Elongated Necks

Women in the Padoung Tribe are attracting people from all over the world. Tourists have come to their tribes, journalists speak of the wonders, and photographers cannot get enough!!! Why is this? Women in the Padoung Tribe are renowned for wearing multiple rings on their neck. Surely you have seen a picture of one before. If not, here is an example:

There are no records from the Kayan tribes, but evidence supports the idea that women in these tribes have been putting these rings on since as far back as the 11th century. That is one thousand years! Researchers are trying to figure out why.

Many invalid but interesting myths have come up in articles recently regarding these neck rings. Some claim that these women wear the rings to defend themselves against Tiger bites to the neck, which would surely kill a person in the area of the world where the Kayan Tribes exist. However, tigers generally attack feet and drag a victim to a safe place for munching. This discards this idea. Another journalist myth was that the women wore the neck rings in relation to the day they were born on. would you like to wear a certain number of rings on your neck, according to the month of the year you were born in? I did not think so.

The plausible stories, however, include the women replicating the form of their ancestor, supposedly a female dragon. The neck rings and hair styles form dragonesque featured shadows. Another reason that women wear these coils is due to the beauty seen in an elegantly long neck. Before you say that this is weird consider that women starve themselves in our society today in order to obtain what our society calls "beautiful". Not every Padoung women does this neck ring tradition, and it is also a sign of status. Elders often have longer brass coils and a longer appearing neck.

Now look back at the picture carefully. It seems like this women has elongated her neck, yes? However, her neck bones, and spinal cord have neither been stretched or changed. The woman is no taller than she was prior to the neck rings. The reason that the woman's neck appears to be longer is because the heavy weight of the brass coils (about an average of 10 kilos) weighs down heavily on the collar bones and actually causes them to press down. The collar bones are deformed and their neck and shoulder muscles often deform with much wearing.

Many problems can occur because of the neck rings. Women can move their heads almost as well as we can without them on. They can easily look left, right, up and down. They do not have problems swallowing or with eating or talking. However, if the woman has worn the rings since an early age, her neck and shoulder muscles may not have the strength to hold up her head. Some Kayan women may die from snapped necks or suffocation due to dependency on the neck rings for support. Most women take the brass rings off, wash their necks, and put new ones on. The process of putting a new set on is done by the women in the tribe and can take hours, depending on the amount of brass being coiled onto the neck by hand. The more brass there is, the heavier it is, and the more damaging to the collar bones it can be.

So, ladies. Would you want to wear these? Health problems only occur for those who wear the neck rings for most of their lives and all the time. If you trade off between wearing them and not wearing them, it does little damage to your body, but does wonders for your beauty status within the Padoung tribe. And gentlemen, would you want to date a woman because her neck looks more elegant and long? Let me know!!!

http://huaypukeng.com/info_rings.htm