in northwest thailand close to the
Burmese border lies a refugee camp it
harbors an unusual tribe stretch necks
and shackled limbs define these women as
Padang for centuries the Padang women
have carried the tribes mark the caller
known as Wang each of them began the
painful process as a girl when her bones
were small and flexible even on the
young however the coils chafed to
achieve the stretch neck look of her
elders she’ll have to return every few
years to have more coils added the
collar continues to hurt but for Padang
girls pain is a requirement of belonging
the long neck look is actually an
illusion when you wear the rings it is
not your neck that gets longer it is
your shoulders that gets pushed down and
lowered as the coil grows its pressure
pushes down on the shoulders and chest
the ribcage caves like a squeezed
balloon and the neck appears to rise
higher from the collapsed collarbones
the intentional deformation might seem
masochistic to outsiders but to the
Padang the Wang is the signature mark of
a tribes woman but the extreme practice
that identified them as Padang also
marked them for persecution in their
homeland of Burma now called Myanmar in
1962 the military seized control of the
country promising modernization the new
leaders crackdown on tribes deemed
primitive and tribal customs including
the wang were outlawed to maintain their
identity and escape civil war Manang and
others fled to the neighboring country
of Thailand
although safe from war the tribe is now
caught between two countries and two
worlds housed in refugee camps the
Padang have drawn crowds of Western
tourists who travel to witness their
ancient ways unexpectedly what was once
a persecuted mark of identity is now a
profitable way to make a living today my
bang will have the opportunity to find
out how I look without her brass collar
after 10 years it’s time for the rings
to be refitted it will take close to an
hour of pulling at the brass before the
rings can be lifted from her shoulders
my bang is astonished at how light she
feels she only speaks the Burmese
dialect so maja helps her express her
field well we never get to see what the
neck looks like so we want to have a
look and see how it turned out for
outsiders it’s incredible to imagine
never seen one’s own neck form a bang
it’s a transformative experience she
wants to dress up in regular clothes and
let her hair down and see if she will
look pretty as excited as she was to try
on a new identity my bang eagerly
returns to her old one even though it
may be years even decades before she
sees her neck again she says this is our
tradition so it does not feel strange
form a bang the embrace of a coiled
metal offers a passage back to who she
is not a restriction on who she might be
as refugees the padang have endured much
to preserve their culture and their
customs today these rings of grass
represent one tribes commitment to a
future that does not sacrifice its past
Burmese border lies a refugee camp it
harbors an unusual tribe stretch necks
and shackled limbs define these women as
Padang for centuries the Padang women
have carried the tribes mark the caller
known as Wang each of them began the
painful process as a girl when her bones
were small and flexible even on the
young however the coils chafed to
achieve the stretch neck look of her
elders she’ll have to return every few
years to have more coils added the
collar continues to hurt but for Padang
girls pain is a requirement of belonging
the long neck look is actually an
illusion when you wear the rings it is
not your neck that gets longer it is
your shoulders that gets pushed down and
lowered as the coil grows its pressure
pushes down on the shoulders and chest
the ribcage caves like a squeezed
balloon and the neck appears to rise
higher from the collapsed collarbones
the intentional deformation might seem
masochistic to outsiders but to the
Padang the Wang is the signature mark of
a tribes woman but the extreme practice
that identified them as Padang also
marked them for persecution in their
homeland of Burma now called Myanmar in
1962 the military seized control of the
country promising modernization the new
leaders crackdown on tribes deemed
primitive and tribal customs including
the wang were outlawed to maintain their
identity and escape civil war Manang and
others fled to the neighboring country
of Thailand
although safe from war the tribe is now
caught between two countries and two
worlds housed in refugee camps the
Padang have drawn crowds of Western
tourists who travel to witness their
ancient ways unexpectedly what was once
a persecuted mark of identity is now a
profitable way to make a living today my
bang will have the opportunity to find
out how I look without her brass collar
after 10 years it’s time for the rings
to be refitted it will take close to an
hour of pulling at the brass before the
rings can be lifted from her shoulders
my bang is astonished at how light she
feels she only speaks the Burmese
dialect so maja helps her express her
field well we never get to see what the
neck looks like so we want to have a
look and see how it turned out for
outsiders it’s incredible to imagine
never seen one’s own neck form a bang
it’s a transformative experience she
wants to dress up in regular clothes and
let her hair down and see if she will
look pretty as excited as she was to try
on a new identity my bang eagerly
returns to her old one even though it
may be years even decades before she
sees her neck again she says this is our
tradition so it does not feel strange
form a bang the embrace of a coiled
metal offers a passage back to who she
is not a restriction on who she might be
as refugees the padang have endured much
to preserve their culture and their
customs today these rings of grass
represent one tribes commitment to a
future that does not sacrifice its past
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