Imprisoned in Rings of Brass

Thai authorities refuse to release a valuable tourist attraction, writes Connie Levett, in Nai Soi, Thailand.

Zember was an original poster child for long-neck tourism - at 12, her neck coiled with brass rings, she sat on display at a Bangkok tourism fair - helping to create the buzz that drew gawkers from around the globe.

Now, aged 23, her neck is bare, the rings stripped off in anger after provincial authorities in Mae Hong Son, northern Thailand, refused to let her migrate to New Zealand, concerned about the negative impact on tourism of an exodus of long-neck women.

"When I was young I wanted to wear the rings and keep my own tradition, in one way I feel sad [that I've taken them off] but now I go to the city no one cares, no one stares," she said. "The people who control us say if the people see us in the town they won't pay to see us [in the village]."

Zember, also called Mu Lon, has not rejected her culture, but she now sees her rings as a weapon of exploitation by powerful Thai authorities.

Long-neck tourism is big business in Mae Hong Son, but little of the money returns to the Kayan people; the operations have always been run by Thais. "It is the No. 1 attraction in this area; it's why tourists come here," said Wanchai Thiansiri, a Chiang Mai-based tour guide. "They may go to see caves as well, but the long necks are the attraction."

Mae Hong Son tourism officials play down their importance, saying tourists visit the province for "the beautiful scenery, architecture and culture, and that the long-neck women are not the main attraction or a key revenue factor".

Thai authorities deny they cancelled the exit permits for commercial reasons, but in July last year Direk Kornkleep, then governor of Mae Hong Son, told the website Chiang Mai News "a New Zealand non-government organisation has interviewed the long-necks for selection of relocation, and the New Zealand Government will build a village for them. If this is the case, no more visitors would come to Mae Hong Son. "The Long Necks are very popular among European tourists. The Mae Hong Son administration had requested the Ministry of Interior to withhold their exit permit and set up this Long Neck Cultural Conservation Village [at Hway Pu Keng]," Mr Direk was quoted as saying.

About 100 Kayan (also known by the Burmese name Padaung), fled across the Burma border to Thailand from Kayah state in the late 1980s when civil war between Karenni separatists and the Burmese army became too intense.

Zember, who was five when her family fled, said: "When we first came we didn't know anything. In Burma we had to work really hard, and when we moved here [we worked hard] too. We don't know they are getting money from the tourists. We [couldn't] speak English or Thai."

Zember sits on the balcony of the family's flimsy wooden hut in Nai Soi, one of three villages where tourists pay 250 baht ($9) to take photos, talk to the women or just stare.

Women who wear the rings are paid 1500 baht a month to run souvenir stalls, and men receive a rice allowance of 260 baht a month. They make a little more from the traditional scarves they weave and sell.

In one village, Hway Su Thao, the women have had their wages docked for riding motorcycles, talking to foreigners outside the village or attending educational courses that keep them away from the village during the day.

The older generation were grateful to have a means of surviving, said Zember in basic English, and they did not understand tourist comments that they were a "human zoo". "Ours is the first generation who can read and write." In nearly 20 years the community has grown to 520, still living in poverty, with few rights in Thailand or hope of return to Burma.

Because of their commercial currency, the Kayan people - unlike other refugees - have not lived in the largely sealed off refugee camps, a fact the Thai authorities are now using to suggest they are economic refugees rather than political ones. Provincial officials have also said the Kayan are in fact registered as a Thai hill tribe and so do not have the right to seek asylum.

For years the Kayan had no recourse, but the status quo changed in Mae Hong Son in 2005, when the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees opened registration for third-country resettlement to about 50,000 refugees in the area. Almost every Kayan family applied, and three families that included women who wear rings were successful. In Nai Soi two families, including Zember's, were approved for New Zealand and one family for Finland. Zember takes the precious crumpled confirmation letter from UNHCR and their International Organisation of Migration medical cards out of the plastic sleeve.

"When we heard, we were really happy. We think we can go there. We are really excited. Our friends from the [refugee] camp who have already gone to New Zealand told us they have seen the house we will live in."

Before she, her sister, brother in law and their four children could leave they needed the governor's approval for an exit permit from Thailand. He would not sign, reportedly drawing the analogy of "an endangered species on the verge of extinction which needed protection" in discussions with non-governmental organisations. At the governor's office in Mae Hong Song, a district officer, Waricha, insisted this week that the Long Neck Karenni had never been approved to leave Thailand on refugee status because, according to Ministry of Interior data, "they have been registered as Thai hill tribes".

Later, the vice-governor (security), Wanchai Suthivorachai, clarified they were registered with the Ministry of Interior as people of "asylum" but there was a problem, because this status only applied to someone living in the refugee camp and who was a war refugee.

A spokeswoman for the UNHCR in Bangkok, Kitty McKinsey, said: "It is surprising at this stage to hear that any Thai authority is questioning their status as refugees. There are 520 Padaung registered as refugees. They came with other Karenni tribespeople fleeing fighting in Myanmar [Burma] and were accepted as refugees as a group by the Thai Government.

"Their status as refugees was confirmed by a reregistration carried out in all the camps in Thailand in 2005. The reregistration was carried out jointly by UNHCR and the Thai Ministry of Interior. The so-called long-neck women were given registration numbers by UNHCR on the specific instruction of the Thai camp commander."

