Picto Diary - 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 February 2019 - Kayan Women

Above: Inle Lake. 07 February 2019. Myanmar.

File Image. TIMDT visiting with friends.

Above: Fishermen. Inle Lake. Myanmar. 07 February 2019.

Image by TIMDT.

Above: (34) 'Bird, Tammy, and The Actuary. Mid AM break. Empire Lodge Deer Valley. 08 February 2019.

Followed 'Bird down smooth, narrow corridor, making tight, rhythmical turns in his tracks. 'Bird is really helping my skiing.

The Actuary knows many people working at DV. Through him, meet many of them.

All pictured here are expert skiers. Bishop is not. Very lucky these people will hang with me.

Tammy lives in a small town in the Sierra Nevada. Former Park City ski instructor, erstwhile kindergarten teacher, and now ski regular.

Bluebird. Cold. 1 inch over night. 48 inches over last three days. Great skiing.

Above: Kayan woman. Mandalay, Myanmar. 08 February 2019.

File Image.

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.[7] 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.[8] Many ideas regarding why the coils are worn have been suggested. Speculation by anthropologists, who have hypothesized, that the rings protected women from becoming slaves; 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.[9] The coils might be meant to protect from tiger bites, perhaps literally, but probably symbolically.[10]

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 discolored. Additionally, the collar feels like an integral part of the body after ten or more years of continuous wear.

In 2006, some of the younger women in Mae Hong Son started to remove their rings, either to give them the opportunity to continue their education or in protest against the exploitation of their culture and the restrictions that came with it. In late 2008, most of the young women who entered the refugee camp removed their rings. One woman who had worn the rings for over 40 years removed them. After removing the rings, women report discomfort that fades after about three days. The discoloration is more persistent.

The government of Myanmar began discouraging neck rings as it struggled to appear more modern to the developed world. Consequently, many women in Myanmar began breaking the tradition, though a few older women and some of the younger girls in remote villages continued to wear rings. In Thailand, the practice has gained popularity in recent years, because it draws tourists who bring revenue to the tribe and to the local businessmen who run the villages and collect an entry fee of 500 to 600 baht per person. The Karenni National People's Liberation Front (KNPLF), an armed cease-fire group, have made attempts to invite the Kayan to return to Kayah State to set up their own tourist villages.

In January 2008, the UNHCR expressed reservations about tourists visiting the Kayan villages in Northern Thailand due to the provincial government’s refusal to allow registered Kayan refugees to take up offers of resettlement in developed countries.[11] It is believed this policy was linked to their economic importance to the area. This policy was relaxed in late 2008 and a small group of Kayan have left for New Zealand in August 2008.[12] Others entered the main Karenni refugee camp (which is not open to tourists) in September 2008 and they are now eligible for resettlement. WIKIPEDIA

09 February 2019.

Skiing with FeeBee.

All five grandkids up here somewhere.

Rudy Jr. somewhere here, but yet to connect

10 February 2019. off day for skiing. Worked on Stuff, read, blogged, napped.

Above: Provo Peak. Deer Valley. 11 February 2019.

(36) Bluebird. 9 inches last 24. The snow keeps coming and coming.

Pre ski jabber with 'Bird.

Cushings break and post break ski with with Cleveland, Montage and DOE.

Rode up Mountaineer with guy who said he worked the gold fields in Nome for 40 years. It had been his dream during that period to accumulate enough money so as to be able to retire in the Wasatch Back and ski Deer Valley every day.

Bluebird. Cold. Epic snow.

PM: Picked up TIMDT at SLC Airport on her return from Singapore/Myanmar.

Addendum:

Comments on book review of "The End of the Asian Century" by Michael Auslin

Thanks for this review; it was very informative and interesting. survivalMost illuminating. Thank you.

KAT
Dallas, TX

Stephen

Very good review—thank you. And very timely. I leave for Shanghai March 4 where I’ll be attending a Wharton economic forum, and lecturing at NYU Shanghai on OCP (One Child Policy) and Gross National Happiness.

Best, Cornucopia,
Park City, UT

Very interesting; thank you.

Markco,
Ojai, CA

Thanks for this. Son Brad spent 12 years in Asia. I am going to see what he thinks of this book. Don't know if he will read it though.

He had lunch with Colin Powell when he was in Asia. There were five ex-pats and about 20 Mainland Chinese. Powell's assessment of the Chinese/USA relationship was there was a 5% chance of a major conflict. It stemmed from a lack of understanding of our relationship with them both by us and by them. At the time that was related to the Formosa Straits and how we and they would handle that. Now it is the South China Sea. The Chinese have that nine dash line which appears to have been fabricated out of thin air and rejected by the World Court.

What do you think about that? It is possible we could go to war over that. Freedom of the sea is a major international theme.

Tennis,
Park City, UT

Dear Steve,
In addition to a cosmic accumulation of prospective bad debt (recent reference- the U.S. housing bubble) China has acquired a reputation of cosmic arrogance due to, amongst other things, the seizure of others countries’ assets if they don’t repay the development cost loans. The Chinese also want the International Monetary Fund to pick up distressed countries’ debt (see Pakistan vis-à-vis the one road one belt Chinese- hyped system). The chief backer of the IMF is… the U.S.!
Slick, if the Chinese can pull it off.
Stay tuned,

AhnRhee,
Larkspur, CA

Thanks for this review.

Survival,
Hatch, UT