Visited a tribe that is famous for their culture of having rings put around their necks. Some people said that it is for aesthetics purposes i.e. the longer the neck the prettier the person. Some people argued that the rings are protection for the wearer because of the tigers roaming in the forest where the tribe is. And tigers usually bite their preys by the neck ( and not to mention, the neck is the one of the weakest part of the body), so the metallic rings would cushion the bite. The weight of a single "chain" of rings. Seriously, I think the latter reason is more logical.

No matter how I tried to pull my neck, I couldnt extented to the height requirement to wear that ring... and I doubt my neck would sustain the weight.

The famous figure. You might have seen her in magazines. Yes, that's her with the rings that weight around 7kg-9kg. Amazing that they could move around with ease.


The children.

The children with rings. The age determines the number of rings around the neck. Some people wear and some don't. And my conclusion is that, the rings served two purposes, first to carry on the tradition and second, an alternative source of income. Visitors have to pay money to see them and then might be interested to buy their beautiful well-woven handicraft.


As I noticed, most people just had a mere walk through the tribe and stopped occasionally to take a picture or two of the people.
How sad that the tribe has become an exhibition hall where visitors simply walk through the gallery and the people became exhibits. Then again, it depends on individual. As for me, I took these pictures because I want to capture the memories and .... to notice we are quite similar. Look at the pic of me and the girls.. haha.. I might pass off as their elder sisters without the rings. 12:13