A HUMAN ZOO OR A LIVING MUSEUM

07/05/06

A HUMAN ZOO OR A LIVING MUSEUM



The Padaung (or Kayans) are a sub-group of the Karen tribe, living in Karenni and Shan states of Burma in a rugged mountainous area with Loikaw as the main city. When Burma was granted independence after W.W.II the Karen’s land was absorbed into the new union of Burma. A Karen revolt began and came close to capturing the capital, Rangoon, but the military took control, and the struggle has continued ever since. Tactics used to quash the rebellion only served to drive more Karens into joining the Karen National Union. The military government then instigated a programme of human rights violations against ethnic minority civilians. These included forced labour as army equipment porters, human mine sweepers, human shields, road and railway builders; the destruction of villages, torture of civilians suspected of being sympathetic to the rebels and the rape of village girls. This continues to this day resulting in the movement of tens of thousands of Karens moving to Thailand as refugees, making the Karen conflict the worlds longest running. In 1996 more than 100,000 Burmese refugees, half of whom were under 19 years old, crowded into 26 boarder camps.


The Padaung people are famous for the brass neck rings worn by the women of the tribe. Girls may begin wearing rings as young as 6 years, and keep adding rings throughout their teenage years. As more and more rings are added the collarbone is pushed down giving the appearance of an elongated neck, extended by as much as 10”. “Padaung” in Burmese means long-neck. Padaung society is traditionally a matriarchy and the rings are believed to offer protection against tiger bites, or to discourage the women being taken as slaves.


As pressures within the ever expanding refugee camps increased so resentment grew towards those who were not contributing enough, including the Padaung women. That was until they discovered tourism. About 50 women lived in two villages, wearing traditional dress and carrying out day to day activities such as weaving. Mainly western tourists pay up to £6 to walk around the and photograph the occupants of this traditional living village. Approximately 40 % of this money is spent on food, medicine and educational material in the refugee camps; 20% goes towards the upkeep of the villages and the women while the remainder is taken by the Thai government as hosts. The camps are not allowed to own or cultivate land in Thailand so they have to rely on NGO’s and foreign governments. The Padaung women not only provide a source of extra income but their high profile may act as an insurance against being forced back into Burma by the Thai government.


In 1997 I visited one of these villages. It contained about 15 to 20 huts set around three sides of a rectangle. Each had a small stall selling such items as postcards, cloth bags, bangles, tacky dolls, and some 1 rupee coins on a piece of thread dating from 1916 to 1920. I was the only tourist there and I felt quite strange and very self-conscious wandering around with my camera. The women sat by their stalls dressed in what I took to be traditional costume. An off-white short-sleeved tunic, decorated with coloured thread and seeds, together with a brightly coloured sarong, although some of the children wore black decorated with a vibrant pink. If the hair was tied up it was usually held in place with a small piece of wood which reminded me of a chopstick. Some women and nearly all of the children wore a head-dress of brightly coloured material. Some wore “leg-warmers” that matched their sarongs, while on their feet they wore simple home-made shoes or flip-flops if anything at all.

I tried to hold a conversation but the only English the women spoke was the price of their wares. I resorted instead to basic charades and lots of smiles. I spent some time watching a woman weave cloth. Freckles bearly showed through her brown skin, a low fringe and long black hair framing her face. Her warm, cheeky smile made me feel more at ease. On the uppermost of her 19 neck rings hung a small key for an unknown lock; a quirk that still makes me smile whenever I think about it. They were happy for me to take photos and then hassle me to buy something. In some ways the whole thing was quite sad; almost like a freak show but perhaps more like a living museum. Unfortunately there was no information about why they did it, the effect it has on their spine, what would happen if the rings were removed or even about the conflict that had caused them to be there. Perhaps the lack of interpretation and my unfamiliarity with these seemingly bazaar people made me think of it in terms of a freak show. I stayed for about 60-90 minutes and then left.


Not all tourist villages are like the one that I visited. One unscrupulous Thai businessman “bought” 34 kidnapped Padaung refugees, over 20 of whom were children including a 6 day old baby, who had left their home near Loikaw to join relatives in refugee camps near Mae Hong Son run by the Karen Refugee Committee. They were loaded into lorries and taken instead to Thaton camp in the sub-district of Mai Ai, owned by businessman Thana Nakluang. The Padaung were watched by civilian guards armed with MI6’s and with ready access to hand-held mortars. The women claimed to be beaten regularly, forced to dance for tourists and were denied medical attention, while their husbands were forced to work for the Thai army digging trenches on the Thai boarder.


After 18 months in captivity the 32 surviving Padaung were freed by Thai officials after Thana Nakluang was exposed by The Times newspaper. Unfortunately it is not unusual in Thailand for district officials and the police to be in collusion with gangsters. Despite the rescue, the Padaung were subsequently handed back into the care of their kidnappers.


Like so many things, tourism can be used in a managed, sustainable and responsible way to provide benefits to the local environment and its inhabitants. It is also open to abuse by less scrupulous individuals. Unfortunately the two are very difficult for the conscientious tourist to tell apart. Hopefully the time will come when the Burmese government relinquishes its control and hands over power to the party democratically elected in 1990, allowing the Padaung peoples to leave Thailand and return home to their pastoral lives in Burma.