Dragon women who carry their burdens lightly

Pampet, a Padaung village, is about an hour from Loikaw in Kayah State in Burma. The Padaung women are famous for the many brass rings they wear which elongate their neck considerably. However, there is much more to the village as we find out. The chief (who is elected by the people) meets us at a junction and advises us what we should take to the villagers. He does not want them spoiled by money, so suggests we take ten bottles of cooking oil and washing detergent. We also take exercise books and pens for the village primary school. Pencils are not so useful, we learn. They use them only until Standard 2. After that, it’s pens.

We take two pairs of glasses to give away. The villagers welcome them, however, I miss an opportunity! At the end of the village they introduce me to the oldest woman who is 79. I should have kept one pair of glasses to give to her  – I will know better next time!

Well into the distance, spreading over terraces, padi is layering the contours of the land. It reminds me of the rice terraces in Bali and it glistens after last night’s rain.

They are growing a crop that I’ve not encountered before. It resembles sweet corn and sugar cane, though looks taller and slimmer than either. I learn it is corn, but not the cob variety. They plant in May and harvest eight months later. The cattle and pigs have the leaves and stems and the women winnow the small tassels to remove the husks. They cook and eat the grain much like rice, but there’s another use that pleases all who try it. They make alcohol: khaung yee. They put some grain into an earthenware pot and then pour over boiling water. They leave it to cool for half an hour. After this they siphon off the liquid and drink it. The first brew is potent. The next and final four times they repeat the brew it is still alcoholic, but less and less potent.

In each of the open sided houses we visit, Padaung women welcome us. Many are back-strap weaving. They tether one end of the ‘loom’ to a horizontal bar that is part of the house. The other end is tethered to a back-strap that fastens around their hips.  One woman is weaving the white tunic that all Padaung women wear over short black skirts. In each of their houses are the fruits of their labour in terms of multi-coloured scarves and shoulder bags.

The chief tells us much about the neck rings. Girls of about four years start wearing a few at a time. Gradually they build up over the years. The woman with whom we are sitting wears 17 rings joined together. She also wears six more that are joined to each other, but not to the others. In all, she wears 23 rings and they weigh an enormously heavy 12 kilogrammes. How they can work in the fields and carry produce on their back to the market is beyond me. While we are there a tuk-tuk tractor arrives and the woman lifts a huge sack of produce into the back: demonstrating how incredibly strong they are despite the rings around their neck.

Happy voices herald the primary school. Inside, there are 65 children and two teachers. There is much bustle, action and noise as well as lessons. We give the two-dozen exercise books and pens to the teachers, but are pleased to see that the children are working with writing books, so ours will come in handy later.

Three little girls, one the daughter of the chief, come to show us their neck rings. Each one has about five. The teacher tells us an amusing story. One little girl has a set of rings that can be opened all down one side so, as the teacher says, she wears them if she wants to and not if she doesn’t!  Another child finds a decorative way of carrying a pen. It is on top of her head and clipped to stay put.

Eventually the obvious questions come up of when and why the women wear neck rings. There are three versions. The first is that long, long ago if a tiger leapt at a woman, the neck rings prevented it killing her.

The second version is that long ago, when the different races moved down from the north through Burma, they wore all their valuables so they would not be stolen.

The last version is because their mother was a dragon and the rings mimic the dragon’s scales. Of course, how silly of me, I should have guessed that.