Here they are making and selling their crafts to tourists. Only the women wear the rings and they begin wearing them when they are children (you'll notice that the little girl is already wearing hers). We were told that they take them off every 4 or 5 months to clean. The rings are actually one long piece of metal that needs to be heated up to be uncoiled and removed. Their necks are indeed very long, but can stand on their own without the rings.
We heard a couple stories of why the women wear the rings. One story was that when they used to live in the jungle, the village chief had all women wear the rings for protection against tiger attacks (apparently the tigers went for the throat first). The other story was that the rings are an identifier, so the women of this tribe could never marry into another tribe. Who knows the real deal.
No comments:
Post a Comment