Paduang 'long-necks' Ordered To Relocate To Draw More Tourists

[Mid]

Paduang 'Long-necks' Ordered to Relocate to Draw More Tourists

By Saw Yan Naing

September 14, 2007

Forty-seven Paduang, a sub-tribe of ethnic Karenni also known as "long-necks," have been relocated to Huay Pu Keng on Wednesday by order of the Thai authorities, according to a village headman.

Pongdej Tipyoo, the head of the Mae Hong Son Governor’s Office, told the English-language newspaper, The Nation: “When all the long-neck people come to live in the same spot, we will be able to develop it into a tourist destination. The community can become a Mae Hong Son selling point.” He said tourists can reach the community either by boat or by car.

There are three Padaung villages in northern Thailand’s Mae Hong Son Province: Huay Sua Tao, Nai Soi and Hyay Pu Keng.

Thai authorities had earlier asked the group to relocate to Huay Pu Keng village. However, most of villagers were unwillingly to follow the order.

Local authorities in Mae Hong Son have kept tight control over the Padaung community. The three camps where Padaung live are called “human zoos” by critics.

snip

irrawaddy.org

[lazeeboy]

Paduang 'Long-necks' Ordered to Relocate to Draw More Tourists

By Saw Yan Naing

September 14, 2007

Forty-seven Paduang, a sub-tribe of ethnic Karenni also known as "long-necks," have been relocated to Huay Pu Keng on Wednesday by order of the Thai authorities, according to a village headman.

Pongdej Tipyoo, the head of the Mae Hong Son Governor's Office, told the English-language newspaper, The Nation: "When all the long-neck people come to live in the same spot, we will be able to develop it into a tourist destination. The community can become a Mae Hong Son selling point." He said tourists can reach the community either by boat or by car.

There are three Padaung villages in northern Thailand's Mae Hong Son Province: Huay Sua Tao, Nai Soi and Hyay Pu Keng.

Thai authorities had earlier asked the group to relocate to Huay Pu Keng village. However, most of villagers were unwillingly to follow the order.

Local authorities in Mae Hong Son have kept tight control over the Padaung community. The three camps where Padaung live are called "human zoos" by critics.

snip

irrawaddy.org

thats gonna upset a few tour operators now isnt it

[Mid]

thats gonna upset a few tour operators now isnt it

should be upsetting to a lot more than a few tour operators ,

chances are it won't be ................................

[Tony Clifton]

They sound like they're herding cattle...

[taxexile]

what are the options for the long neck padaung karens if they are not used as a tourist attraction , and are there any of these tribespeople left who live normal lives , i.e. not part of the circus or deformed like this purely for money making ??

[somtaamgaiyang]

what are the options for the long neck padaung karens if they are not used as a tourist attraction , and are there any of these tribespeople left who live normal lives , i.e. not part of the circus or deformed like this purely for money making ??

Anyone ever been to the "Minorities" village in Yunnan. Now that is the most surreal experience I have ever seen. Seems like the tourism authority is taking advice from the Chinese

[Johpa]

what are the options for the long neck padaung karens if they are not used as a tourist attraction , and are there any of these tribespeople left who live normal lives , i.e. not part of the circus or deformed like this purely for money making ??

They are for the most part illegal refugees from Burma, much like the Akha. I did speak to one family at a "tourist" village (many now speak Thai), and they had been farming further up north before relocating closer to Chiang Mai. They expressed a preference for sitting and smiling and weaving as opposed to farming. But I know of no traditional village within Thailand.

And if it wasn't for the need to make money, I too would not be working as many hours as I do at my local circus (workplace).

[Mid]

And if it wasn't for the need to make money, I too would not be working as many hours as I do at my local circus (workplace).

you have a choice .....................................

sanctimonious

[sriracha john]

Travelled to the village they are all being resettled in, Huay Pu Keng, 2 years ago. I didn't enter as they were charging foreigners 200 baht to go in, buy the missus did enter as Thais are free and found several of younger generation who spoke Thai and all were very friendly with her. She spoke at length with the Thai teacher at the village school and many of the students and found that the villagers were grateful for being able to live in Thailand, despite the limitations placed on them; primarily restrictions on their freedom of movement, which is strictly controlled. They sold trinkets and weavings to the tourists for their livelihood, but apparently received none of the gate receipts... which I imagined were relatively substantial, as perhaps a dozen foreigners waltzed in during the 2 hours I waited outside.

Local authorities in Mae Hong Son have kept tight control over the Padaung community. The three camps where Padaung live are called "human zoos" by critics.

In general, I would agree with that assessment. The genuine interest that the missus displayed for their well-being seemed to strike the villagers as very uncommon among the visitors they receive. She said they kept thanking her for visiting the school as most visitors didn't and only stayed on the main road where the ones "on display" are and most left after a quickie 15 minute lookaround.