A large group of Padaung was submitted to New Zealand, but there had been no progress on these cases because no Padaung had been allowed to leave in the more than two years, Ms McKinsey said.

New Zealand was told there were registration issues with the people concerned, said a spokeswoman for the New Zealand Department of Labour, which oversees refugee resettlement. "The embassy in Bangkok has raised its concerns with the Thai authorities about the delay in the issuing of exit permits for UNHCR registered refugees approved for resettlement to New Zealand".

While the then governor blocked their departure, he also announced a plan to consolidate all three long-neck villages in one place, to preserve their culture and make one tourist centre. As an incentive, the new village project at Hway Pu Keng offers the Kayan their own house, free from a Thai controller, with a possibility of Thai citizenship at some future point. No other refugees have been offered this preferential deal. Eighty-nine Kayan have moved to the new village, but many, including Zember's family, stayed in Nai Soi.

Zember took off her coils in anger, but even bare-necked she attracts attention in the village. Tour guides now point her out as one who rejects tradition.

"I take off my ring so they will let me go [to New Zealand].

"When I stay here in the village, they make money from tourists, and I don't like that way. I don't want to earn money from other people [looking at me]. I want to get my own education, work by myself and own by myself."
Hemmed in

>>> From as early as five, girls start to wear the rings and every few years the brass coil is replaced with a longer, heavier one. A mature woman wears up to 25 rings that weigh up to 13 kilograms.

>>> The coil gives the effect of elongating the neck, but in fact the weight of the brass rings severely compresses the shoulder bones and ribcage, creating the illusion of elongation.

>>> There are different theories on how the custom originated: that men put the rings on their womenfolk more than 200 years ago to make them less attractive to rival tribes; that they were intended to deter slave traders.

Karen Longneck Hilltribe - Padaung, Thailand

The Padaung are a sub-group of Karen (Bwe Group) living in Kayah state of eastern Burma on the Thailand border. They number less than 40,000 people in total. The Padaung call themselves "Lae Kur" or "Kayan". They have their own language which belongs to the Kenmic group in the Tibeto-Burman language family.

The Karen themseves are not one homogeneous group but rather a loose confederation of heterogeneous and closely related tribes. Among the smallest of the Karen tribes in Thailand are the Karen Padaung.

In Thailand, only a few families of Padaung have settled temporarily as refugees in Muang District of Mae Hong Son Province, near Ban Tha Ton in Chiang Rai Province, and as of June 2005 a small group near Chiang Dao. Generally they live among other hilltribes groups, mostly Karen.

The Padaung escaped from the Kaya State in Burma to Thailand in the mid to late 1900's and are actually refugees of a political turmoil. They belong to the Karenni sub-group of the Karen People, which are still fighting for their independence in Burma.

The Karen-Padaung occupied central Burma before the Burmese arrived from the North and they, together with the ancient Mon, farmed the Irrawaddy and Salween Valleys and built civilizations based on their unique cultures.

The Padaung women famously wear brass rings around their necks. This distorts the growth of their collarbones and make them look as if they have long necks - which they don't. This row of brass rings do not actually stretch their necks but in fact squash the vertebrae and collar bones. A woman generally has about twenty or more rings around her neck. This neck ring adornment is started when the girls are 5 or 6 years old.

The rings on the arms and the legs are not quite as prominent as those on the neck simply because the neck rings are so pronounced. However, these rings are just as important. The rings on the arms are worn on the forearm from the wrist to the elbow. Those on the legs are worn from the ankles to the knees, and cloth coverings are kept over most of these rings, from the shins down to the ankles.

Most of Padaung are animists, but about 10 percent are Buddhists. Now, the number of Christians is increasing because of the Roman Catholic mission. The annual festival for the fertility and prosperity of the whole community is usually held at the beginning of the rainy season. Sacrifices are made to the spirits for good health and bountiful harvests. Rice is the Padaung main crop.

The Moken People - Thailand, Myanmar

A brief compendium of the Moken people, an indigenous maritime culture inhabiting the Mergui Archipelago off of the coasts of Myanmar and Thailand.

If we were to take the time to observe the Moken people's way of life, there is much that we can learn about conservation and natural resources management. From their basic, non-materialistic lifestyles, they have gained an intimate knowledge of their ecosystems that has allowed them to benefit from a simple living from the sea with minimal destruction to their environment. So familiar have they become with the coastal waters and islands of the Mergui Archipelago and so intimate have they come to be with the winds and tides, moon and stars, and the many gifts the sea provides them that civilization, such as we in the first world know it, becomes unnecessary.

Only very recently have governments and regimes, due in large part to their lust for a perceived never-ending supply of natural resources, begun their quest to relocate, enslave, massacre and ultimately endanger the Moken people and thus their culture. Through most of the 20th century, the Moken enjoyed a hunter-gatherer livelihood focusing primarily upon subsistence, with little desire for or accumulation of material goods. They held a belief that natural resources were owned by no man, rather are to be enjoyed and shared by everyone including their animist gods. Unfortunately, in more advanced western cultures, this materially poor livelihood is viewed as inferior and many attempts have been made across the world to ‘convert’ the masses of primitive underdeveloped cultures to embrace modernity, with little or no consideration for the loss of these rich cultures.

We have seen in many instances where this pathway to modernity has harmed the Moken people as they strive to fit in with a society they know little about and away from the subsistence livelihood that has ensured their cultural and physical welfare for centuries.