WHY KAREN GIRLS HATE THEIR NECK ORNAMENTS

Jewelery ,ornaments are favorite possessions of all women & for many women ornaments are their first love as they enhance their beauty & pride but Karen girls hate their neck ornaments. The Karens, pronounced (Ka-rans), are tribal people found in Burma & Thailand . The Karens are farmers by profession .The religion of majority of Karen is Animism and Buddhism although there is a sizable population of Christians among the Karens.

Among Karens there is a tradition in which women wear several brass rings around their necks which may weigh up to 5 Kgs .A visitor may find the brass rings very attractive but imagine the plight of the woman who is wearing the rings right from the age of 5 or 6 .The woman wears the rings through out her life .The number of rings varies , elderly women wear up to 25-30 rings. The aim behind wearing the brass rings is to stretch the neck so that Karen women have ' LONG NECKS ' which is considered as important aspect of Karen women's beauty .However the brass rings do not stretch the neck but squash the vertebrae & collar bones.

That's why today's Karen girls hate wearing brass rings around their necks which are their ornaments.

LOTUS FEET OF CHINESE WOMEN

AN ELDERLY CHINESE WOMAN SHOWING HER LOTUS FOOT
THE SPECIAL FOOT WEAR FOR WOMEN WITH LOTUS FEET


The Chinese custom of binding feet of girls is some 1000 years old.According to a Chinese legend this custom developed after TANG DYNASTY EMPEROR who was in love with a concubine .The concubine used to wrap her tiny feet in silk when she danced. In China the girls feet were bound so tightly & early in life that they were unable to dance & had difficulty in walking .By the time the girl is 3 years old her toes were first broken & her feet were bound tightly with cloth strips to prevent the feet to grow larger than 10 Cms due to this extremely painful practice the soles of feet bend in extreme concavity.The feet formed due to this custom is known as Lotus Feet.
Foot binding ceased in 20th century due to increasing western influence , however in remote mountainous region of China women still had their feet bound .Today in China very few elderly women have Lotus foot.