≡ Odd Bod Mod - neck stretching with rings
This is not the standard type of Bod Mod. This is more of a
native tradition that falls under body modification.
There is a place in Asia that is known for the old tradition of neck stretching using brass rings.
The Padaung, or Ka-Kaung as they call themselves. Ka-Kaung means ‘people who live on top of the hill’. Padaung women are often referred to as ‘giraffe’ or ‘long-necked’ because of the custom of placing brass rings around their necks from when they are young girls.
The practice is fast disappearing. In fact it is not the neck which has stretched but the shoulders which have been forced down by the weight and pressure of the rings.
The way this works is that a few rings are put around the neck of a young girl, as the girl gets older, more rings are added and after time her neck has the appearance of looking very long due to the compression caused by the rings over time.
At about age 5, girls were introduced to the first neck ring. Their shoulders were pushed down, making the neck look longer. By the time the woman was full grown, she may have as much as 20 lbs. of metal around her neck that is now 10″ - 15″ long. Having that much weight on top your shoulders is not comfortable and very restraining making ordinary tasks such as drinking water from a cup or looking up impossible.
Today the neck rings are mostly seen on the elderly woman that still hold the tradition.
Some young woman also participate in the practice, but today they do so for financial and commercial purposes and tourists.
There are many different accounts of why the Padaung practice this bizzare custom. Their own mythology explains that it is done to prevent tigers from biting them!
But there are other reports, another explanation is that it is done to make the women unattractive so they are less likely to be captured by slave traders.
The most common explanation is the obvious one, that an extra-long neck is considered a sign of great beauty and wealth and that it will attract a better husband. The rings also gave the men of the tribe more power over the women. For instance, adultery, though, is said to be punished by removal of the rings. In this case, since the neck muscles will have been severely weakened by years of not supporting the neck, a woman must spend the rest of her life lying down or may even die of choking.
However, that is not totally true and the rings may be removed without harm in most
cases with the muscles soon strengthening.
Whatever the origin of the custom, one of the more common reasons it continues today, particularly in Thailand, is tourism.
Unfortunately, the “giraffe woman” are such an oddity that the woman need to go through this to make a living. Tourists flock to see them, photographers pay for pictures, and they are now pretty much a side show exhibit.
One of the women had this to say
“I want to keep my people’s traditions but we are suffering because of these rings,” she said. “We are denied education and the Thai authorities will not let us go abroad, although some of us have been invited to leave for Finland and New Zealand. The authorities say the long-necked people are not allowed to go, that they will lose business.”
Other women complain the camp administrators pressure them to keep the rings on so the tourists will keep coming. Women are paid 1,500 baht a month (about $42) to wear them. The average wage for a field laborer is about $3 a day in this part of Thailand, although Kayan complain they don’t receive the medical and education benefits alleged in a leaflet
handed out to tourists.
There has been some talk over the practice of putting young girls through this for
increased tourism and many people, even in Thailand, many see this as child abuse and some tour guides even refuse to go there in protest.
The practice deforms the shoulders. The rings do not really stretch the neck, the rings
compress the shoulders and ribs causing the illusion. The rings may be taken off, but the muscles need time to strengthen and there is a risk of choking if the head is not supported for a few months after removal.
The rumored risk of death has caused many of the elderly ladies in the region to still keep the rings.
I saw a TV documentary about
this and the elderly ladies rings were removed after 60
years. She was fine after removal and did not need any help holding up her neck.
The point is that she had been terrified to do so for many years because the rumor is that if removed, the woman will die. That type of propaganda has been used for a long time to make sure the women do not remove the rings.
The neck stretching is not the only form of body modification in the area. The people of
that region also have other traditions suck as earlobe stretching, a practice that is also becoming a trend in western cultures today. The other native traditions of body modification practices is always out shadowed by the oddity of the “Giraffe” Woman.
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