A woman from the Karen Long Neck Tribe.

In our day tour to Chiang Rai (the White Temple), we managed to squeezed in a quick trip to a village where a Karen tribe resides. The Karen tribe are infamous for their long necks, resulting from a lifetime of wearing brass coil neck rings (that increase in quantity as they age). Not all women from this tribe wear the neck rings however, just a small subset of the tribe called the "Padaung" and there are different accounts as to why they wear these rings. Whatever the origin of the custom, one of the reasons why this tradition continues today is due to tourism. People from all over the world, intrigued by their custom, travel to one of the furthest cities in the north of Thailand just to see them (me included). I wished that I could stay longer and talk to the villagers but due to the tight schedule of the tour, we only managed to take photos of the villagers and buy some souvenirs.

#karenvillage #karen #thailand #southeastasia #asia #travel #wanderlust #culture #people

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