Visiting the long neck Karen

The Long Neck women are one of the reasons why tourists come to Mae Hong Son. Often refered to as the Long Neck Karen, the women are actually refugees from Karenni State, located west over the border from Mae Hong Son. In Burmese language they are called Padaung, but this is also an inappropriate and in their own language, they are called Kayan.

The decision about whether or not to visit the village can be an extremely difficult one. Many people believe that paying to see and take pictures of women physically disfigure themselves is wrong. Or like you’re visiting a human zoo.

The entrance fee for visiting these villages is 250 baht (plus the cost of taking a boat in the case of Huay Phu Keang). Half of this money goes to the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP, the main opposition force to Burmese control in Karenni State). Half of the money goes to the Thai Government or more correctly the Ministry of the Interior who's responsibility it is to support the ALL the Burmese refugee camps. The Kayan girls themselves receive 500 baht each month for wearing the rings and 1,500 baht when they reach adulthood by the camp administrators. It is a level of financial security unattainable by most people in the other refugee camps in Thailand.

The tradition of wearing the neck rings is largely dying out in the Kayan areas of Karenni State. The term disfigured is a western point of view, and the tradition is fading out, maybe due to other cultures (influencing) controlling the Indigenous people in that region.

The Kayan refugees in these tourist villages represent only a small fraction of the 20,000 living in all the refugee camps. In comparison the Kayan are allowed a great deal of freedom. The tourist camps profits of course help support all the camps. This is a great burden that Thailand must shoulder.

Talking to many of the Kayan people within Thailand, you will be told that in spite of the difficulties they face in Thailand, their prospects in tourist villages are better than their prospects inside Karenni State. Most of them would like to return back home when there is real peace. In the mean time help the Kayan live better, because if you do not visit them, they too will have a less pleasant live back on the normal refugee villages.

When visiting these Long Neck Karen (Kayan) or other local hill tribe villages, you may find that it feels like you are visiting a human zoo. This feeling is driven home if you see a large group of wealth tourists, Photographing and videoing away with little or no regard for the feelings of the villagers. However if you live in a tourist Mecca back home, you realize the main difference is your feeling of guilt, being the richer of the two social economic groups in the Thailand scenario.

If this human zoo feeling bothers you maybe embrace it. Take it as a sign that you should appreciative what you have and are able to do. Just maybe when your back home you can remember what you have seen and hopefully learned. Then find a way to help others.