Longneck Karens

 We went to visit a small branch of a larger tribe of refugees called the Kayan Padaung. They come from Myanmar (formerly Burma). There has been major political unrest there for many years so there are many tribes who cross the rugged terrain and set up homesteads in northern Thailand. Because they are refugees and have no residence rights in Thailand, their main source of income comes from tourism and farming. 

The Padaung women specifically bring in tourism because they call themselves Longneck Karens, and wear metal rings around their necks. It’s a tradition that is hundreds of years old, a belief passed down by their ancestors. The women and some children take turns living in a smaller camp, closer to Chiang Mai - for easier access.

They were very kind and wanted me to try wearing some metal rings on my neck as well. Mine were 1/3 the size and so heavy! I can’t imagine the weight of carrying those around on your shoulders every day. 

Some also wear rings on their ankles and wrists, for “beauty”. The women were selling handmade scarves, dresses, jewelry, and other souvenirs/trinkets. They were happy to take pictures and very kind. Most of them who were there at the time were young, and therefore didn’t have as long of necks as some older women do. They get a ring added every 4 years, starting when they are only 5 years old. 

At one point on our walk through the camp, our taxi driver (Kenny, from my last blog post) was explaining to us how the rings don’t lengthen their neck, but just push their shoulders, collar bone, and ribs down.  It’s an optical illusion that actually just weakens their necks - and showed us with laminated pictures even! **Umm a tad awkward when they’re standing right here, Kenny!😅**  

And he explained all the pros and cons of their lifestyle right in front of them 😬  I guess it’s a good thing they don’t speak much English.

Their village was interesting. All the huts have bamboo walls and grass roofs, and are on stilts. They do all their cooking and meal prep outside. 

Between visiting the tribe, and some googling afterwards, I got many explanations of why they wear the neck rings:

- “their ancestors believed long necks were beautiful”

- “to make them harder for other tribes to enslave”

- “to pay tribute to an ancient dragon mother”

- “to protect themselves from lions attacking their jugular”

I was curious and did a bit of reading on it, so I’ll link it here if you want too as well. 

Overall a cool and different experience that I’m glad we took the time to do! 

Beautiful Chang 🐘

 Thailand has an interesting relationship with elephants, or “Chang” as they are called here. They are a national symbol of strength and intelligence, and have been used for hundreds of years in both war and labour work. They are revered, but also sometimes exploited for tourism…it’s complicated. You can read more about it here. 

We knew we wanted to be able to interact with elephants, but didn’t want to support any business where they were chained and/or abused. An Elephant Sanctuary seemed like the best option - we went to one and had the BEST day!!! We were able to feed and bathe 6 elephants up close and personal…including a baby and his momma. 

First we had to change into elephant trainer (Mahout) clothing so the elephants would “trust us”. They taught us all about elephant care and we made a concoction of vitamins and medicine to feed them. We fed them behind fences first, and then slowly phased into being up close and personal with them, and then finally bathing them in the river. 

Some of the elephants would get a bit pushy with their trunks, like very focused on whether or not you have food. Especially the baby, he had no manners or patience which kept us all laughing. He was not quite 2 years old, so still quite a bit smaller than the other elephants. Here he is not obeying his trainer and practicing his tight-rope-walking on a log:

One older elephant was so sweet and gentle and didn’t mind us standing close to her. She was older, 56 years to be exact, which is why in the picture her ears, trunk, and feet are lighter in color. Asian elephants get lighter with age, just like humans with white hair. Elephants usually live to 80 or 90, with the oldest known one in Thailand lived to 109. 

Here’s a fun video of Jared mixing up their vitamin treat and our favourite elephant waiting ever so patiently:

We had a great day with these beautiful strong creatures! 🐘

Temple Tour

We see sooooo many temples (Wats) here on a daily basis, and Chiang Mai has definitely upped the ante. There are over 300 temples within the Old City walls, and over 1000 in all of Chiang Mai. About 93% of Thailand is Buddhist and they are very devoted. 

Our favourite and the most impressive temple is Wat Chedi Luang. It was built in the 1400’s and hasn’t been in use since the 1980’s, due to stability issues. In 1545 there was an earthquake, which caused most of the top dome to collapse, and it has had multiple re-buildings ever since to try and restore it. This first picture shows a replica in front of how it looked in all it’s glory. There were only a few elephants left around the edges, most had crumbled unfortunately. 