[Mid]

villagers were grateful for being able to live in Thailand, despite the limitations placed on them;

says a lot for the alternative ,

thanxs for the pic SJ

[taxexile]

villagers were grateful for being able to live in Thailand, despite the limitations placed on them;

falangs were grateful for being able to live in thailand , despite the limitations placed on them.

the authorities here do seem to take great pleasure in being totally controlling of the lives of minorities in thailand.

Edited September 14, 2007 by taxexile

[kmart]

They sound like they're herding cattle...

Yes. Cash cows. Wouldn't surprise me if they rounded them up with whistles and cattle prods or made them fight with drugged tigers for the benefit of gawping morons in group tours.

[sriracha john]

After just watching a Thai television news item on the subject in which the missus recognized 2 of the Paduang that she met previously, it seems I was wrong in that we were not in Huay Pu Keng, where they are being resettled to, but

Hyay Pu Keng, where they are being resettled from. The news was showing them dismantling their huts and carting off their household effects into trucks. The reason for the move was given as "for security", without elaboration. No mention of the tourism factor of the OP and obviously no references to "human zoos." It's a sad situation, buy one in which the televised Paduang seemed to be taking in stride... Moving is nothing new to them... and at least they're not being shot at here, Kodak notwithstanding, which I suppose is better than an AK-47.

Edited September 15, 2007 by sriracha john

[Ricardo]

Would it not be possible to set up a 'human zoo' section at Swampy-boom or Pattaya, and thereby save all the expense & pollution caused, by making tourists travel up to Mae Hong Son ?

Or perhaps Thailand could make them available for export, to Disneyland for example ? I mean - if it's good enough for tigers - then why not people too ??

[GuestHouse]

Thailand once again demonstrates the Hummanity that it is famed for.

Human exibits in a human zoo.

Nice!

[soundman]

Thailand once again demonstrates the Hummanity that it is famed for.

Human exibits in a human zoo.

Nice!

You having a gripe about the Thermae Coffee Shop again GH?

One comment above about a 200B entry fee for farang stands out as I doubt the "human exhibits" see much (if any) of that all....

[sriracha john]

No, they don't... the funds were collected by Thais and the Paduangs denied receiving any of it. Their sole revenue was trinkets, weavings, and handicrafts... which I noticed that most of the foreigners that had entered didn't buy.

[Johpa]

And if it wasn't for the need to make money, I too would not be working as many hours as I do at my local circus (workplace).

you have a choice .....................................

sanctimonious

The point I was trying to make was that the Paduang family I was speaking too had relocated to one of these tourist village by choice. They had been farming up north of the Kok River before they moved. For word definition, just look in the mirror.

[Johpa]

They sound like they're herding cattle...

Yes. Cash cows. Wouldn't surprise me if they rounded them up with whistles and cattle prods or made them fight with drugged tigers for the benefit of gawping morons in group tours.

Sort of like how they use poor kids and students to beat the crap out of each other in staged Muay Thai fights in the tourist zones. I had a good friend who paid his way through teachers college using that path. Not to mention the old live fuky-fuk shows on Patpong.

[sriracha john]

A new article:

Thailand’s ‘human zoos’

The long-necked women of a popular Thai tourist destination have spoken out about the prison-like conditions they are forced to endure as inmates of what they describe as “a human zoo”.

Padaung women, who fled Burma as refugees in the 1980s, are famous for wearing dozens of brass rings that give the impression of grotesquely elongated necks. Thai businessmen quickly spotted their curiosity value and set up tourist villages, charging visitors about £20 to see the women, whose images have subsequently appeared on postcards and in holiday brochures and promotional material for Thai tour operators.

Yet conditions in the villages are “worse than prison”, the women say. “Our men are forbidden to seek work, we cannot grow our own food and if we try to leave, we are beaten,” says Mun Mun, who lives in the village of Nai Soi. “We have no privacy. We are like animals in a zoo.”

Officials who run the villages deny that the women are exploited and say they are free to leave. But six who recently tried to flee were allegedly kidnapped and returned to work in the tourist village.

“We believe that the only purpose of their kidnapping is for exhibition in these tourist camps over the peak holiday season, which is beginning now and will continue over Christmas,” said Thai police major Worapot Phuttawong.

The luxury operator Cox & Kings said that it “does not actively promote visits to tribal groups in Thailand”, and the adventure specialist Explore said: “We are aware that the treatment of Padaung women in Thailand, and the conditions that they live in, are controversial. As a result, we do not visit these women on any of our tours.”

- Times Online (UK)

Edited November 11, 2007 by sriracha john