Long Neck Village

[lanky]

I am visiting chiangrai this weekend would like to know were you can find a long neck village me and my partner would like to see some long neck people in chiangrai

[brianmarinus]

Hey.!

When you drive to Mae sai, on your left hand-there will come a sign-Long Neck Karen-there it is.

I think 30 min. drive from Chiang Rai.

Have a good day and take care.

[JusMe]

Stay away from those places!!!

They're set up by someone with money just wanting more. They exploit the women (yes, it's only women) in the villages by making them stay in the human zoo.

And that's what it is - a human zoo. Look at all the strange looking women

They're not there by much choice. The Thai authorities, getting a good kickback from the owners of the villages, refuse them paperwork to go anywhere other than staying in that zoo.

A few years back I got near one, and saw a sign which said all the money went back into "the community." Do a quick calculation - entrance fee X number of seats in the tourist vans X number of vans per day (estimate by watching for an hour or two) X number of days per year the village is open (all of 'em).

For simplicity in understanding, convert that amount to dollars or Euros. Then try to find evidence of that huge amount of money anywhere near the zoo.

Stay away.

[LJW]

Stay away from those places!!!

They're set up by someone with money just wanting more. They exploit the women (yes, it's only women) in the villages by making them stay in the human zoo.

And that's what it is - a human zoo. Look at all the strange looking women

They're not there by much choice. The Thai authorities, getting a good kickback from the owners of the villages, refuse them paperwork to go anywhere other than staying in that zoo.

A few years back I got near one, and saw a sign which said all the money went back into "the community." Do a quick calculation - entrance fee X number of seats in the tourist vans X number of vans per day (estimate by watching for an hour or two) X number of days per year the village is open (all of 'em).

For simplicity in understanding, convert that amount to dollars or Euros. Then try to find evidence of that huge amount of money anywhere near the zoo.

Stay away.

Everybody makes money at these places, including the ladies...

I want them all to make money, this is survival in Thailand.

Nothing illegal or immoral, just survival.

I'm sure if you have a better idea for their survival, they will be happy to hear you

Edited October 19, 2010 by LJW

[sceadugenga]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7215182.stm

Burmese women in Thai 'human zoo'

It is hard not to stare. At the end of a dirt track, deep in the Thai jungle, a group of women sit in the shade, fingering the coils of brass which snake tightly around their unnaturally long, giraffe-like necks.

"It's incredible," says a Canadian tourist, snapping away with his camera, as the women pose - heads bobbing stiffly far above their shoulders - and try to sell him a few souvenirs from the doorsteps of their bamboo huts.

For years the prospect of visiting one of three "long-necked" Kayan villages in this remote corner of north-western Thailand, close to the Burmese border, has been a major lure for foreign tourists.

In return, the visitors have helped to provide a very modest income for the Kayan women and their families, who are all refugees from Burma.

Boycott?

But in a dramatic intervention, the United Nations is now talking of the need for a tourism boycott, amid allegations that the Kayan are being trapped in a "human zoo".

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) says that for the past two years, the Thai authorities have refused to allow a group of 20 Kayan to leave the country, despite firm offers to resettle them in Finland and New Zealand.

The suspicion is that the women are being kept in Thailand because of the central role they play in the local tourism industry.

"We don't understand why these 20 are not allowed to start new lives," said the UNHCR's regional spokeswoman, Kitty McKinsey.

"The Thai authorities are treating them in a special way," she argued, pointing out that some 20,000 other Burmese refugees had recently been allowed to move to third countries.

It's absolutely a human zoo," she said. "One solution is for tourists to stop going."

At the centre of this increasingly heated dispute is a quietly determined 23-year-old woman called Zember, who has proudly worn her tribe's traditional neck rings since she was five.

Zember and her family fled their home in the hills of eastern Burma 18 years ago. Her mother, Mu Pao, remembers government troops raiding their village and taking the men away by force to work as porters.

Like tens of thousands of people, the Kayan headed for the Thai border. But instead of being kept with the other refugees, the "long-necked" families were put in a separate compound a few yards from the official camp.

Since then, the ethnic conflicts inside Burma have raged on, and the Kayan community in Thailand has swelled to about 500.

"At least we're safe here and we can earn some money," said Mu Pao. Each tourist pays a 250 baht (US$8; £4) entrance fee.

(More in the link).

It's a personal decision whether you want to pay to see them, I've lived here about 6 years now and have never seen them, and choose not to.

Up to you.

[klikster]

@what JusMe said:

Stay away from these places or reward those who are essentially slave masters.

Everybody makes money at these places, including the ladies...

Many prisons in the west pay prisoners for working in prison shops. It's a question of freedom, not compensation.

I want them all to make money, this is survival in Thailand.

What's wrong with giving them the right to survive as they see fit?

Nothing illegal or immoral, just survival.

I think you have a severely warped sense of morality.

I'm sure if you have a better idea for their survival, they will be happy to hear you

Yes, let them make their own decisions as to who gets to stand and gawk at them.

[sunholidaysun1]

I dont know what all the fuss is about. There are farangs in Chiang Rai with a lot of neck !

[sceadugenga]

I dont know what all the fuss is about. There are farangs in Chiang Rai with a lot of neck !

Very true, but not many of them were forced to acquire one as children though.

[toybits]

I know that the Hilltribe Museum and the PDA Tour at Chiang Rai do not take visitors to the long neck Karen. They feel that the women are exploited. While it is really a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation, I feel that morally, people should stay away from places that exhibit Long Neck (PADAUNG) women until such time when they are earning their fair share of what is paid by tourists.

You might be better off visiting that Akha Village called Ban Lorcha (somewhere halfway between Thaton in Chiang Mai and Mae Chan in Chiang Rai). They have a much better community-based tourism project where all of the money goes to the villagers.

PM me if you need their website or more informaiton.

[onnut]

I went to have a look at one of these in Chaing Mai, we had to trek out there for an hour or so, but there was probably a road around the back way!

anyway, I have never felt so guilty in my life, these poor women do not look like they are doing it by choice. and whoever said they are doing it for a living and get paid doesnt know what he is talking about. living and survival are not the same thing.

these girls all stretched out with the rings on them just sitting there doing nothing all day long, having their photo taken. I can still remember this tune some old man and women was playing. the same tune over and over again everytime a new tourist walked past.

all the money going to that village! bullshit, no way. they live off the land there and I saw nothing that would say they have money. I doubt very much it is put into bank accounts for them also.

Go see for yourself what this poor people have to go through everyday. take some small toys for the children if you can, coz they have nothing else to play with. they love balloons.