On the same grounds are 2 other temples: Wat Ho Tham and Wat Sukmim. Wat Ho Tham has unbelievable intricate gold details and many Buddha statues inside. 

The other temple was for men only, and this is the sign explaining why. Click on it to enlarge. After reading I was a bit indignant; I didn’t choose this life, it chose me 🤷🏼‍♀️ lol. 

I was able to ask a bunch of questions about Buddhism to a cab driver we had named Kenny, who spent 3 years being a Monk when he was younger. Here’s what I’ve gathered about their religious habits: Most Thai people attend temples on Buddhist holidays, which happen about 5-6 times a year, and 4 of those line up with the lunar cycles. These are bank holidays, where they don’t work and they don’t drink alcohol. These are usually big celebration days. The more devout also stop by a temple to worship any other time or day they so feel. They meditate and focus on their spiritual well-being and improvement. They also have Lent, a period of 3 months where they refocus their devotion to their religion and meditation. Monks and the more devout Buddhist hike up a large hill to a specific temple on a mountain, and they remain there from 6pm to 6am. They don’t eat or sleep, they just meditate and pray. Then in the morning, they hike back down and return home to eat and sleep just to repeat it again. Kenny said the throngs of people walking up and down the hill is incredible and the numbers of people never wane. They do this every day for 3 months!! What dedication. 

Also becoming a Monk is seen as an important rite of passage to becoming a man. Most young men give some of their time working as monks, it’s not mandatory and you can decide how much time you want to give - months or years - it’s up to you. Kenny said his mother begged him to go devote 3 months of his time, he did it to please her initially, and then next thing he knew it was 3 years and the best experience of his life! 

Here are few more beautiful temples we have come across, for your viewing pleasure. I won’t name each of them, but if you’re curious about a specific one, leave a comment and I will try to answer the best I can 😃

We certainly do not understand everything about this beautiful religion yet, but trying to respectfully find out more as we go. I do know I appreciate the individual beauty and peacefulness of these temples - large or small, ornate or plain. 

 

Chiang Mai

We flew to Chiang Mai, about 700 km north of Bangkok, and the second largest city in Thailand. Chiang Mai was founded in 1296, and was once the capital of Lanna, one of the founding kingdoms of Siam. There is some interesting history here, including over 300 temples. The coolest thing here is the Old Town area, the geographical center of Chiang Mai city which was originally surrounded by a tall city wall and a 20 meter wide water-filled moat. Some remnants of the ancient brick wall still remain. 

Like I mentioned, northern Thailand has had unusually high rains and experienced some of the worst flooding it’s had in over 30 years. Specifically the Ping River, which winds through all of Chiang Mai. We delayed coming here a good week or so, but water levels receded and cleanup has mostly been completed here now. There is still evidence of the flooding - large piles of garbage and furniture from homes that were flooded, and some streets still have a layer of mud.  

True to fashion, we’ve already walked a zillion steps around Chiang Mai. 

Two things that are just next level here are pigeons and rats, haha! 🐀🐦‍⬛

Regarding the pigeons, I tried to get that video of a hilarious business scheme that some locals Thai’s do. They sprinkle down some rice on the ground so all the pigeons come land close by you. Then as you walk through, they make a loud noise to scare the pigeons so they’re all flying up, as they take your picture or video. They charge a couple dollars and keep busy doing this for tourists all day long. It makes us laugh, these Thai people are always hustlin’.

We also went to a Muay Thai fight and it was an extremely different cultural experience. There was about 11 fights of varying levels and genders. Mostly Thai fighters but a few foreigners (from China, Belgium, France, and US).  What I personally loved the most was before the fight began, Thai fighters would do a very calm ritual - bowing at each corner of the ring and in the middle, stretching, posing, etc. It seemed so calm and methodical and almost religious? in a way. Definitely not the way westerners hype themselves up for a boxing match. They are a very humble people and it shows in situations like this. 

At the end of each match, it’s customary for each fighter to cross the ring to the opposing fighter’s corner. They bow to the opposing ring coach, and the coach in turn gives them a drink of water. It happened after every single fight and it was just a touching gesture to me. 

We have a few fun plans coming up, including temples and elephants! Until then, stay humble 🙏🏻