Neck to Neck

Can you imagine yourself constricted at the neck by coil-rings? Uncomfortable, don't you think?

But the Padaung or Kayan Lahwi,a group of the Karenni people, a Tibeto-Burman ethnic minority of Burma wear these rings around their necks.

Womenfolks start wearing the brass neck coils at the age of five. Each coil is replaced with longer coils as the weight of the brass pushes the collar bone down and compresses the rib cage.

Contrary to popular belief, the neck is not actually lengthened; the illusion of a stretched neck is created by the deformation of the clavicle.
Many ideas regarding why the coils are worn have been suggested. One of them is the coils might be meant to protect from tiger bites.

Kayan women, when asked, acknowledge these ideas, but often say that their purpose for wearing the rings is cultural identity (one associated with beauty).

I, for one, do not see any beauty in this. It deforms the body,is an oddity and borders on the hideous, for want of a more cultured word.