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 that 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
caller 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 outlined 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 she’ll 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
ba-bang is astonished at how light she
feels she only speaks the burmese
dialect so maha helps her express her
feelings 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 a 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 brass
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 that 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
caller 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 outlined 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 she’ll 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
ba-bang is astonished at how light she
feels she only speaks the burmese
dialect so maha helps her express her
feelings 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 a 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 brass
represent one tribes commitment to a
future that does not sacrifice its past
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