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 About the Karen Long Neck Hilltribe - Padaung The Padaung are a sub-group of Karen. In Thailand, 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. The Padaung escaped from the Kaya State in Burma to Thailand in the mid to late 1900's and are actually refugees. The Padaung women famously wear brass rings around their necks. 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. Contrary to what was once believed, the coils do not stretch out the neck, but rather they push the shoulders and rib cage downward. Girls will start wearing small coils around the age of six, and the size is increased as they grow older. The coils on adults typically weigh about five kilograms. All the Long Neck "villages" in Thailand are set up for tourists and are not
neccessarily managed by the Padaung people themselves. The "villages" are
basically shopping stalls with Long Neck ladies as stall holders. There is not
much of a traditional village setting The photos below are from two Padaung "villages" near Tha Ton in Chiang Rai Province.
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Introduction to
Thailand's hill tribes
These
photos are from "villages" near Tha Ton in Chiang Rai Province
around Mae Hong Son and Tha Ton
These women and
children live in "real" hill tribe villages
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