Padaung Girls Accept Deformity for Dollars

H U A Y   P U U   K A E N G, Thailand, Aug. 1 -- Some tourists see the charming children with their necks rigidly encased in heavy brass coils and say, “Poor, girls.”

Their mothers view things differently: The coils are passports to a better way of life and some profit for the Padaung tribe.

Once a tradition of this ethnic minority group from neighboring Burma — no one knows why the custom developed — it’s now money that keeps the coils on the so-called long-necked women.

More than a decade after fleeing their homeland, several hundred Padaung live in settlements along northern Thailand’s rugged border with Burma, also called Myanmar. Denied the basic rights of Thai citizens and regarded as illegal immigrants, they are nonetheless allowed to remain because of their value to tourism.

They’ve become the unofficial symbols of Mae Hong Son Province, attracting thousands of foreigners and Thais who come to gawk, photograph and buy their souvenirs.

Encouraged by their mothers, many girls accept money from tourist boat operators to become long-necked women. The companies pay 500 baht, about $13, a month to every girl who dons the coils, which elongate the neck by pressing down on the collar bones and ribs while pushing the chin upward.

In time the muscles weaken so much that the neck would collapse if the coils were removed. Thus girls as young as 2 will wear them for the rest of their lives.

Creating a ‘Human Zoo”

The boat operators control tourist access to Huay Puu Kaeng, a settlement of thatch-roofed, bamboo shacks along the Pai River.

Visitors pay for the boat ride here. There is no admission charge to the village, which critics call a “human zoo,” but some tourists tip the Padaung after taking photographs and also buy trinkets sold by virtually every family.

“It is not comfortable wearing these coils, even while sleeping. But with them on we can live in Thailand because they want us to stay this way,” says Pa Peiy, a 32-year-old mother of two daughters and a son.