bagan, myanmar

In one picture, we are looking at a guy’s artwork that he was trying to sell. The other photo is of hieroglyphics. It doesn’t seem like the Burmese people do a lot of art restoration or preservation in some of the temples- maybe that will change as more tourists traipse through.

These rings are worn by the women of the Kayan Lahwi tribe. They give the appearance of a lengthened neck, but it is just an illusion. After many years the brass coils push down on the the collar bone compressing the rib age and deforming the clavicle making it appear that the neck itself has gotten longer. Girls start wearing the rings at age five.
Because of military issues in Burma in the 1980s and 1990s, many of the people from this tribe became refugees in Northern Thailand.
When asked, the women say that the rings are a sign of beauty. Some younger women have taken theirs off or abstained from wearing them because they want to get an education and/or live in a more modern way. Even the government has discouraged this practice so their country can appear more developed.
If taken off, women feel discomfort since it has become a part of their body. There is also discoloration that doesn’t seem to go away.
The woman in this photograph was posing for money. There are tourist villages where you can go to see these women that some people call “giraffe women.” It seems sad and strange for me to want to go someplace like that. Many from the tribe say that they are doing well economically from the sale of tickets to see these women and some say they do not want this type of tourism to be banned. It sounds “zoo-ish” to me- like a human zoo and that freaks me out. But desperate times call for desperate measures and many of these people live in extreme poverty so who am I to judge?
She did seem happy sitting there. I watched her from a distance for quite some time and I thought she looked very proud which made her appear beautiful to me.