Inle Lake (part 2)

 Floating villages.

 Fishing the canals...

 and fishing the lake...

and paddling with your foot while setting the net.

 Kids will be kids.

 Women of the longneck tribe.

 A lotus weaver and...

silk weaver.

 Paung Daw Oo Pagoda.

 Home of the five wood carved Buddhas...

 that now look more like peanuts.

Health and safety standards??

Saturday, June 2nd. (continued)

Next, Pu Pu said we were going to visit a souvenir shop where she knew ‘long neck’ ladies work. Pu Pu and I had talked earlier and she knew I was very interested in seeing both the leg-rowers and the long-neck women. When we got to the shop we met Mulee, 56 and her 19-year-old niece, Musa. They were both dressed in their traditional clothes including the neck rings and other rings on their wrists and ankles. Mulee had 25 rings and Musa, being much younger, only had 19. The full coil can weigh as much as six kilograms. The shop employs them to attract the tourists. Pu Pu told us that we were allowed to photograph them, but that it was much more polite to sit and talk to them first, rather than just pointing a camera at them. This made total sense to me and besides I had things I wanted to know. After the talk and photos, we were also expected to buy something from the shop and to leave a tip for the ladies. I was good with all of that because I have always wanted to see women of this tribe and I didn’t mind paying for the privilege. Here is what I learned:

Women of the Kayan tribes identify themselves by their forms of dress. Women of the Kayan Lahwi tribe are well known for wearing neck rings, brass coils that are placed around the neck, appearing to lengthen it.

Girls first start to wear rings when they are around 5 years old. Over the years, the coil is replaced by a longer one and more turns are added. The weight of the brass pushes the collar bone down and compresses the rib cage. The neck itself is not lengthened; the appearance of a stretched neck is created by the deformation of the clavicle. Many ideas regarding why the coils are worn have been suggested, often formed by visiting anthropologists, who have hypothesized that the rings protected women from becoming slaves by making them less attractive to other tribes. It has also been theorised that the coils originate from the desire to look more attractive by exaggerating sexual dimorphism, as women have more slender necks than men. It has also been suggested that the coils give the women resemblance to a dragon, an important figure in Kayan folklore. The coils might be meant to protect from tiger bites, perhaps literally, but probably symbolically.

Kayan women, when asked, acknowledge these ideas, and often say that their purpose for wearing the rings is cultural identity (one associated with beauty).

The coil, once on, is seldom removed, as the coiling and uncoiling is a lengthy procedure. It is usually only removed to be replaced by a new or longer coil. The muscles covered by the coil become weakened. Many women have removed the rings for medical examinations. Most women prefer to wear the rings once their clavicle has been lowered, as the area of the neck and collarbone often becomes bruised and discoloured. Additionally, the collar feels like an integral part of the body after ten or more years of continuous wear. I asked if they take it off to sleep, which they don’t, but the neck ring on Mulee is actually two pieces and she can disconnect them to ease the sleeping position.

When I travelled in Africa and saw some of the tribes there, some of the travellers were put off by what they saw as the ‘putting it on for’ or ‘putting it over on the tourists’, but our guide, Retif, explained to us that wearing their traditional clothing and meeting the tourists was a way for them to maintain and celebrate their culture and make a little money from it at the same time. I can see the logic in that and love having the opportunity to meet and interact with local tribal people before they all disappear. I am very interested in what makes us different and why those things have come about.

After our visit we drove off to a stilt legged restaurant, where we had our lunch. As soon as we sat down it started to rain. Attached to that building were a couple of other buildings where they do weaving. Many of the floating villages in Inle specialize in some sort of craft and here it is weaving. At the first workshop a woman showed us that when she snapped a lotus flower stem thin strands of a silk-like material were produced. She showed us how she rubbed it on a table with a little water and it would thicken up to the size of a thread. She kept adding more and more from other stems to make longer threads. When she had enough for a bundle, she would hang it outside to dry. Then they could use this to weave clothing, which apparently is more expensive than silk products. I walked around watching the women weaving on the old looms. The first lady tied a short stand around my wrist with my other bracelets. The other building had a similar set up except here they were using silk. Another woman here tied another single strand around my other wrist.

By the time we finished looking at the weaving shops, the rain had stopped. We loaded up in our longtail again and set off for one more important Myanmar pagoda. It is called Paung Daw Oo Pagoda. According to local legend years ago some man received five pieces of wood and carved five Buddha statues. When they were being transported by the royal barge on the lake, the barge had capsized and the statues had sunk to the bottom. I’m not sure why five wooden statues wouldn’t float… The local people were very upset and dove into the lake repeatedly looking for them, but alas the only found four. The next day when they took the four reclaimed statues to the pagoda, lo and behold, the fifth was already there, still wet and covered in seaweed. To this day, when there are festivals on the lake, four of the statues are taken onto the lake by boat, but the fifth always remains in the pagoda. For this reason the local people believe that this is a very special and important pagoda. Every since then men, not women who are not allowed to approach the statues, have bought gold leaf and spread it over the statues. Years later today, those statues bear little resemblance to Buddhas statues and look more like five unshelled peanuts.

Then it was time to return to our hotel. We got in the longtail again and cruised back across the lake, stopping several times to observe other leg-rower fishermen. This time as we sped down the canal from the lake to the jetty we could see and take photos, because unlike on the way out it was not raining. Our truck driver picked us up and took us to the hotel.

When I got back I lay down on my bed and fell asleep. I woke up an hour later and decided to go for a walk around town. There is nothing really to see here, but as I was walking along the road I noticed everyone was looking up, so I did. There were three men up on top of a power pole. As I was taking a photo a man with an Aussie accent came up and say ‘weird, right?’ We fell to talking while watching these guys working on the lines with bare hands while sitting on them. Then we separated. After continuing on the road for another block I decided to go back to the hotel because it was getting dark. I stopped to have dinner at the Golden Kite restaurant on the corner of my hotel street and found the same guy sitting at a table. I asked if I could join him and we had dinner together. His name was Mark from Perth. He is traveling for a couple of weeks in Myanmar and about to do a three-day trek to Kawal, the town I just came from. This is what I missed this trip, someone to talk to. Then back to the hotel to type up this outstanding day.