiders see the appearance of taking off the copper ring, even if they are close to their husbands.

this process is not complicated. After the girl received a few hours of massage, someone who is proficient in this technique wrapped a copper ring around her neck, and the cross-sectional diameter of the copper wire can reach 1.5 cm. After the ceremony is completed, the girl's family will invite the whole village to celebrate together. For the next few months, the girl will always wear those copper rings and wait for her neck to change.

When the neck gets used to these copper rings, it is necessary to replace them with tighter copper collars and add more ones. Keyang women can wear up to 25 bronze collars, weighing between 5 kg and 1 kg. These copper collars can stretch the neck with the support of clavicle until the girl reaches puberty and her body is fully shaped.

Keyang women think this custom is completely acceptable. "It was painful and heavy at first, but I always got used to it in the end." Mobo, a Kayan, said, "The most bitter thing is that when it is hot, the copper ring is very hot." At this time, only by taking a dip in the river can we 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.

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