Padaung (Yan Pa Doung) is a Shan term for the Kayan Lahwi (the group in which women wear brass neck rings). Kayan residents in Mae Hong Son province in northern Thailand refer to themselves as Kayan and object to being called Padaung, as corroborated by Khin Maung Nyunt in The Hardy Padaungs (1967). [1]
The Padaung women of Myanmar were famous for stretching their necks—by means of coiled brass neck rings—to a length of about 15 inches (38 cm), pushing down the collarbone, compressing the rib cage, and pulling up about four thoracic vertebrae into the neck.
The women, often called “the women of the long necks” or Padaung, begin this practice in early childhood, leading to the appearance of elongated necks as they grow.
"Padaung" means "long neck" in the Shan anguage. Their homes and villages are found scattered in the area between the Kayah State, east of Taungoo and Southern Shan State. Some inhabit the plains in the basin of the Paunglaung River which are also part of the Kayah State east of Pyinmana.
They are known as long-neck Kayan tribes or “Padaung” people. And behind their seemingly extraordinary appearances, the long-neck tribes in Thailand have stories to share with the world.
Indeed, these iconic figures belong to the Kayan people, also known as the Karenni or Padaung. Moreover, an ethnic group from Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand. Their unique cultural practice of neck elongation has fascinated and intrigued anthropologists, travelers and the global community for decades.
The Padaung (also known as the Kayan Lahwi) are a Tibeto-Burman ethnic group primarily inhabiting the Kayah State in Myanmar, with refugee communities in northern Thailand. They are world-famous for the tradition of their women wearing brass neck coils.