Hiroji Kubota Kayan Lahwi tribes. Burma. 1997.
“The Kayan Lahwi people live in the state of Kayah in Myanmar. They are farmers and Buddhists. The Kayan Lahwi women traditionally wear brass rings around their n
(...) ecks. I don't know when this strange custom began. Tourists, Thai or foreign, call these women ‘Long Neck’ or ‘Giraffe’ ladies.
A small area has been set up for tourists, who have to pay fees to enter. Most of these fees, I fear, go directly to the officials. Back in the 1930s, Englishmen took several ‘Long Neck’ women to London to show them at a circus. Indeed, when I took a group tour there once, I was horrified to see tourists acting as though they were visiting a circus, a zoo even.
I went back there alone twice in the early morning. It was then that I could see a piece of their normal, daily life.”
- Hiroji Kubota © Hiroji Kubota | Magnum Photos
