Asia Sentinel

Two years ago an 18-year old Karen girl named Zember, living in a refugee village within sight of the Thai-Burma border, staged her own little personal revolution. She removed the rings she had been adding around her neck each year since she was seven or eight years old, the age the girls take the first ones that ultimately turn them into human giraffes.

The Padaung Karen, or long-neck Karen, so-called because of the multiple rings that elongate their necks by deforming their collarbones and pushing their shoulders down, have been described for decades as one of the closest things in Asia to a human zoo. But their condition points up just how much of a zoo it is. They have found dubious refuge in artificial tourist villages where visitors, both Thai and foreign, pay a heavy entrance fee to gawk at them.

The Padaung Karen are a tiny offshoot of the larger Karen people, natives of Burma who have long been caught up in a civil war against the government. The Karen – and other Burmese minorities   have never been fully integrated into the country and the current military rulers of the country have spent decades trying to suppress the various rebellions. Estimates claim that as many as 2 million refugees, many of them tribal peoples, have fled over the border into neighboring Thailand.

What Zember wants, as do most Karen on the Thai side of the border, are more comprehensive residency rights and the ability to move freely. But since removing the rings, she finds herself in double jeopardy. Now, not only is she a stateless Padaung Karen refugee living in a sideshow, but the elders in her village shun her as a traitor to the ring-wearing community.

The Padaung Karen are typically singled out by Thai entrepreneurs because of their appearance, scooped up and deposited in the tourism villages before reaching United Nations refugee camps.          Allowing Padaung Karen to gain refugee status would be bad for business because the village owners collect money from the tourists. Owning a group of long-necks is a lucrative business – lucrative enough, according to Som Sak Seta, a guide who takes tourists to the villages, that entrepreneurs come and take Padaung Karen to their own villages elsewhere in Thailand.

“Some Thai made a fake village in Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai and stole some Karen from here to live there,” Som Sak Seta said. “They charged 1,000 baht (US$30.70) or more for the entrance fee.”

Huai Sua Tao is a Padaung Karen village located in Thailand’s Mae Hong Son Province, near the Burmese border. After paying their entry fee, tourists find an entire village that is one huge shop, with women and children selling goods and posing for photos. There are no men to be seen. Karen in Burma traditionally live by planting and cultivating rice, gathering forest products, raising animals, and hunting as their people have done for centuries. But in the tourism villages, the Padaung Karen work as trinket vendors. Normally, the Karen would be tied to the land, but now, as salespeople, they are losing their culture. In Huai Sua Tao there are no rice fields.

“It’s their choice,” Says Som Sak Seta. “The Karen can make money wearing their neck rings in the camp, or they can go back to the refugee camp. They don’t have a right to stay (in Thailand). This is the compromise of the governors of this place, so the Karen can stay inside the Thai border and make some money, and the governors can get some money as well.”

Prasit Leeprechaa, a lecturer at Chiang Mai University, is himself an ethnic Hmong, a group persecuted in Laos for fighting alongside the Americans in the Indochina conflict. While millions of Hmong families have been resettled in the United States and others still languish in refugee camps awaiting resettlement in the USA, Prasit uses his education to study and help the region’s many tribal people.

“The Karen are faced with four options,” Prasit says. “Live in a tourist village, become official refugees, go back to the war in Burma, or, number four, some countries like New Zealand offer them a chance to go live in cultural tourism villages abroad.”

These are only options if the tribal people are made aware of their rights, which most are not. All legal residents of Thailand receive some type of ID card, with various rights attached. Obviously, citizens get the most rights. Legal aliens may be granted rights such as employment or residence. But because the Long Neck Karen in the tourist villages have no legal status, they have no rights of residence, employment, or freedom of movement in Thailand.

A Padaung Karen girl named Mali – who was born in Thailand – said she hadn’t been given any type of ID, although she had already lived in Thailand for more than 12 years. Asked if she has residency papers, she responded: “No, I don’t have anything. They just let me stay here.”

She is allowed to go into nearby Mae Hong Son, but, she says, “I can’t stay overnight. I can just go there and buy some food. Afterwards, I have to come back here. I have to stay here.”

Other Karen have explained that the Thai government is willing to give ID cards to babies born in Thailand as long as the birth is registered. The same Karen said they were either unaware of the law at the time their children were born or that the owners of the villages actually prevented them from obtaining ID cards for fear of losing revenues.

Mali explained how the Karen business works. “If we stay here and wear the rings around our neck, they will give us 1,500 baht per month, each. But the men don’t get money because they don’t wear the rings.” Each Karen receives another Bt180 for rice and food. “If we don’t wear the rings, we don’t get the money. So, the men won’t get the Bt1,500. They only get Bt180 for rice, per month, per person.”

Asked if she had ever thought of going to work in town, she answered: “No, I can’t go. I just can’t go.” Someday, she said, “I would like to go to work in town. But we wear this metal around our neck, so I don’t think we can go. I think we just can stay here and sell souvenirs.”

The trinkets the women sell were identical in both villages. Many were sealed in plastic, obviously made in a factory. They essentially told us they get the souvenirs dropped off in the morning and the money is collected in the evening. They implied that the women didn’t get to keep much, if any, of the souvenir income. Som Sak Seta said all of the income is put in a pool and divided up, with the owner getting the first and largest share. But it isn’t clear if in some months the women earned more than 1,500 baht, for example if they had good sales.

