The Kayan Lahwi people, also known as Padaung, are an ethnic group with populations in Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand. Padaung women are well-known for wearing neck rings, brass coils that are placed around the neck, appearing to lengthen it. The women wearing these coils are known as “giraffe women.” This set of photographs is taken in 1935 when a group of Padaung women visited London. In the 1930s, circuses and shows were extremely popular in the United Kingdom and these women, advertised as “giraffe women,” were star attractions, drawing huge crowds.
In their most distinctive custom, beginning at about five years of age, many Padaung girls have their necks wound with spirals of brass. (In earlier days, copper and gold were used as well.) A bedinsayah (spirit doctor) puts the coils into place on a day determined by divination to be auspicious. The first spiral, put on a girl at the age of five or so, is usually about four inches high (10 cm); in approximately two years, another coil is added. Coils are then added sporadically until a limit of 21-25 is reached, at the age of marriage. The spiral may reach to a foot in height (30 cm) and weigh 20 pounds (9kg); this gives the illusion of a stretched neck. but the actual effect is that of pushing down the collarbones and rib cage to distort the chest and slope the shoulders. The neck itself is not lengthened; the appearance of a stretched neck is created by the deformation of the clavicle (chest) and the sloping of the shoulders.
The coil, once on, is seldom removed, as the coiling and uncoiling is a lengthy procedure. It is usually only removed to be replaced by a new or longer coil. The muscles covered by the coil become weakened.
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