Complete collection of detailed data of long-necked ethnic groups

The long-necked ethnic group is composed of a Padan ethnic group of Karen ethnic group bordering Myanmar in northern Thailand, which can only be seen in Meihongshun town. A long neck is the beauty of a long neck. From the age of 5-6, children put a copper ring around their necks, one a year, to lengthen their necks. The longest neck is 70 cm. When taking a bath, a long-necked person can only put straw into a copper ring and scrub it like a saw. In order to live, they put on heavy shackles and show the cruel beauty to the world.

Chinese name: mbth of long-necked people: Distribution of one ethnic group in Thailand: Meihongshun Town, which borders with Myanmar in northern Thailand, population: less than 30,000. Source: Ethnic customs in mountainous areas of Myanmar: Women wear bronze collars around their necks. Ethnic profile of long-necked people, history, legends, customs, tourism development, ethnic profile Mae Hongshun Town (Mae Hongshun), a small town with a population of less than 30,000, needs to transit through Chiang Mai, but all planes are 737. Long-necked people live in Naisuo village, about 30 kilometers from Meihongshun. In Thai, Mae Hongshun means a small town shrouded in mist, a mountain city with an altitude of 3000 meters. At night, the air is fresh, cold as water and quiet as poetry. Some people translate her into ode to the night wind. It was after the completion of the expressway connecting Chiang Mai at 1965 that Mei Hongshun House was connected with the outside world. Before that, it seemed that there was only one river connecting the two places. The Karen nationality with a long history was originally a mountain minority in Myanmar. It has lived in eastern Myanmar for centuries, and has been living in the deep mountains and forests to be self-sufficient in farming. Moreover, the women in this group have always maintained the traditional custom of wearing a copper ring around their necks. 1948 was invaded and oppressed by Rakhine people. In order to escape the civil war and seek a more stable and beautiful paradise, more than a decade ago, a group of long-necked people of 20 or 30 people crossed the mountains and settled in northern Thailand for a few days and nights, making Mei Hongshun's mountain nest their second hometown. Although they live in refugee camps in northern Thailand, they are still trying to maintain their language and traditions. It is a typical custom for a woman to wear a copper collar around her neck. According to the legend of the long-necked clan, some people say that women of the long-necked clan dress up like this to make themselves look like long-necked dragons, who are regarded as the father of all things in the world by the long-necked clan. Others say that this weird costume is to scare away hungry tigers wandering in the forest. It is also said that the Keyang people deliberately lengthened their wives' necks in order to prevent being kidnapped by hostile tribes. There is also a saying that this kind of clothing is a legacy of male chauvinism, because a man can easily kill his wife immediately by taking off a copper ring. But most people think this statement is wrong. Nowadays, long-necked people live in a matriarchal society, and no one has explored the origin of this custom, because people have mainly regarded it as a symbol of beauty and wealth. It is also for this reason that long-necked people continue to put bronze collars on little girls when they are five years old. However, there is another story. According to legend, residents have angered the gods before and sent tigers to eat woman. So they decided that all girls should wear bronze neck rings for self-defense. However, there are also legends that these Karen people originally lived in eastern Myanmar, making a living by farming, and did not fight against the world. However, outsiders deliberately annexed the natural resources in this area, which led to the war. When men go out to fight, women cast precious metals into gold, silver or copper rings and wear them around their necks or feet. This custom has been handed down. Every woman with a long neck knows how to clean her neck with herbs. Only a few times in her life did she take off the copper ring around her neck, that is, she got married, gave birth to a child and died. Usually, they will not easily let outsiders see the appearance of taking off the copper ring, even if they are very close to their husbands. Although historians and folklorists have different opinions on the origin of the custom of "long-necked women" winding copper rings. But one thing people already know: the "long-necked woman" continues to exist because of money. Since 10 years ago, hundreds of Badong tribe members have been living in refugee camps on the border between northern Thailand and Myanmar. Although they are illegal immigrants, because of their unique tourism value, they have a foothold in Thailand and their lives are much better than those of other tribal refugees. Long-necked girls deal in all kinds of souvenirs. They live entirely on tourism. According to their custom, when a girl is five years old, she will put a copper ring around her neck and limbs with a copper ring of 1 kg. This process is not complicated. After the girl received a massage for several hours, a bronze ring was wrapped around her neck by someone who was proficient in this field. The cross-sectional diameter of copper wire can reach 65438 0.5 cm. After the ceremony, the girl's family will invite the whole village to celebrate. For the next few months, the girl will always wear those copper rings, waiting for her neck to change. When people with long necks get used to these copper rings, they should replace them with tighter copper rings and add more. Long-necked women can wear up to 25 bronze collars, weighing between 5 kg and 10 kg. These copper collars can stretch the neck under the support of the clavicle until the girl enters puberty and her body is completely shaped. When I was ten years old, I added an extra one to my neck every year until I was twenty-five. People with long necks think that the longer a woman's neck is, the more beautiful it is. So from the age of five, these rings can only be added up, they can't be taken off, and they must be worn for a lifetime. When you sleep at night, only the vertical ring at the back is removed, and the other rings are not removed. Take a bath every few days, and several people help each other to clean the cloth between the ring and the neck. Long-necked women think this custom is completely acceptable. "It was painful and heavy at first, but in the end I always got used to it." Mo Bo, a long-necked man, said: "The most bitter thing is that when it is hot, the copper ring is very hot. At this time, only a dip in the river can cool the copper ring. If you don't do this, even if the weather cools down, the copper ring heated by the sun will still emit a burst of heat waves to the whole body. " In many books, it is wrong to lengthen the neck slowly because of the support of these rings. In fact, the length of the neck has not changed much. The role of these rings is to depress the shoulders by gravity and make the neck look long. So when they need to see a doctor and have to take it off temporarily, their necks will shrink back, instead of dying as some books say. They believe that the ancestors of human beings, people with long necks, used to have long necks because of superstition and customs. In addition to customs, it is mostly because of livelihood-attracting tourists. Long-necked people have three villages in Meihongshan, and the largest village has more than 200 people. Their cultures are exactly the same, so they can only see one when traveling. With the development of tourism, the strange decoration of long-necked women attracted curious European tourists. Every year 1 1 to February of the following year, about 200 tourists visit the refugee camps set up by the Thai authorities for long-necked people. In Yefengsong province, which is only a few kilometers away from the Thai-Myanmar border, tourists have to pay 35 francs each to enter the refugee camp. Collecting tour fees from tourists is the only source of income for these long-necked people, but they can only get half of all the money, and the rest falls into the pockets of Thais. This is a profitable industry for Thailand. 1997, they even forcibly brought some long-necked women to the Payao refugee camp in northern Thailand for an exhibition. According to the South China Morning Post, "their families said that they were betrayed like slaves, earning only 28 francs a month, and they had to dress up to satisfy the tourists …" There, tourists could satisfy their curiosity with a few pence, but no one really cared about the fate of these long-necked women in Myanmar. It takes more than 100 b to drive from Chiang Mai to Mei Hongshan, which takes 7-9 hours. More than 800 b by plane, half an hour. It is absolutely possible to go back and forth to Mae Hiroko in one day, and it takes at least three days by car. Flying is equivalent to spending money to buy time, which is still cost-effective for people who travel abroad.