Kayan (Burma)

The Kayan are a feminine religion. It builds on a feminine solidarity and a preservation of traditions.

Today two groups of Kayan are known. Long Neck Karen and Padaung.

Paduang and Karen are very different nations from different states in Burma; but both Paduang and Karen have some members of Kayan society. If the tourist brochure tells about Long Neck Tribe, Long Neck Karen, the woman are Kayan from Karen.

Karen people have female order of succession, matriarchal order of succession.

In Karen people, Kayan is a matriarchy and upper class. The coil was a capital and was reserved for heiress.

It is correct that the coils give some protection against tigers because predators do not like the shining brass, because they misunderstand the shining as shining eyes. Note: Normally a tiger only eats what its mother teaches it to eat.

It is correct that the coils give some protection against slave hunters because the ransom for a heiress is greater than the price of a slave.

Kayan of Karenni

This group is well-known, from tourists. group of the Karenni people (known as Karen), a Tibeto-Burman ethnic minority of Burma (Myanmar).

Kayan of Padaung

"Padaung" means "long neck" in the Shan language. This group is often confused by Long Neck Karen because they have same dress and ornaments, but language and culture are different. Often they are darker and have heavy cheekbone and eyebrow.

They are also commonly known as" Padaung ", Pa Dong, Padong and _my. ပဒေါင်းလူမျိုး).

History

The history is in darkness, but a stone from 11th century shows a dragon with collar and the text: Kayan.

Often kayans were a mix of agriculturers and hunters. As the women did agriculture and men were hunters. This is a common structure of matriarchy, but kayan was also the chiefs family in other tribes. That was because the hunters are better warrior than farmers, and a chief has need of a more self-employed wife than ordinary farmers. If the chief's wife becomes a widow, she has need of help from the Kayan society against the chief's heirs and against the new chief.

About 1861 the improvement of agriculture, and contact by the outside world, press the reactionary religion.

In the 1990s, due to conflict with the military regime in Burma, many Kayan tribespeople fled into neighbouring Thailand, and kayan get a renaissance, as ethnic symbol.

There they live with an uncertain legal status in the border area, in villages set up to display them to tourists who are 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.

Brass coils

Women of the tribe wear ornaments known as neck rings, brass coils that are placed around the neck. These coils are first applied to young girls when they are around five years old. [ Citation
last=Mirante
first=Edith
title=Burmese Looking Glass
publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press ]

Brotherhood of woman

The girls first brass are a inauguration, in a stock from a she dragon. The inauguration correspond to christening and make all wearer brass rings to sisters, across all languages and ethnically borders, and a sisters support each others children.

When the girl think on marriage, she had need of a longer neck coiling. The body modification take months and is painful. In all that time she had need to think about: Will I been married in the tradition or stop, and attempt to been married in a other tribe?! Will I like to been married?!

When the girl is modify, she has get a way living. All the teen-agers doubtfulness and perplexity has gone. The body modification is a hard religious consecration, as raise the pain tolerance and increase willpower. The modification correspond to confirmation in Christianity, but more physically exacting, because Kayan unite the physical (the feminine dragon) by the spiritual (the wind).

The brotherhood of woman is a contrast to widow-burning and correspond to the old English law, where the mother-in-law adopt the her sons widow.

When the women carry many kilogramme brass and silver bracelet, in a place of grammes silver spiral and gold. The cause was as silver and gold had need to been changed to brass and silver bracelet, before you buy food. The use of brass and silver bracelet, save two changes. And the Brotherhood of woman have need to spread the weight on several shoulders.

Ideas

Many ideas regarding why the coils are worn have been suggested, often formed by visiting anthropologists, who have hypothesized that the rings protected women from becoming slaves by making them less attractive to other tribes. Contrastingly it has been theorised that the coils originate from the desire to look more attractive by exaggerating sexual dimorphism, as women have more slender necks than men. It has also been suggested that the coils give the women resemblance to a dragon, an important figure in Kayan folklore [ [http://www.guernicamag.com/features/229/the_dragon_mothers/ Guernica / The Dragon Mothers Polish their Metal Coils ] ] . The coils might be meant to protect from tiger bites, perhaps literally, but probably symbolically. Kayan women, when asked, acknowledge these ideas, but often say that their purpose for wearing the rings is cultural identity (one associated with beauty). The rings, once on, are seldom removed, as the coiling and uncoiling is a somewhat lengthy procedure. They are usually only removed to be replaced by a new or longer set of coils. The women do not suffocate if the rings are removed, though the muscles covered by them are weakened. Many women have removed the rings for medical examinations. Most women prefer to wear the rings once their necks are elongated, as their necks and collar bones are often bruised and discolored from being hidden behind brass for so long. Additionally, the collar feels like an integral part of the body after ten or more years of continuous wear.

The government of Burma began discouraging this tradition as it struggled to appear more modern to the developed world. Consequently, many women began breaking the tradition. However, in Thailand the practice has gained popularity in recent years because it draws tourists who bring business to the tribe. The Kayan village of Nai Soi receives an average of 1,200 tourists annually, and collects an entry fee of 250B per person. As of January 2008 the UNHCR has recommended a tourism boycott of Kayan villages in Thailand.

References

* "National Geographic, February" 1996, The Many Faces of Thailand, by Noel Grove, page 82 - 105
* "From the Land of Green Ghosts" Harper Collins by Pascal Khoo Thwe
* "National Geographic, June" 1979, page 798 - 801. Note many wrong informations.
* Ethnic Groups of Thailand by Joachim Schliesinger

ee also

*Ndebele people of South Africa - An African tribe with a similar practice.
* The Kayan of Borneo share the name but are not related and do not have the same customs.
* Matriarch

External links

* [http://huaypukeng.com/ Huay Pu Keng] A Kayan village in Thailand
* [http://www.guernicamag.com/features/229/the_dragon_mothers/ Guernicamag.com: "The Dragon Mothers Polish their Metal Coils"]
*" [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7215182.stm Burmese women in Thai "human zoo"] " BBC News article
* [http://library.thinkquest.org/J0111742/neckanimation.htm Video showing "neck stretching" over time]
* [http://www.djparadisetour.com/MaeHongSon/ePadong.html The secret of the giraffe-women, finally revealed]
* [http://www.jbjs.org.uk/cgi/reprint/43-B/1/114.pdf Giraffe-Necked Woman; A Myth Exploded]
* [http://www.guernicamag.com/features/229/the_dragon_mothers/ The Dragon Mothers Polish their Metal Coils]