As I spoke to the villagers, some Thais– probably off-duty soldiers or employees of the owner   hung around, taking pictures and eavesdropping. Finally, to avoid putting anyone in jeopardy, I asked Som Sak Seta take us to a “real” village, called Baan Nai Soi, where it was much easier to do interviews. It was there that we found Zember. Som Sak Seta explained the soldiers were only there to guard the border, a few kilometers away.

While the soldiers sat on a cooler, sipping Cokes, Zember told the story of her predicament. Her hair cut in Japanese pop fashion, she says she would prefer to have a normal life. Her skin is light and she is very slim and attractive, her neck is only slightly elongated and there is little sign of the rings she once wore. If she were wearing western clothing in Hong Kong or Bangkok, she would be a normal Asian teenager. In addition to taking off the neck rings, she no longer wears traditional clothing, dressing like any rural Thai, but she is stuck here in a kind of limbo –no longer willing to wear the rings but not free to make a future for herself either.

In recent years, Thailand, like many Asian countries, has been rewriting its laws to increase human rights and freedoms. The issues facing the tribal people do not seem to result from a lack of legislation but rather a lack of enforcement. Too often, it seems the whim of the local authority prevents people, both Thai and tribal, from accessing rights granted them by the government. High rates of illiteracy among the tribal people also add to the problem. Add to this the ever present specter of deportation to a war where they are considered the enemy, and it is no wonder that the tribal people feel isolated.

For the Padaung Karen women, the rings around their neck may be seen as cultural shackles, but they are faced with a brutal choice:   return to Burma and risk death or remain a stateless sideshow attraction in Thailand.

Comments (12)

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Their necks will not snap!!
written by SandyR5520 , June 23, 2009

No their necks will not snap if the rings are removed. While wearing the rings, their necks are not really beinhg lengthened, it just an illusion, actually the weight of the rings press down on their collar bones causing deformation.

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http://www.cheapkamas.com
written by dofus kamas , May 27, 2009

gjhtyti yiyui

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http://www.cheapkamas.com
written by dofus kamas , May 20, 2009

sdadasdda

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phentermine
written by Phentermine , May 01, 2009

http://www.phenterminestar.com

http://www.adipex-rx.com

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they need help
written by rachel downer , February 19, 2009

i am happy that i was born 1992 and here were im at now

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...
written by keke , October 03, 2008

i wonder how they necks look if they were to take off the shackles and would it be easier for their necks to break because it's not use to holding it's own self up instead of having support by the brass shackles

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?
written by JohnyD , May 09, 2008

Why would they do that thing? It's a crazy world

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floppy heads
written by jess , May 08, 2008

what would happen if they took off all the rings? would they have floppy heads. or would they suffacate and die???

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...
written by christine tan , August 03, 2007

I have met 4 beautiful Karen ladies at my work place today, though was introduced as Burmese but one of the girl told me they are actually Karen. I always though Karen people were part of the tribe in Thailand but she told me they are not. Also, the neck ring were always view as their culture but your article give the in sight of forces from the local Thai so that someone can profit it make the whole thing ugly. Hope the women can get the freedom soon.

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Congratulations on Your report!
written by Frank P. Schneidewind , July 10, 2007

I have had the privilege to visit the refugeevillages in Mae Hong Son as well and did spend an entire day there just talking with my basic thai and their limited english about the residents problems there. All given details in Your report are correct and I can fully support any movement to free those poor people out of their jeopardy. The crooky Thai citizens that are exploiting that minority should be named and taken to international courts.

Best regards and happy trails, wherever You may go

Frank

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hello
written by kylie , June 07, 2007

ya y did the girls and women do that to their necks??? i dont get it

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New Zealand was not an option; the \'Padaung\' were refused permission to leave Thailand
written by sophie , May 21, 2007

Prasit Leeprechaa (of Chiang Mai University)is incorrect about the choices open to the Kayan refugees. He is repeating a story which was fabricated by the Mae Hong Son governor, published in Thai newspapers and is now taken as fact. The Kayan (this is the term by which they prefer to be known - Padaung is a Shan term)were offered resettlement in New Zealand as part of an official resettlement programme initiated by UNHCR and offered to some of the 20,000 Karenni refugees in the main refugee camp which is adjacent to the Nai Soi Kayan village. The New Zealand government representatives made it clear the women could choose to keep their rings or discard them. They did however offer to place them together in a supportive community rather than distributing the families throughout New Zealand, but this was never intended as a tourist village. The Mae Hong Son provincial office, desperate not to lose the revenue which is generated by the Kayan villages, refused exit permits for the Kayan. Zember was scheduled to leave for New Zealand in July 2006 and she and her family were never given an explanation as to why their travel documents failed to arrive. It was after this cruel disappointment that she removed her rings.

She is not the only young woman to have removed her rings; a few others have. Some of them have moved into the main refugee camp so they can obtain a basic education, although this means separation from their families.

In Huai Seau Tao village the Thai owner has recently forced the women to put their rings back on again. As the men are not allowed to work and the people are deprived of land to farm on, the women have few options. Although some of the older women are content with their life and appreciate that life in Burma would be far worse, it is the absence of choice, freedom and alternatives, the stringent restrictions placed on their life, the constant fear of arrest, and the lack of integration that make this a form of slavery.

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