The Kayan Tribe and Their Troubles
Sunday, February 3, 2008 21:11
[photo babasteve]
It is probably one of the worse cases of ridiculing the human dignity. The Kayan are a group of people, tribe, that during the 90’s migrated from Burma to Thailand. In their tribe it is a custom for the women to wear rings around their neck like the woman in the photo above. By starting to wear them at a young age, their neck starts to grow and elongate.
These people are literally treated like animals in a circus, with the tolerance of the Thailand government. Tourist trips are organized for people to visit the Kayans and see their long necks. Tourists have the right at a fee, to take pictures with the Kayans. Every woman receives about 30 euros per month from the tourism profits, where as a man gets 5 euros.
The drama that these people are going through was made public when a 23 year old girl called Zember decided to go to migrate to New Zealand.
The Thailand government, does not allow her to leave the country thinking that this will influence negatively the long necked women tourism. It is the same reason why they do not allow the Kayan moving to other parts of the country either. have a look a the video that shows the Kayans.