Today we started the day by visiting the long neck tribe or the Kayan people. These people originate from hills around northern Thailand and Burma. Many of them left Burma due to civil unrest. They were living in refugee camps in Thailand but have now established their own villages. They are known for the brass rings, as much as 5kg, they wear around their necks. The rings do not lengthen their necks but push their shoulders down. Women’s necks get very weak as a result of the rings and they can not support their heads without the rings. Girls start wearing the ring at 5 years old. According to Wikipedia, “Speculation by anthropologists, who have hypothesized that the rings protected women from becoming slaves; making them less attractive to other tribes. It has also 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. The coils might be meant to protect their wearers from tiger bites, perhaps literally but more likely symbolically. Kayan women, when asked, acknowledge these ideas, and often say that their purpose for wearing the rings is cultural identity (one associated with beauty).”
Through Lin we talked to the ladies. Lin showed us one of their houses. It was pretty basic. They did some farming, including growing rice. We did a little shopping. While their life doesn’t seem easy they appear happy and healthy.
We got back on the trucks that had brought us to the village. They took us to the elephant camp. This camp was for elephants that had previously worked harvesting teak and were now “retired”. We were introduced to Tata, a 35 year old female, and her mahoot or handler. She had had a baby 5 years earlier and her baby was in the camp with her. We took pictures with her. While we were taking pictures her mahout was lovingly checking her skin. It looked like a very tight relationship. She seemed very relaxed with us. Her mahout showed us how he got on and off her.
We went to the little museum and wondered around for about 15 minutes. Then they show us how they made paper from the elephant poop. Elephants have very poor digestive systems so their poop is very fibrous and good for making paper. We bought some elephant poop bookmarks. Next they showed us how they make elephant vitamins balls. We made quite a few and then we took them over to the elephants and fed them. They really like the vitamin balls and would open their mouths so that we could just drop them in. The baby couldn’t get close enough and would take the ball with her trunk. Once we finished the vitamin balls we fed them sugar cane. They could get 4 pieces of sugar cane in their mouth before they chewed it. I really liked feeding them and gave them lots of sugar cane.
After feeding them we went to feed ourselves. Lin had had sandwiches brought in, a nice change from Thai food. After lunch we chatted with the mahout before heading back to our little truck which took us down the mountain to our bus.
We returned to the hotel where Rick and I regrouped before going furniture shopping. Lin said that Chiangmai would be a good place to buy furniture. We took a taxi, a pickup truck with covered seats in the back. Pam came with us and we dropped her off at the silk store where she was buying material to make a skirt and top. We arrived at the furniture store and there was a gentleman carving a beautifully intricate headboard. They also had huge pieces of a teak tree and a rosewood tree. We wandered through the store. Everything was gorgeous, but many pieces were a little too ornate for us. We found a cabinet that would look nice in the living room. We also looked at beds. We didn’t buy anything but might order something when we get home. Our taxi had waited for us and took us back to the hotel.
That evening we went out to dinner at a local restaurant where the proprietor prepared flaming chicken at our tables.
