Kayan People

Kayan People

Burma

I watched a program on this tribe about a year ago and then while I was doing my research I remembered this tribe and how fascinated I was when I watched it. The women in the tribe wear metal rings around their neck, they are made from brass the spiral is wound round the neck manually by the other women. The process of putting the metal rings on for the first time can take up to several hours because the brass is so tough.  Tourists call these women, giraffe women because of the look metal rings giving them a look of having long necks. 

Girls as young as 5 wear these rings, the older you get the more coils are added. It does actually have an effect on their bone structure, by wearing these brace coils it bushes their collar bones down. 

animneckxray.gif Watch this short clip it shows some xrays of how the body has changed by people that have worn these rings. The rings are worn for beauty, i love the look of them and i do find them beautiful too. I would like to experiment with these rings and try to use them or the idea in some way within my shoot. Maybe either using lots of bangles, or necklaces or even by just using the shape of the circle in the hair.